+fradjoh Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 (edited) Hi, Is there a place where I could learn about wich hardware and software Groundspeak uses? I would be curious to know things such as: How many servers and what kind? Disk capacity (used and unused)? Which database software (surely Oracle or SQL server)? etc... Just curious... Thanks... Edited November 8, 2011 by fradjoh Quote Link to comment
+Keelmann And Cici Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 It's doubtful, not many places share that kind of info. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 I don't know the specifics, but here is the data center Quote Link to comment
+keehotee Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 There's video of the backup power supply Quote Link to comment
+Viajero Perdido Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Judging from the error messages, they use a Microsoft stack. Quote Link to comment
+dakboy Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 It's all Microsoft software. It's all hosted in one datacenter, including both their primary & secondary DNS servers (which is very short-sighted from an availability and D/R standpoint). Beyond that, no information about the infrastructure has been released for probably a decade. Quote Link to comment
+frinklabs Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 It's all hosted in one datacenter, including both their primary & secondary DNS servers (which is very short-sighted from an availability and D/R standpoint). Co-located and/or redundant DNS servers aren't going to help if there's only one datacentre Quote Link to comment
+dakboy Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 It's all hosted in one datacenter, including both their primary & secondary DNS servers (which is very short-sighted from an availability and D/R standpoint). Co-located and/or redundant DNS servers aren't going to help if there's only one datacentre At a minimum, it would let you redirect the domain to another hosted site reading "sorry, we're offline due to <reason>" I'm thinking in particular of the big fire they had at the datacenter 2 years ago where no one knew anything for about 24 hours and it took close to 48 for the site to come back online. Quote Link to comment
+GeoBain Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 It's all hosted in one datacenter, including both their primary & secondary DNS servers (which is very short-sighted from an availability and D/R standpoint). Co-located and/or redundant DNS servers aren't going to help if there's only one datacentre Having secondary DNS servers located elsewhere would allow you to point users to a temporary site in order to give information about whatever problems you may be having with the data center. There is probably only a very miniscule percentage of users that even know Groundspeak has a Twitter and Facebook presence. An operation with the number of daily users that Groundspeak has really needs to be able to update their customers in times of crisis such as a flooded datacenter due to a fire. Quote Link to comment
knowschad Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Remember the fire in the datacenter? http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=225664 Quote Link to comment
+dakboy Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 Remember the fire in the datacenter? http://forums.Groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=225664 That is precisely the incident I was referring to. Groundspeak has placed all of their eggs in that datacenter's basket and it's a terrible single point of failure. Quote Link to comment
+Lil Devil Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 It's a game. No one is going to die if they can't reach the geocaching servers for a couple of days. Get the shakes, maybe, but die, no. Quote Link to comment
+Viajero Perdido Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 When it gets too hot in the datacenter, the avatars start to melt. Quote Link to comment
+EXMAN Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 sometimes an email like message can be misinterpreted, so i'll preface this with.... this is a complement. you guys are often funny as he--. i REALLY enjoy reading these humorous posts and wish i had more time be in the forums. speaking of time in the forums......some of you are in here A LOT. how do you do it? my wife lets me know when i'm online too long. Quote Link to comment
+dfx Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 speaking of time in the forums......some of you are in here A LOT.how do you do it? my wife lets me know when i'm online too long. They have different wives. Quote Link to comment
+Lil Devil Posted November 10, 2011 Share Posted November 10, 2011 They have different wives. But we do share them from time to time. Quote Link to comment
+EXMAN Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 They have different wives. But we do share them from time to time. i wanna party with you guys !! Quote Link to comment
knowschad Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 my wife lets me know when i'm online too long. Well, THERE is your problem!! Quote Link to comment
+Viajero Perdido Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city." - George Burns And I haven't heard from my wife in months. Quote Link to comment
knowschad Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 They have different wives. But we do share them from time to time. i wanna party with you guys !! No, you wouldn't. Quote Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 They have different wives. But we do share them from time to time. i wanna party with you guys !! No, you wouldn't. FINALLY! A photo of Mrs. knowschad...but wait a minute...she's not pixelated...this can't be right! Quote Link to comment
knowschad Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 (edited) They have different wives. But we do share them from time to time. i wanna party with you guys !! No, you wouldn't. FINALLY! A photo of Mrs. knowschad...but wait a minute...she's not pixelated...this can't be right! Well, we're not exactly married, if you know what I mean. We have a very understanding relationship, like most dogs*. * apologies to Mtn-Man. Edited November 11, 2011 by knowschad Quote Link to comment
+power69 Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Hi, Is there a place where I could learn about wich hardware and software Groundspeak uses? I would be curious to know things such as: How many servers and what kind? Disk capacity (used and unused)? Which database software (surely Oracle or SQL server)? etc... Just curious... Thanks... i saw groundspeaks hardware at pets r us last week. didn't have $24.99 on me for the "delux hampster" so i just loaded up on geico's guinea pigs and boat platforms to run my server farms. saves me a boatload of cash too! Quote Link to comment
+DanOCan Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 It's a game. No one is going to die if they can't reach the geocaching servers for a couple of days. Get the shakes, maybe, but die, no. I'd be curious to know what number Groundspeak uses for projecting revenue losses during major outages. That would factor heavily into the decision as to whether or not running the whole operation out of a single data center is worth the risk or not. Presumably they have done those calculations and decided the cost isn't worth the potential benefit. In terms of hardware, I'm goign to go out on a limb and say "HP or Dell". Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted November 13, 2011 Share Posted November 13, 2011 It used to be SQL server for the data but I believe they were working on a transition away from relational datbases to some form of the the key pair systems that expand a bit more nicely. Quote Link to comment
knowschad Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Hi, Is there a place where I could learn about wich hardware and software Groundspeak uses? I would be curious to know things such as: How many servers and what kind? Disk capacity (used and unused)? Which database software (surely Oracle or SQL server)? etc... Just curious... Thanks... i saw groundspeaks hardware at pets r us last week. didn't have $24.99 on me for the "delux hampster" so i just loaded up on geico's guinea pigs and boat platforms to run my server farms. saves me a boatload of cash too! Hamsters would be the software, I believe. The hardware would probably be a cluster of these: Quote Link to comment
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