[Hidden-tech] Seeking advice on protecting a Linux box from failures

[Daniel Belmont]

Jason and everyone --

  Thanks for the input ... Although the machine is technically a Linux box
it is a
modified Linux where the music products company has come up with their own
operating system under which they run their music applications (essentially
a
digital audio workstation) ... the point is that there is no access to
command line
Unix when I am playing a show -- there is an LCD readout on the machine (it
looks like a standard stereo component) so it tells you the system is coming
up
but you don't interface with it like you would a standard Linux machine ...

So I guess I am asking about general care of the machine relative to
protecting
it from failure without doing things like command line UNIX and duplex hard
drives ...
If the hard drive does fail I would need to involve the music products
company -- the
backup is playing another synthesizer ...

thx,
Dan

On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 4:16 PM, Jason Malstrom <jason.malstrom at gmail.com>wrote:

>   ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
>
>
> I agree with everything Michael says. If you are running a command
> line program, then have the system boot into command line instead of
> graphical login.If you are using a graphical program, considering
> using a simple window manager rather than gnome or kde, such as
> fluxbox or openbox. Even LXDE or XFCE would be better. Reasoning is
> that things like GNOME and KDE are complex and are generally setup
> that if they crash, they exit you would of your entire session.
>
> On Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 2:40 PM, Michael Leuchtenburg
> <michael at slashhome.org> wrote:
> >   ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's
> area.
> >   ** If you did, we all thank you.
> >
> >
> > On 2011-08-25 14:05, Daniel Belmont wrote:
> >> I have a special purpose Linux machine that is used to run musical
> >> instruments and is used frequently in concert settings ... so
> >> preventing failure is of importance ... I am looking for advice on
> >> two things :
> >>
> >> 1) I need a UPS that produces pure sine waves, has reliable battery
> >> backup that will instantly kick in during voltage dips, isn't too
> >> heavy (or wildly expensive), rack mountable would be nice (but I can
> >> deal with something that is around 25 pounds even if it is not rack
> >> mountable), and does voltage regulation ... someone suggested that
> >> there are UPS's that always provide power from the constantly
> >> recharging battery -- that could be interesting ...
> >
> > There are two major types of UPSes: line-interactive and online. The
> > kind which "kicks in during voltage dips" is line-interactive - it
> > doesn't work with things with finicky power supplies. Online UPSes
> > always provide power from the batteries, so it's much more reliable.
> > There are definitely rack mountable online power supplies though be sure
> > to check that it's for the right rack standard. I'm not sure whether
> > audio and computer rack standards are compatible.
> >
> >> 2) what kind of care do I need to provide to the Linux box so that
> >> it works like a mission critical computer ? the right kind of UPS
> >> seems important, backing up the hard drive is a given (I am doing
> >> this now) ... are there other things I need to do to treat this
> >> computer well ? again, since it is a musical instrument I am very
> >> desirous of eliminating all of the possible causes of failure (to the
> >> extent that I can) ...
> >
> > You could build it with no moving parts. No fans, no spinning drive -
> > use SSDs. There are lots of low-power systems out there which don't need
> > active cooling. It's worth considering RAID1 for the disks so that if
> > one fails during a performance, for whatever reason, it won't be a
> > problem, though that could be overkill. SSD failure rates are pretty low.
> >
> > I'd also use a distribution like Debian stable which doesn't have the
> > most cutting edge versions of software, but rather has very well-tested
> > software with few bugs that're likely to bite you. It might even be
> > worth getting it set up so that it works just right and then taking a
> > full image and re-imaging it before each performance - that way it
> > doesn't change at all. You can just partition the hard drive and image
> > half of it into the other half and boot off USB to copy it over.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Michael
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