Message-ID: <36AF136E.8FB4C233@halcyon.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 05:23:58 -0800
From: "David C. Jenner" <djenner@halcyon.com>
Reply-To: djenner@halcyon.com
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To: PDP-11 Unix Preservation Society <pups@minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au>
Subject: Re: UNIX robustness
References: <199901270512.VAA15671@moe.2bsd.com>
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Sender: owner-pups@minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au
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I had (still have) a PDP-11/23+ that ran (still runs) 2.9BSD (with an
honest-to-goodness AT&T binary license) that was my UUCP link to the
net from 1989-1993.  At one stretch, it ran almost two years before a
power failure finally got it.

It was unusual to go that long without a power failure, so the limiting
factor was clearly the power and not the hardware or software.  The
system has a watchdog timer, so when there was a problem the system would
usually automatically reboot, unless there was a serious hardware problem.
Reboots were fairly rare and usually a power problem, so it would be hard
for me to pinpoint the cause of non-power-instigated reboots. 

Dave

"Steven M. Schultz" wrote:
> 
>         At least it's a different thread... ;-)
> 
>         I had a UNIX system in my house that ran (and was working hard
>         the whole time) for over 2 years before pity was taken on it
>         and a beefier replacement system installed.  The original system
>         was a 386/33 serving as a rather busy secondary nameserver and was
>         never touched/rebooted/powercycled for 2+ years.  As time went on the
>         load increased and it became apparent the system was overloaded (and
>         paging excessively) so a P5/90 with more memory was installed.  A
>         couple months after that the disk died ;-)
> 
>         Steven