[matrix-announce] matrix upgrades, and some questions

[Ciaran Hamilton]

Hi there, all you beautiful people.

Welcome to the matrix-announce list. :) This is the first real message
I've sent to the list, so don't panic that you haven't heard anything from
me on this list before. :)

There are probably going to be some technical bits in these emails, but
generally, you can probably ignore the stuff that doesn't apply to you.

I just did an apt-get update/upgrade on matrix for the first time since...
ooh, I'm not entirely sure when I last did it. Anyway, there were a bunch
of packages upgraded. We're now on these packages:

Get:1 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main imagemagick
6:6.0.6.2-2.7 [1466kB]
Get:2 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main login 1:4.0.3-31sarge9 [576kB]
Get:3 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main libmagick6
6:6.0.6.2-2.7 [1172kB]
Get:4 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main perl-modules 5.8.4-8sarge5
[2179kB]
Get:5 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main libgcc1
1:3.4.3-13sarge1 [80.5kB]
Get:6 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main libisc7
1:9.2.4-1sarge1 [154kB]
Get:7 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main libssl-dev
0.9.7e-3sarge2 [2553kB]
Get:8 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main libssl0.9.7
0.9.7e-3sarge2 [2263kB]
Get:9 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libc6-dev 2.3.2.ds1-22sarge4
[2535kB]
Get:10 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main libdns16
1:9.2.4-1sarge1 [456kB]
Get:11 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main liblwres1
1:9.2.4-1sarge1 [91.7kB]
Get:12 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main dnsutils
1:9.2.4-1sarge1 [158kB]
Get:13 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main openssl
0.9.7e-3sarge2 [908kB]
Get:14 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main perlmagick
6:6.0.6.2-2.7 [234kB]
Get:15 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main libssl0.9.6
0.9.6m-1sarge2 [1756kB]
Get:16 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libc6 2.3.2.ds1-22sarge4
[4914kB]
Get:17 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libperl-dev 5.8.4-8sarge5
[567kB]
Get:18 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libperl5.8 5.8.4-8sarge5
[509kB]
Get:19 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main perl 5.8.4-8sarge5 [3238kB]
Get:20 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main perl-base 5.8.4-8sarge5
[752kB]
Get:21 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libfreetype6 2.1.7-5 [365kB]
Get:22 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libtiff4 3.7.2-7 [453kB]
Get:23 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main passwd 1:4.0.3-31sarge9
[529kB]
Get:24 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libgnutls11
1.0.16-13.2sarge1 [302kB]
Get:25 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libsasl2
2.1.19.dfsg1-0sarge2 [259kB]
Get:26 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libkrb53 1.3.6-2sarge3 [349kB]
Get:27 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main mutt 1.5.9-2sarge2 [1417kB]
Get:28 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libapr0 2.0.54-5sarge1 [130kB]
Get:29 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main apache2 2.0.54-5sarge1
[33.5kB]
Get:30 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main apache2-mpm-prefork
2.0.54-5sarge1 [203kB]
Get:31 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main apache2-common
2.0.54-5sarge1 [812kB]
Get:32 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main apache2-utils
2.0.54-5sarge1 [90.9kB]
Get:33 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main base-config 2.53.10.2 [307kB]
Get:34 http://ftp.wa.au.debian.org stable/main libgd2-xpm 2.0.33-1.1sarge1
[194kB]

Apache was down for a moment during the upgrade to release some memory and
to make the upgrade go faster. It was only down for something like 5
minutes so chances are nobody noticed. :) I'd probably like to schedule a
reboot at some point - perhaps this weekend - but we'll see what happens.
I'll keep you up-to-date.

I also wanted to talk a bit about matrix's memory usage. As you probably
know, matrix is currently being used for anything and everything. :D Right
now it's hosting a ton of stuff:

* A MUSH,
* A mail server (postfix),
* An FTP server (proftpd),
* An IRC server (unrealircd),
* Two copies of irssi (for two different users),
* MySQL,
* Apache.

The last two in particular hog a lot of memory. Not altogether sure why,
but in conjunction with everything else, it means that the box is pretty
much constantly using swap.

I'm not going to kill off these services. That would be silly, especially
since I've approved them all. But I'm thinking of either upgrading the RAM
or upgrading to a higher plan on Linode. The trouble is, I won't be able
to upgrade forever. At some point I'm probably going to have to say 'no'
to any new users on matrix, or it'll be horrible for everybody to use. :(

I just wanted to get some input on whether you guys feel an upgrade would
be a good idea. I've opened up the list so that it's not moderated
(although only members can post), so feel free to reply with your opinion.
Replies will go to the list by default.

Also, related to the last point, is it best to have two lists here - one
for announcements and one for discussions? Or is one list enough?

Thanks for reading!

 - Ciaran.