netcraft server uptimes

[lodore]

Hello,
i sometimes check the netcraft server adverage uptime.

the highest are normally linux and FreeBSD.but recently the highest uptimes are windows server 2000 and 2003.
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/today/top.avg.html

Surely that means those servers arent patched? pretty much every patch tuesday you need to reboot. I found it funny when i found out windows servers need to be rebooted as much as windows desktops with regards to updates. servers are meant to run 24/7 so it seems very unacceptable to have to reboot roughly once a month!

[Nick Rhodes]

Problem is you don't know if the server behind the url/ip is running as part of a cluster. For example netcraft will only count 1 server per IP for google, when infact they run LOTS of webserver per IP and also does not count the DB and application servers running behind them.

We have 3 servers running in load balance and can reboot one at a time without any apparent loss of service from the internet.
These are windows servers, we also have 2 MS Sql servers but in the background we run MORE Linux servers (java and oracle), but net craft only see our website as ONE MS server as we only host to the internet via one IP address when in reality we are running two thirds Linux machines (and that's ignoring the firewall, storage and backup infrastructure).

Cheers, Nick

[chronomatic]

Netcraft's longest uptime list has now pretty much become worthless. Why? Well look at their own FAQ:

-{ Quote: "Operating systems that do not provide uptime information include;

* AIX
* AS/400
* Compaq Tru64
* DG/UX
* Linux before kernel version 2.1
* Linux on Alpha and IA64 processors
* Linux on Intel x86 processor from kernel version 2.5.25 (see below)
* MacOS
* MacOSX
* NT3/Windows 95
* NT4/Windows 98
* NetBSD/OpenBSD
* NetWare
* OS/2
* OS/390
* SCO UNIX
* SunOS 4
* VM

Additionally HP-UX, Linux, NetApp NetCache, Solaris and recent releases of FreeBSD cycle back to zero after 497 days, exactly as if the machine had been rebooted at that precise point. Thus it is not possible to see a HP-UX, Linux or Solaris system with an uptime measurement above 497 days. " }-

As you can see, Linux since kernel 2.5.25 no longer provides uptime. The number of servers running a 2.6+ kernel make up the vast majority of Linux servers. The same goes for FreeBSD and Solaris. This is why you only see Windows servers listed anymore. Netcraft simply can't accurately keep track of modern versions of Linux/BSD/Solaris. You can read more here: http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/accuracy.html