First Generation Computing Loggers

The First Generation Computing Loggers, more formally known back in their prime as logger1.ury.york.ac.uk and logger2.ury.york.ac.uk, are two servers known as achieving amazing feats during their time in production, the most notable of which being that they were first put into use in the 1998-1999 (?) academic year by a team including Jon Dye, Simon Hildrew, Mat Fortune, Alan Raison and Gavin Atkinson.

Pre-Computing Loggers

Before we implemented a digital log recording system using hard disks, all our output was logged using VHS tapes that were changed every 12 hours by a dedicated committee position. The name of this position is currently difficult to retrieve due to it being before the days of digital committee management, but it is well known that James Brookes held the position for some time.

Multiple boxes of these tapes still exist in URY's stores, although playback of any of these has not been attempted in living history. With the increasing proliferation of "Computers" in everyday life, it was decided that maybe there was a way of automating this historic task.

Introducing logger[12]

When specifying the hardware specification of the loggers, with advice from Tom Whitehouse (serious, try and find a wiki page *without* his name on it), two systems were build with similar overall power, but with hardware sources as different as possible to reduce the possibility of a design flaw in one causing a failure in another. Word has it that these were built was cheaply as possible, hence the use of AT-style motherboards and cases (complete with DIN keyboard port) in the late 90's.

Specifications of logger1

Operating System: FreeBSD 5.2-RC (Installed 2003)
Processor: AMD-K6 3D (350.80MHz)
Cores: 1
Architecture: i386
Memory: 27MB available (32MB installed)
PSU: xxW AT power supply
HDD: 40GB (8379 Power-On Hours)

Last known updating advice for this server: "Don't update this server. It works just fine."

Specifications of logger2

Operating System: Debian 2.4.18-1-k6 (Installed 2004)
Processor: AMD-K6 3D (350.80MHz)
Cores: 1
Architecture: i386
Memory: 29.8MB available (32MB installed)
PSU: xxW AT power supply
HDD: 40GB

Last known updating advice for this server: "Don't update this server. It works just fine."

The Second Coming of Digital Logging

In Summer 2012, a plan was devised to start decommissioning these then 12-year-old devices. Due to the need for something that was provably highly stable (at least 42 days continuous service runtime), it took the next two academic years to reach a point where the replacement devices, uryred and uryblue (see Second Generation Computing Loggers), were considered stable enough to prepare turning off loggers 1 and 2.

A date was set for Friday, Week 10 of the Summer Term 2013/4, as it was the end of an academic year and also team veteran Lloyd Wallis's last day in York (and birthday). It would be a ceremonial event where the loggers would be considered no longer mission-critical to our operations. However, as this was a short time before many components reached 10 years uptime, it was decided that they would likely be kept running (albeit not necessarily doing much) until that milestone was reached.

On Wednesday, Week 10 (25/06/2014), it was discovered that logger1 was not as healthy as was hoped - his PSU fan had failed and he was running hot. As a result, the decommissioning was brought forward to that evening.

Amusingly, logger2 then outlived one of the replacements when uryblue's motherboard packed up without warning in Spring 2015. After some arguing with ebuyer about the length of warranty, some partial refund was acquired, and in true logger style, the cheapest possible motherboard was acquired to repair uryblue.

Finally, on Friday 15 July 2016, logger2 was halted for the last time by Anthony Williams and Andy Durant, in full academic gownery for it was their graduation. It had been suffering from a failing network card for some weeks prior to this and it was finally decided to lay it to rest rather than repair. logger2 was then delivered to Gavin Atkinson in his office.

Trivia

In Summer 2011/12, an eighth birthday cake was made for logger2's disk installation date. It was enjoyed at a station meeting, and a poem was written in a birthday card for him. Someone should transcribe this.