Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 01:56:57 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "rootman" <rootman@xmission.com>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Justification for using FreeBSD Message-ID: <002b01c0f579$221010a0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <01061417404103.00261@blackmirror.xmission.com>
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> >So, she also wants to know what the advantages/disadvantages would >be of having >two web servers instead of one. > >I've already obtained some information from the FAQ at Apache.org and from >FreeBSD.org but I was wondering if anyone could provide any additional >examples, info or web sites I could check out. > >I need to be able to justify FreeBSD/Apache and the use of two web servers >or I'm afraid it will be "Bye Bye" for FreeBSD where I work. > You know, being a manager myself I really get pissed off when I see these stories. For starters, I can assure you that what's going on here is your manager is attempting to micromange you. She's probably doing it because she is new and has no confidence in herself as a manger and so to cover this up she is going to look for ways to tell you what to do. People like her are why so many companies today are laying off all their middle managers - your talking about people that don't do any work and just get in the way of the people that do. With PC prices as cheap as they are all of the old arguments about cost savings by combining servers are now voided. Indeed, multiple servers vastly increases redundancy. Nobody has also proven that combining servers ever saved anyone any administrative costs either. Let me give you some advice - your not fighting a technical battle, even though it seems this way. Your fighting a political battle and I can tell you exactly how to win it, I've won these before. The Intranet that you and the Network Admin set up was done so 5 months ago. So, by now the excitement of a new toy has worn off, and it's turned into work - work to maintain and update the content on the webservers. Now, if I know most network administrators, yours is probably fairly busy. So, what you need to do is sit down with your network admin and tell him that if your manager makes you shut down your FreeBSD system, that from that point on your going to be very uninterested in web maintainence in the company. This means that the most likely thing that will happen is that any work that needs to be done on maintaining content on the Intranet will end up on your network admin's list of work to do, not on your list. Emphasize that it's not that your wanting to screw him, it's just that you really and truly don't care that much for Windows NT and aren't interested in working with it. If he is all fired up about getting the content all on the NT server then that's fine - but he's going to have to do the work and also do the further work of keeping things up and running and maintained. You see, most likely what has happened here already that you don't understand is that your manager has already gone behind your back to the network admin, and he has pissed in her ear about the nuisance of running the FreeBSD server. Of course, when he was doing that he was assuming that if he could get her to kill your FreeBSD server, that what would end up happening is that he would be in charge of the fun part - fielding the server that he wants - and you would be in charge of the drudgery - handing user complaints and requests for content modification. The thought that his own workload would increase as a result of doing this has undoubtedly not occurred to him. If this doesen't work then as a last ditch effort you can tell your network admin that if your manager kills your FreeBSD server then the next thing that will happen is that she is going to start telling your network admin how to run his Windows IIS server. Since most network admins jealously guard their autonomy, he may conclude that it's better working with you and tolerating a FreeBSD server if he can count on your support to tell your manager to blow off when she starts interfering with the Intranet. Most likely once your network admin starts thinking about what you say and realizing that getting you out of the Intranet serving part will also exit you from doing all the un-fun drudgery part of running the Intranet, then he will realize that he has made a major tactical error. So, what you then suggest is that instead of getting into a pissing match with him arguing in front of your manager about which webserver is better, that both of you join forces, go to your manager, and tell her to butt the hell out. United, you both can probably block her from interference in the Intranet, unless she is willing to actually do the work herself, and she seems to me to be the type of manager that just wants to sit around and analyze how to do work better than to actually do work. When she realizes that the network admin will actively campaign against her if she attempts to create work for him by disrupting operations of the Intranet, she will back off and go find someone else to make miserable. And, if she realizes you made an end run around her and merely orders both of you to kill one server, well then you both just say "yes'm" and go away and do nothing. Then 2 weeks later when she wants to know why nothing has happened, you blame the network admin for not having the time and if she runs to the network admin then he blames you for not having the time and both of you can keep her bouncing around forever. The only way this will blow up is if your network admin really and truly has a burning desire to not only host the server but manage and service the content too. However, if this is the case then your FreeBSD server is already planned for the chopping block and what is going on here is the dance they do before they kill it to make you feel that they actually are paying attention to your feelings. Your best chance then is to give the network admin his head, and most likely once he gets bored with the project he will turn it back over to you eventually and then you can do what you want. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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