CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
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Re: CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
#2[deleted]
Re: CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
#3> CERN engineers had considered moving to CentOS Stream as a more natural pathway but ultimately they say "the straw that broke the camel's back" to abandon Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their industrial accelerator-control computers was the "-march=x86-64-v2" compiler flag default as "forced obsolescence" for old hardware.
Incompatibility with x86-64-v2 means that CERN is running some older machines, over 15 years old:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64#Microarchitecture_level...
Re: CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
#4They could have used gentoo with their own binary package server. Maximum flexibility, including all compiler flags.
Re: CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
#5> CERN engineers had considered moving to CentOS Stream as a more natural pathway but ultimately they say "the straw that broke the camel's back" to abandon Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their industrial accelerator-control computers was the "-march=x86-64-v2" compiler flag default as "forced obsolescence" for old hardware. Incompatibility with x86-64-v2 means that CERN is running some older machines, over 15 years ol…
15 years is not old at all for a lot of applications!
Re: CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
#6> CERN engineers had considered moving to CentOS Stream as a more natural pathway but ultimately they say "the straw that broke the camel's back" to abandon Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their industrial accelerator-control computers was the "-march=x86-64-v2" compiler flag default as "forced obsolescence" for old hardware. Incompatibility with x86-64-v2 means that CERN is running some older machines, over 15 years ol…
What's your point?
Re: CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
#7> CERN engineers had considered moving to CentOS Stream as a more natural pathway but ultimately they say "the straw that broke the camel's back" to abandon Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their industrial accelerator-control computers was the "-march=x86-64-v2" compiler flag default as "forced obsolescence" for old hardware. Incompatibility with x86-64-v2 means that CERN is running some older machines, over 15 years ol…
> CERN has clarified that their focus with the migration is on their industrial accelerator-control computers while data centers and experimental computing remain on RHEL/AlmaLinux.
For control systems, it’s perfectly reasonable to be using old stuff. Other than power consumption, you aren’t really losing anything, and I think that they famously have some other equipment there that consumes a touch more power than some old servers.
Re: CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
#8> CERN engineers had considered moving to CentOS Stream as a more natural pathway but ultimately they say "the straw that broke the camel's back" to abandon Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their industrial accelerator-control computers was the "-march=x86-64-v2" compiler flag default as "forced obsolescence" for old hardware. Incompatibility with x86-64-v2 means that CERN is running some older machines, over 15 years ol…
That's a good thing, it means CERN is getting a lot of mileage out of their IT purchases. Buying new machines and deploying them at todays RAM prices? Looks like they are managing their budget responsibly.
Re: CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
#9They could have used gentoo with their own binary package server. Maximum flexibility, including all compiler flags.
I had the exact same thought! One guy could maintain their OS. No forced compiler flags, internal binhost, everything else same as what they had.
Re: CERN Transitioning Computers To Debian After Being A Longtime RHEL Institution
#10> CERN engineers had considered moving to CentOS Stream as a more natural pathway but ultimately they say "the straw that broke the camel's back" to abandon Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their industrial accelerator-control computers was the "-march=x86-64-v2" compiler flag default as "forced obsolescence" for old hardware. Incompatibility with x86-64-v2 means that CERN is running some older machines, over 15 years ol…
In other engineering fields systems are supposed to be supported for at least 60 years. Now that IT stuff has matured, it might be time to hold it to similar standards of longevity.