Still wonder how much disk space they had to begin with.
It sure can't be a lack of funds - KES 9B will get you several shiploads of HDDs. Someone slapped in a 320GB disk and sent them a KES 2B invoice for "storage".
All kidding aside, that was one big lapse in resource planning.
Can't wait to hear the full story.
@Bernard this has nothing to do with open or closed systems but one thing I must point out is that it seems you need to understand a little more about how the MySQL internals work. That database error you talk about can be caused by no disk space (Linux installs have a lightly different message). No disk space can actually shut down MySQL hence the reason you get the unable to connect to database.
So IEBC's claims of running out of disk space is quite valid and depending on how the server is setup it actually happens more often out in the real world than you think.
If you dont know what you are doing when setting up your database you will be shocked to find out that merely deleting logs will not free up this space. It is still possible to clean up this space but its a headache and the server would have to be brought down, assuming MySQL actually owns the space. A simpler method of optimizing is to set up the server with innodb_file_per_table option.
All-in-all we can just speculate for now.
SteveFrom: "Rad!" <conradakunga@gmail.com>Sent: Miércoles, 6 de Marzo 2013 7:40:11
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] IEBC Systems
As usual - any technical debate eventually loses issues and descends to open source vs closed source.It is not in order to allege the issue is the openness of the code or the operating system in use without knowing the facts.
On Wednesday, March 6, 2013, Bernard Owuor wrote:Erik, thanks for the link.
(And great job with the http://results.uchaguzi.co.ke/index.php/senator.)
This can never be a disk space issue... the error gives it away:
"Database Error: Unable to connect to the database:Could not connect to MySQL"
It's a case of using Windows 2008 server - without tweaking - when a LAMP server would work out of the box :)
Which points to the bigger problem of using closed source systems for public interest software.
After paying KES 9B (or some happy figure) for it, and with the very detailed RFP in the public domain, IEBC should be able to own the software. They should open-source it - since it's paid for with public money. (I understand it is still proprietary to IFES)
For such a system, the cost of implementing the solution far outweighs the price of the software, so IEBC will still pay a lot of money for it. However, we get better quality, future-proofing and some savings (in future elections). Biggest payoff is the trust engendered by openness.
From: Erik Hersman <erik@zungu.com>
To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Sent: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 9:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] IEBC Systems
http://iebctechkenya.tumblr.com/On Mar 6, 2013, at 8:59 AM, Patrick Kariuki <patrick.kariuki@gmail.com> wrote:Who said scaling MYSQL is necessary when the cheque and traffic comes
once every 4 years?
On 3/6/13, joe mwirigi <joemwirigi@gmail.com> wrote:Lets just say its a KES 9B lesson to the government that hires 'foreign
companies' because they are 'big'
I hear, the 'weed' tells me one had to login to the same server(database)
to send the results. Am not sure they did run tests
with 30,000 concurrent users so the db kept giving way, halafu mnajua zile
logs za mysql on error. They filled the
disk like crazy! -- just speculating -- I in no way know these guys! Then I
can imagine the conversation
Boss: vhat is happening Signh (shaking his head)
Signh: donno databes only 10 MEg. Just chekin.
Boss: Vy data not coming in u nno.
Signh: dh -f$ unknown commandFilesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
$ df -h
/dev/sdb1 2000G 1999.2G 0.6G 99% /
varrun 393M 144k 393M 1% /var/run
varlock 393M 0 393M 0% /var/lock
procbususb 393M 123k 393M 1% /proc/bus/usb
udev 393M 123k 393M 1% /dev
Signh: They send too much, too much data, see
Boss: Yeah, too much sending 2Tb full already, patel, vhere is that 4
Tb disk! just plug it and ve ar in business!
Signh: >$sudo /etc/init.d/mysql restart$password: **through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2)
$ wrong password try again:***
$ ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server
$
On a lighter note though
*_______________________________________________________________
We must Keep on,
*
On Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 11:05 PM, Dickson <dhikims@gmail.com> wrote:Still the data amount is small even for processing. What amount of data
does say bank systems process on a normal working day. Its bigger than
what
IEBC will process.
I believe we have skills that can handle that system. Let's give IEBC
benefit of patience they sort themselves out.
Best Regards,
Dickson.
----
http://qhim.wordpress.com
Sent from my BlackBerry®
-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick Karanja <wabethi@gmail.com>
Sender: skunkworks-bounces@lists.my.co.ke
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2013 22:48:50
To: Skunkworks Mailing List<skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Reply-To: Skunkworks Mailing List <skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke>
Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] IEBC Systems
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