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1993-07-01
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The Truth Behind MTBF
submitted by Albert Fixl (Sunnyvale, CA) <fixl@sj.ate.slb.com>
>From <Name deleted to protect the innocent> Tue Jun 22 11:42:40 1993
Subject: Forwarded: MTBF daemon
From the net:
Sun Microsystems has long been aware that too high a value for system
MTBF (measured in days or fractions thereof) leads to a stultifying
sense of boredom and complacency on the part of the network
administrator. Thoughtfully, SUN has incorporated the little-known
MTBF daemon, which is quietly spawned at boot time, to ensure that all
users are exposed to the excitement of real breakdowns at reasonable
intervals. MTBFd is intelligent insofar that it automatically detects
the busiest server on the network and grafts itself onto the server's
sendmail daemon. Lifeboat simulations are no substitute for that
first actual file-scrambling catastrophe. Quoting the MTBFd (8) man
page, "it's not actually data corruption, as we use a special write-
only encryption algorithm." The initial panic and wringing of throats
soon gives way to the familiar elation of the front-line soldier
under fire: sinews are stiffened, blood is summoned. Site-wide
solidarity is magically rewoven as an almost forgotten camaraderie
emerge to weather the blitz. "For the system administrator shall lie
down with the controls engineer, yea, even the simple coder shall lie
down with the OI group leader." -- St. Presper's Epistolary Update to
the Pascalites, Release V, Level 1.2. The traditional supplier/user
frictions also, surprisingly, disappear since the user is now, as it
were, a born-again nonuser, and by definition a prospect for
*something*. Long-forgotten salespersons will arrive to offer
condolences and quotations for extended and enhanced service:
contracts, add-ons, RAID systems, UPSes, upgrades, and newly-released
allegedly working software. Eventually, the peaceful boredom of
uptime will be restored, prisoners exchanged, scapegoats tried and
executed, memorials erected to lost files, and a candle placed on the
console to honor the Unknown Coder.
----- End Included Message ----- {RAH}