forked from pifty/tutes-dump
469 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
469 lines
22 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
[02] WHAT ARE SDF'S ORIGINS AND HISTORY? (LONG SUMMARY)
|
||
|
||
(For related information on SDF and the history behind this public
|
||
access UNIX system, read "The HACKER CRACKDOWN" by Bruce Sterling)
|
||
|
||
1987 - SDF was originally an APPLE ][e microcomputer running
|
||
"Magic City Micro-BBS" customized by Ted Uhlemann (iczer). The
|
||
system was run as a Japanese Anime SIG and was known as the SDF-1.
|
||
|
||
The SDF-1 at that time was just your typical BBS: One phone line
|
||
plugged into a 1200bps modem, 128 kilo-nibbles of core and two flexible
|
||
disk drives with 280 kilo-nibbles storage capacity each.
|
||
|
||
Stephen Jones (smj) helped locate a 5 megabyte mass storage unit for
|
||
the micro. Ted was only able to get about 3 megabytes out of the disk.
|
||
By adding a 2400bps modem and this new mass storage unit, SDF's users
|
||
noticed a substantial performance increase.
|
||
|
||
In 1989 Ted and Stephen began running SDF as a CITADEL BBS. It was
|
||
the filesystem like structure of the Bulletin Board that piqued their
|
||
interest. Both the Apple ][e and the IBM PC XT served logins.
|
||
|
||
Ted, Stephen and Daniel Finster (df) had been dialing into a system
|
||
run by an AT&T employee named Charlie Boykin. Charlie's system
|
||
was called The UNIX Connection (AKA attctc or killer.dallas.tx.us).
|
||
Charlie's public access UNIX was such a breath of fresh air compared
|
||
to restrictive BBS menus that when killer was abruptly shutdown (20-Feb-90)
|
||
during Operation SunDevil, it was greatly missed. At that point the three
|
||
decided they would form a replacement for killer.
|
||
|
||
16-Jun-91 - SDF.ORG
|
||
|
||
At this time UNIX had been runable on i386 machines for a couple of
|
||
years. Ted took on the responsbility of setting up the machine and
|
||
contacting UUCP network administrators around town to get UUCP mail
|
||
going. After trying to use an inexpensive UNIX clone (COHERENT)
|
||
which turned out to be a CROCK, Ted decided to go with Kodak's
|
||
Interactive release of UNIX SYSTEM 5 r3.2 1.0. The caseless
|
||
computer ran laid across Ted's desk.
|
||
|
||
01-Aug-91 - SDF.ORG
|
||
|
||
Interest in the public access UNIX system began to grow and it was
|
||
decided that the system be moved to another location so that more
|
||
phone lines (4) could be installed. Richard Losey (rlosey) contributed
|
||
to the project so that an AST four port board could be purchased to
|
||
support the 4 - 2400 dialups. There was also a sidewalk sale booth
|
||
which was mostly comprised of donated goods and half of Aaron Schmiedel's
|
||
(aaron) garage. From that point, SDF grew.
|
||
|
||
Summer-92
|
||
|
||
Ted and Daniel talked with David Lippke, a network manager at the
|
||
Unversity of Texas at Dallas (UTD), about an ARPANET connection for
|
||
the SDF. By then SDF had been running as a UNIX system for about a
|
||
year. The idea was considered by David, but eventually turned into
|
||
a proposed commercial venture. By the Fall of 1992 Ted, Daniel and
|
||
three SDF users Steven Parker (sp), Steve Linebarger (srl) and
|
||
Bill Middleton (wjm) had left SDF to form Texas Metronet, Dallas'
|
||
first (if not in Texas) commercial internet service provider. Stephen
|
||
remained behind continuing to administer to the SDF.
|
||
|
||
04-Aug-93
|
||
|
||
With the help of Charlie Boykin(SMU) and Rich Andrews(SMU), Stephen
|
||
was able to replace the INTEL based PC UNIX with a hardworking and
|
||
reliable WE32100 based minicomputer designed by AT&T (the 3B2). Brian
|
||
Rogers (brogers) helped Stephen install 9 - 14.4kbps telephone lines.
|
||
|
||
At this time, SDF's configuration was as follows:
|
||
|
||
uname Machine Description
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
sdf 3b2/400 4 Megs Memory, 2(72) Meg disk
|
||
sdf1 3b2/400 4 Megs Memory, 2(72) Meg disk SCSI HA 338 Meg disk
|
||
sdf2 3b2/310 4 Megs Memory, 1(72) Meg disk
|
||
|
||
sdf handled dialup access, sdf1 handled UUCP and sdf2 handled USENET
|
||
news processing. The machine used RFS (Remote File Sharing) over a
|
||
STARLAN network to share data.
|
||
|
||
Spring-94
|
||
|
||
4 3B2/400 machines were purchased from South Carolina State University.
|
||
Two were put in immediate service along with the original 3B2/310 system.
|
||
The machines were networked over a 1 megabit local area network (STARLAN)
|
||
and shared resources to give the illusion of one machine. Also purchased
|
||
were several terminals and an AT&T UNIX PC 7300 called 'minmei'.
|
||
|
||
04-Aug-95
|
||
|
||
The system is made up of one AT&T 3b2/400 and one AT&T 3b2/310.
|
||
The 310 has a SCSI BUS and handles the majority of USENET processing.
|
||
The 310's SCSI BUS has an EMULEX ESDI to SCSI converter which gives
|
||
support to 4 ESDI drives and only takes up one SCSI ID. By using this,
|
||
the SCSI BUS could very easily support 24 hard drives. The 400 handles
|
||
all user sessions. When you dialup into SDF you are connected to
|
||
the 400. The 310 and the 400 are on a STARLAN network. STARLAN is a
|
||
local area network which can be 1mbit or 10mbit in speed. The two
|
||
machines share disks through the Remote File Sharing package. When
|
||
you read USENET news on the 400 (sdf) it is actually reading the
|
||
articles over the network from the 310 (news) machine.
|
||
|
||
03-Mar-96 ANONBBS
|
||
|
||
Ted and Stephen got together very late one night and decided to start a
|
||
short lived project they called 'ANONBBS'. ANONBBS was just as it sounds,
|
||
it ran on an i386sx25 toshiba laptop with 60mb of storage and 10mb of RAM
|
||
under Digital Research DOS 5.0 .. The entire BBS was written in TELIX SALT
|
||
with an extremely functional, but minimalistic interface that Ted and
|
||
Stephen literally hashed out over tacos and nachos at 3am in a Taco Cabana.
|
||
The asethetic proved extremely useful and the system became busy. Users
|
||
would type up messages on their machines and then upload them to the
|
||
'C:\BBOARD>' directory. Files were stored in 'C:\XFER>' .. some users
|
||
signed their handles on messages while others just remained anonymous.
|
||
It was an experiment to see what people would do in an environment where
|
||
they had completely anonyomity and control.
|
||
|
||
|
||
01-May-96 SDF
|
||
|
||
Lucent Technologies/AT&T Bell Laboratories donated a 3b2/500 with an
|
||
XM (disk) cabinet that replaced the older setup. Special thanks to
|
||
Michael Dolan (Lucent) and John Marinho (AT&T) for their help.
|
||
|
||
AT&T 3B2 SYSTEM CONFIGURATION: Memory size: 8 Megabytes
|
||
System Peripherals:
|
||
|
||
Device Name Subdevices Extended Subdevices
|
||
|
||
SBD
|
||
Floppy Disk
|
||
SCSI
|
||
(S.E. BUS ID0)
|
||
SD01 ID1
|
||
155 Megabyte Disk ID0
|
||
ST01 ID2
|
||
Tape ID0
|
||
SD01 ID5
|
||
155 Megabyte Disk ID0
|
||
155 Megabyte Disk ID1
|
||
155 Megabyte Disk ID2
|
||
NI
|
||
EPORTS
|
||
MAU
|
||
VCACHE
|
||
|
||
SBD System Board. This board contains the 3b2's main processor.
|
||
It is possible to have up to 3 processor boards in this machine.
|
||
SCSI Small Computer Systems Interface. This BUS allows the system to
|
||
support up to 24 storage devices.
|
||
NI Network Interface. This feature card is a 10base5 interface which
|
||
support ETHERNET protocol.
|
||
EPORTS Enhanced PORTS. This feature card supports 8 38400bps serial
|
||
connections.
|
||
MAU Mathematics Accelerator UNIT.
|
||
VCACHE This board aides the processor by CACHE'ing commonly used
|
||
3b2/32200 32100 processor instructions.
|
||
|
||
30-Mar-97
|
||
|
||
Aaron Schmiedel (aaron) donated several large disk drives and a
|
||
higher capacity tape backup system. The system was reconfigured
|
||
to take advantage of the new storage resources.
|
||
|
||
24-Nov-97
|
||
|
||
Vincent Helliwell (thecave) donated a 2.1 gig SCSI drive which was used
|
||
to replace the old /udd (user directory directory) filesystem and allow
|
||
the last remaining 5.25" full height drive to be decommissioned.
|
||
|
||
15-Dec-97
|
||
|
||
A new server built almost entirely out of user donated parts was configured
|
||
and installed. The initial plan was for it to run NetBSD (and it just
|
||
may someday) but for the interim it runs a highly modified GNU system
|
||
with a slightly modified Linux kernel. Donated hardware that makes up
|
||
a portion of this machine:
|
||
|
||
P166+ CPU and 16megs RAM (aaron)
|
||
1.0 gig HD (cjc) (Traded for old SDF SCSI drives)
|
||
170 meg HD (iczer)
|
||
210 meg HD (wmills)
|
||
case w/ PS, motherboard, cabling, ethernet and video adapters (smj)
|
||
|
||
For the moment the machine spools news and serves NNTP connections to
|
||
both SDF hosted users and SLIP/PPP dialup users. It also batches news
|
||
up for UUCP hosts and for outbound local posts. X windows has been
|
||
installed on it along with CMU Common Lisp system for UNIX so that we
|
||
can begin porting tons of SDF specific programs to LISP.
|
||
|
||
24-May-99
|
||
|
||
The domain "freeshell.org" was registered as an alias for sdf.org
|
||
as a marketing strategy to help sdf grow. Since the "arpa" vote that
|
||
occured early in this year, SDF's amount sponsorship as grown. We are
|
||
hoping by making this general marketing step that sdf can continue to
|
||
grow and make a more obvious name for itself.
|
||
|
||
23-Aug-99
|
||
|
||
A secondary server 'sdf-2' is now acting as the main http server. It is
|
||
a PII/450MHz with 256mb of RAM and about 18 gigs of hard drive space.
|
||
it has a 13 gig file system which it sdf mounts so that shell users can
|
||
setup their homepages without having to login to the other machine.
|
||
|
||
01-Jan-00
|
||
|
||
System Configuration:
|
||
|
||
'sdf' P233, 94mb of RAM, 20gig mixed mass storage (EIDE/SCSI)
|
||
linux 2.0.37 kernel (modified), GNU software and 'linux' utilities
|
||
role: shell server, primary dns, secondary http server, mail server,
|
||
pop3 server, ftp server.
|
||
|
||
'sdf-2' PII/450MHz, 256mb of RAM, 18gigs mass storage (EIDE)
|
||
linux 2.2.14 kernel (modified), GNU software and 'linux' utilities
|
||
role: http server, secondary dns (others will migrate)
|
||
|
||
Network connectivity: DSL 1.4mb/768kb, 10mbit ethernet, 2b+d ISDN
|
||
|
||
11-May-00
|
||
|
||
'sdf' as a P233 has been decomissioned along with support hardware.
|
||
|
||
'sdf' AMD Athlon 750MHz, 384mb of RAM 36gig mixed mass storage (UDMA/SCSI)
|
||
linux 2.0.36 kernel (modified), GNU software and 'linux' utilities
|
||
same roles.
|
||
|
||
31-Oct-00
|
||
|
||
'sdf-2' now has two 30 gigabyte disks and has taken over as the primary
|
||
mail server for 'sdf.org'. It handles incoming and outgoing
|
||
SMTP/POP3 requests as well as primary webservice and minor functions.
|
||
|
||
'sdf-1' role is to primary that of a shell server. Mail can be sent
|
||
outgoing from it and ~login webpages will still be served. This sort
|
||
of modification should help greatly with uptime and load balancing.
|
||
|
||
15-May-01
|
||
|
||
Major hardware failure (sdf-2, now called 'otaku') basically overheated
|
||
and fried its motherboard when its powersupply fan died. On top of
|
||
that, SDF's root disk (main drive) decided to give up and die. This is
|
||
the third disk we've lost this year. Crappy consumer hardware.
|
||
|
||
09-Aug-01
|
||
, ,
|
||
/( )`
|
||
\ \___ / |
|
||
BYE BYE LEENOX! /- _ `-/ '
|
||
BYE BYE x86! (/\/ \ \ /\
|
||
/ / | ` \
|
||
| ) / |
|
||
`-^--'`< '
|
||
? (_.) ) /
|
||
_o) `.__ ` /
|
||
/\\ __ `-----' /
|
||
(O_ _\/V / \---. __ / __ \
|
||
(o< //\ \\/---|====O)))==) \) /====
|
||
//\ V|/_ (._ (o_/\ >-)---' `--' `.__,' \
|
||
V_/_ | /\\<--)-> , | |
|
||
(:_ (~< //\ \_/_\/ \ /
|
||
/ /\ //\ V_/_ (._ ` ______( (_ / \_____
|
||
\/_/_ (o_ V\/_ (/) , ,' ,-----' | \
|
||
(\) (o_ (-< . `--{__________) (smj) \/
|
||
(O_ >O) //\ (~< //\.- (fl)
|
||
/ (\) V_/_ _|_ V\/_ .
|
||
//\ //L\\
|
||
Oo.V|/_ V\_/V
|
||
- -
|
||
|
||
10-Aug-01 - The minicomputers return!
|
||
|
||
System Configuration:
|
||
|
||
'sdf' Dec ALPHA 5305, 1024mb of RAM, 55gig SCA SCSI-2 UW
|
||
NetBSD 1.5.1 performance tuned and hacks
|
||
role: 'users' shell server, primary dns, secondary http server,
|
||
anonymous ftp server
|
||
|
||
'otaku' Dec ALPHA 5305, 1024mb of RAM, 60gig SCA SCSI-2 UW
|
||
NetBSD 1.5.1 performance tuned and hacks
|
||
role: 'arpa' shell server, secondary dns, primary http server
|
||
|
||
00-SEP-01 THE FATE OF THE OLD 3B2/500 THAT WAS SDF
|
||
|
||
I just learned what happened to the 3B2/500 I lent to user '*****' who had
|
||
hopes to buy it when he got money. It came into his possession in late
|
||
1997 or 1998 when I decided to try to run SDF on x86 with linux (the
|
||
biggest mistake I've made, and I apologise). I gave '*****' the complete
|
||
3B2/500 setup, a full set of manuals, software and a 4425 AT&T Death Star
|
||
terminal. When he moved out of his mother's house in 1999 he put it in
|
||
the trunk of his car. It stayed there for 6 months!! through the Texas
|
||
heat. He once went to '**'s house to pick up his friend and they decided
|
||
they needed some trunk space, so they took the 3B2 out and brought it up
|
||
to the house. '**' really hates UNIX and refused to allow the machine in
|
||
the house, so they left it on his porch. It sat there for 3 months,
|
||
through the rain and elements. '**' finally put into 'storage' with
|
||
some other computers, but I seriously doubt it will ever run again.
|
||
'*****' never paid a cent to sdf and will not respond to my emails from
|
||
is new email address (he no longer uses sdf).
|
||
|
||
10-OCT-01 SDF Public Access UNIX System, INC.
|
||
|
||
On this day, the entity SDF Public Access UNIX System was formed
|
||
as a NOT-FOR-PROFIT corporation in the state of Delaware.
|
||
|
||
22-DEC-01 - 27-DEC-01 MULTIHOMED DS3 CONNECTION
|
||
|
||
The 'sdf' along with 'otaku', 'sverige', 'neguse' and 'norge' were moved
|
||
to a new datacentre location in Bellevue Washington. Besides the luxury
|
||
of having a cooled machine room, high availability UPS and monitored site
|
||
security, we also gained a multi-homed 155mbit connection to the net.
|
||
|
||
Although only 'sdf' and 'sverige' were production machines at the time,
|
||
the others were installed in preparation for 'SHIT DAY 01-JAN-02'
|
||
|
||
Total 'sdf' downtime was exceptionally minimal during the move (1 hour).
|
||
|
||
25-JAN-02 - ALL MACHINES ONLINE - bj<62>rk runs NetBSD-current SMP today!
|
||
|
||
All machines are now online at the datacentre .. configuration info:
|
||
|
||
uname platform version storage memory function
|
||
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
sdf dual alpha 5305 1.5.3 64gigs 1024mb Primary shell/UUCP
|
||
otaku dual alpha 5305 1.5.3 118gigs 1024mb SMTP & ARPA member
|
||
droog dual alpha 5305 1.5.3 118gigs 1024mb freeshell.org.uk
|
||
bjork dual alpha 5305 1.5ZA SMP 9gigs 512mb Experimental test
|
||
norge dual sparc ss20 1.5.3 18gigs 512mb ROBOT (irc 'bot')
|
||
sverige dual sparc ss20 1.5.3 18gigs 512mb MUD server
|
||
|
||
21-Sep-02 - DISK REPLACEMENT
|
||
|
||
SDF purchased roughly 30 36.4GB SCA SCSI disks to replace the old
|
||
4.3GB and 9.1GB as necessary.
|
||
|
||
20-Nov-02 - ICELAND ONLINE
|
||
|
||
SDF purchased four API CS20 machines to replace the old ss20s and act
|
||
primarily as shell servers. This will help to keep resources free on
|
||
'sdf' and 'otaku' so they can fileserve to the API machines.
|
||
|
||
iceland.freeshell.org a dual 833MHz CS20 w/ 1024mb of RAM went online.
|
||
|
||
10-Jan-03 - VINLAND ONLINE
|
||
|
||
The second of the CS20s went into service. It has the exact same
|
||
configuration as iceland.
|
||
|
||
27-Jan-03 - MOVE TO THE GIGAPOP
|
||
|
||
Today NWLINK had its Bellevue co-location customers move to the SIX
|
||
(Seattled Internet Exchange) AKA the Gigapop. The move took about
|
||
3 hours.
|
||
|
||
30-Jan-03 - NWLINK TERMINATES SDF CONTRACT
|
||
|
||
NWLink.com has decided to terminate sdf.org's
|
||
co-location contract because of a DDoS attack which apparently was
|
||
directed at sdf. The termination notice was not written and was
|
||
carried out immediately (approximately 10:30am today).
|
||
|
||
We attempted to quickly get another co-location contract with two other
|
||
prominent providers, but were turned down because of what happened at
|
||
NWLINK. Fortunately, we were able to bring services back up late in the
|
||
evening of February 4th, with DNS updating by the afternoon of the 5th.
|
||
This was made possible by a free hosting offer with SiteSpecific.NET
|
||
|
||
Many SDF members have expressed the need for recourse as we all
|
||
are a victim in this. If you feel inclined to do so, you
|
||
may file a personal complaint against NWLINK online via
|
||
the NW Better Business Bureau. If you choose to do this,
|
||
please be sure to give concise, mature and correct information.
|
||
|
||
NWLINK has released a letter via the BBB which quotes a director of
|
||
SDF even though it was explicitly stated in a telephone conversation
|
||
that any joint statement would have to be approved by the SDF board.
|
||
|
||
04-FEB-03 - SITESPECIFIC.NET PROVIDES FREE CO-LO FOR SDF
|
||
|
||
Sitespecific has graciously given SDF a free lease while we arrange
|
||
our own site (we've decided to move back to Dallas). The Dallas
|
||
site is to be composed of brand new machines with two circuits that we
|
||
will own to prevent any ISP from doing what NWLINK did to us.
|
||
|
||
15-MAR-03 - MIGRATION TO OUR NEW HOME
|
||
|
||
droog (sdf-eu.org) was the first to migrate and was basically done
|
||
over the internet in less than a day.
|
||
|
||
ol was created to do fileservice and was setup so that only the DEC
|
||
SBBs (disks) would have to be shipped from Seattle to Dallas, saving
|
||
us quite a bit. ol currently has 14 disk drives in two StorageWorks
|
||
SCSI arrays.
|
||
|
||
sdf, otaku and norge were all recreated as client machines which slave
|
||
off of ol. The whole migration took less than a week, with users being
|
||
able to access either site at anytime making the migration extremely
|
||
smooth and transparent to most. The disks drives, which held old mail,
|
||
web and home directories were plugged in with 16 hours of them leaving
|
||
Seattle for Dallas next day air.
|
||
|
||
31-MAR-03 - AS1200 DECOMMISSION PARTY
|
||
|
||
50 members were in attendence in 'com' as we decommissioned the DEC
|
||
AS1200 computer which served as SDF. The four AS1200 systems were
|
||
then auctioned off to the users.
|
||
|
||
Summer and Fall 2003
|
||
|
||
A number of new hosts (DS10Ls and CS20s) were brought online. As well,
|
||
all of the 4.3GB and 9.1GB drives were replaced with 36GB 10K SCA
|
||
SCSI drives. A third t1 was installed to aide with peering and dialup
|
||
was expanded to include 16323 numbers in the USA and Canada. A mirror
|
||
for 'otaku' was brought online called 'ukato'. ARPA member websites
|
||
were split between these two hosts. 'mx' became the primary pop3/imap
|
||
server with its mirror 'xm' balancing out requests.
|
||
|
||
Spring 2004
|
||
|
||
'sverige' is now soley for MetaARPA member use. 'screen' is now allowed
|
||
on this machine with limited usage background processes.
|
||
|
||
10-Jun-2005
|
||
|
||
After patience and extensive testing all machines were updated from
|
||
NetBSD 1.6.2 to 2.0.2. The upgrade event was mostly automated and was
|
||
performed in about 2.5 hours which included updates to the fileserver
|
||
and mail server as well as all 6 NFS client systems. Apart from
|
||
external problems (such as power and UPS related datacentre issues)
|
||
the NFS performance problems we saw with 1.6.2 have seem to have been
|
||
minimised.
|
||
|
||
15-Jun-2005 SDF-EU.ORG TEMPORARILY OFFLINE
|
||
|
||
Due to inconsistencies in the power at the datacentre we seem to have
|
||
lost the DS10L that was 'sdf-eu.org' .. The DEC StorageWorks disk array
|
||
is fine, and all incoming sdf-eu.org mail is queuing via UUCP. However
|
||
we had to wait about 5 days for the datacentre technician to get to
|
||
the machine to replace it with a spare. This was due to a back injury
|
||
he suffered (please note, the site technician is NOT smj ;-)
|
||
|
||
20-Jun-2005 NEW DOMAINS
|
||
|
||
Victor Bragga (vothr) has donated the 'shellacct' domains to SDF.
|
||
These domains will soon be available to ARPA members for website
|
||
vanity domains as well as virtual email addresses to VPM and MetaARPA
|
||
members.
|
||
|
||
22-Jun-2005 THXMOO
|
||
|
||
A MOO (virtual world) is currently being designed and implemented on
|
||
SDF. It is based on the post world war III THX-1138 world where humans
|
||
live underground and are dependent on pills, television and prayers to
|
||
keep their mental states in subservient check. The beta THXMOO should
|
||
be available this fall. Further updates will be posted on thxmoo.org
|
||
|
||
August - September 2006 DISK MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADES
|
||
|
||
All of the 36.4GB disks in the three arrays were slated to be replaced.
|
||
This was mainly for preventative maintenance, though one or two drives
|
||
had gone bad of their 3 years or so of service. 28 73.8GB SCA2 15KRPM
|
||
drives were installed during this time and a subsequent ARPA vote
|
||
increased the base disk quota to 600MB. MetaARPA members were given
|
||
an 800MB quota with an increase of files to 15000 per filesystem.
|
||
|