[olug] PayPal outage

[Phil Brutsche]

William Haisch wrote:
> When running Linux and Apache in an enterprise environment, is it 
> true that changes on Linux can't be rolled back or reversed?

For their environment, maybe.

But as a general question: no, that's not true.  *Any* change in *any* 
environment can be reversed, given proper documentation, backups, and 
procedures.

Some could argue that it's easier to roll back changes in Apache than it 
is in IIS :)  Apache's config file(s) is/are plain text; makes it easy 
to store keep the latest version in sync with a CVS or Subversion 
repository, or even just scp it off each night.  Which is a stark 
comparison to the hideously complicated backup procedure for IIS5 
configuration data.

> Is this a matter of planning and setup or a true limitation of the
> platform?

Failures like this are almost always insufficient planning.

> Should I trust them with my money?

*That* is a whole other question that I don't think I should get into.

Answer me this: would you trust a firm, who is not regulated as a bank 
and has no oversight in case mistakes are made, to hold on to several 
thousand dollars?

Many people answer "No" to that question, even going so far as to 
keeping a dedicated bank account for PayPal to transfer funds to & from.

-- 

Phil Brutsche
phil at brutsche.us