In the finest tradition it is Christmas-time and my computer is dead.

OK slight exaguration. I have two computers I regularly use:

desktop.my.flat

This is my main development machine, which I sit in front of and work at most days.

itchy.my.flat

This has several roles:

• xen
  • So that I can run Sarge for building security updates.
• caching name server
• backup server

(Both of these machines run Sid.)

The backup server is the important use for this machine. Every four hours I do a full database dump + rsync of d-a.org, my personal server, and my desktop system.

The backup machine, itchy, is currently down because of a failing hard drive.

I've ordered a replacement computer (a bit extravogent considering I could have got by with just a new disk drive). This will be my first 64-bit machine, and also my first machine with hardware support for virtualisation.

The new machine should arrive on Saturday. Once it does I'll rotate it in.

The new machine will become my desktop. My desktop will become the backup, and the old machine with the failing drive will be donated to my Sister. (Who I was due to give a machine to already. I will need to get a new disk but that will be done shortly.)

I think I'll try sticking with Etch on the new machine, and possibly make the backup machine run it too. I guess I don't need sid yet… Besides Xen makes new installations easy :)

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