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I used to be able to read the server uptime from /proc/uptime and then I couldn’t (probably due to tighter sandboxing), so the uptime on the reader was no longer accurate.
When it worked, I noticed the server was running for around 1 year straight. Well done
Can you publish uptime somewhere so users can see how reliable the hosting is (I haven’t yet encountered downtime)?
Why look at the Server’s statistics? InfinityFree does say, pretty much everywhere, that they have a relible 99.9% Uptime.
Technically, you shouldn’t be querying the server for stuff like that. The server is used by many, and it’s purpose is to host many websites, including yours. “Poking” at the server, even if it just to check it’s runtime, isn’t allowed.
It’s likely that access to the /proc filesystem was blocked at some point. There is no good reason to be able to access it.
What do you suppose the /proc/uptime data will tell you?
All it tells you when the server was last rebooted. It doesn’t tell you how long it was down, and it doesn’t tell you anything about the plethora of other issues that could result in your website being down without the server itself actually shutting down.
Decades ago, nerds used to boast about “look how awesome I am, my server has been up for xxx days!”. Nowadays, keeping a server up for years is not that difficult (everything is more stable). But if you choose to do that, it generally means you’re behind on security updates and your procedures to maintain servers with minimal downtime are lacking.
Uptime metrics are not that useful for the most part. A server is a complex beast, and a hosting platform even moreso. There are plenty of issues that could happen that can make your website be “down” without the server itself being down.
Their main benefit is for companies who really want to stress that “99.9% uptime guaranteed” marketing, by just showing some numbers that omit the majority of issues that happen.
Really, the best way to know if hosting is reliable is through experience. Whether from yourself or from others (i.e. reviews). That’s a much more complete picture than whether a server is running.