My thoughts are that once the new server is up and running, and the other servers have been switched around, the need for the 3 day outage might dwindle, which means that the servers wouldn't be getting hammered so badly when the outage is over. The ghosts realy started being a problem when the servers were stressed to max for several days without a break. If up time was longer, I would gladly cut back on the size of my cache, and I'm sure others would too. Now, with the planned, and unplanned outages, a large cache is needed, which puts greater strain on the servers. I do think this situation will work itself out. I have crunched for Einstein, and although they make minimal use of my 480's, whene ever I have needed a backup project, Einstein loads me with work very quickly. It was exciting that they found that binary system. To me, if I am doing science, then I'm happy.
Steve