Post your server setup

[Red Squirrel]

Being at a tech forum I'm sure most of us must have servers either to play with, or that are actual production.

I finalized my setup in my new house and while it's not all that great, it's better and easier to manage then what it was like at my parents house. Got easy back and front access.

http://gal.redsquirrel.me/imag...structure/dsc02685.JPG


My next step is to build/buy some kind of cabinet system. I was originally thinking a custom server rack but given all my servers are towers and probably always will be, a shelving unit may do me better. No money for that now though, even a custom one. This house is 40 years old and never had any major water issues, it better not get some now.

Oh and here's what those servers are starting from the left:

deathstar: backup server

extsrv: external dev/dns server. This server is on a different subnet and is externally accessible, also hosts a few VMs such as my UO database server (for dev and test) as well as a dev environment for my UO server.

borg: main server. Does email/spam filtering, file, domain controller, some custom apps etc.. also is a VM server and hosts quite a few VMs such as my UO's server test environment and also a dev environment for serverweave. The host itself also hosts all the dev version of my websites, so I can work on my sites without affecting the production ones. Lots of other stuff, wont go into details.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Needs more wooden server racks.

Seriously though, if your house needs racks you need to get out more. I'm building a server over the summer but it's just going to be a simple box for files and development work, and some nice fast networking.

 

[Leros]

Its in here somewhere
http://lonewolflibrarian.files...uting-kitchen-sink.jpg

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: Leros
Its in here somewhere
http://lonewolflibrarian.files...uting-kitchen-sink.jpg

When I build a san, and code serverweave, that's my next step. Actually serverweave will work better without a san as a san is still a single point of failure.

 

[JJChicken]

Not enough BMAs in this thread. Time to REPRESENT

 

[KingGheedora]

tell me more

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

What's a UO server?

 

[TwiceOver]

I don't have a card reader right now so... Maybe later.

 

[blodhi74]

NO

 

[KingGheedora]

What is serverware, and what is UO? Have yo considered just getting VPS's from an ISP for all this stuff? it's like 50 a month for each host and you don't have to worry about maintaining and running servers, up time, water in your basement, network security, etc. You can use all the time and money you put towards that stuff towards your actual software development projects. Also your power bills are reduced and it's probably better for the environment because I think a good hosting service has much cheaper carbon footprint per CPU cycle than your servers. I'm just sayin.

What kind of work do you do, do you work for yourself, are you a freeancer? Are these projects open source?

 

[TridenT]

UO=Ultima Online??? It's in his sig...

Age of Valor? IDK... Some game it seems.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: GodlessAstronomer
What's a UO server?

Ultima Online.

http://www.uovalor.com

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I have a simple Fileserver with 3.2TB of space currently. Just hosts our music images, animes, image backups of the 3 computers attached to it, print serving, and a few other miscellaneous things..

Then a server here in America with 20GB of space for random things.

Lastly a 250GB server on a 100Mb/s line in China for... Things

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: KingGheedora
What is serverware, and what is UO? Have yo considered just getting VPS's from an ISP for all this stuff? it's like 50 a month for each host and you don't have to worry about maintaining and running servers, up time, water in your basement, network security, etc. You can use all the time and money you put towards that stuff towards your actual software development projects. Also your power bills are reduced and it's probably better for the environment because I think a good hosting service has much cheaper carbon footprint per CPU cycle than your servers. I'm just sayin.

What kind of work do you do, do you work for yourself, are you a freeancer? Are these projects open source?

The local servers are for my own environment and it would be too costly/unsecure to host it remotely. I do all sorts of stuff so each server/VM has it's purpose. I have a leased dedicated server and that's where the actual production stuff goes.

It's mostly all hobby.

Serverweave will be a control panel for web hosting but eventually I'll just keep adding on to it and want to make it an all in one LAN/Internet server management system. Think of Windows SBS but more advanced, more reliable, no limitations, and free. When it's fit for production I want to start a web hosting company. This program will basically be a "set and forget". It will manage backups, downtime, tickets, alerting, etc... If a server goes down it automaticly reroutes DNS to another server and the customer sites are back up then it alerts me, etc... I'm far from that point now though. Game server is taking up all my time.

 

[Colt45]

I've got an old IBM x345 sitting in the closet, on a couple milk crates. lol.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: Colt45
I've got an old IBM x345 sitting in the closet, on a couple milk crates. lol.

Now THAT is a server. Rack mountable, with options for redundant power supplies and cooling. Probably has a RAID controller, multiple processor slots, and ECC memory, too.

While I admire the OP's enthusiasm, those "servers" of his really aren't servers. Most of them look like desktop PC's with extra storage and cooling added. I'm also not seeing a tape drive or anything like that for off-site backups, which might come to bite him in the ass if that storage array fails on his big box.

Personally, I'd put those PC's in an Ikea shelving system or something like that just to get them off the basement floor. Maybe get a bigger UPS as well, and come up with a good off-site backup system to protect your ass from a basement flood or major hardware failure!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

Originally posted by: Colt45
I've got an old IBM x345 sitting in the closet, on a couple milk crates. lol.

Now THAT is a server. Rack mountable, with options for redundant power supplies and cooling. Probably has a RAID controller, multiple processor slots, and ECC memory, too.

While I admire the OP's enthusiasm, those "servers" of his really aren't servers. Most of them look like desktop PC's with extra storage and cooling added. I'm also not seeing a tape drive or anything like that for off-site backups, which might come to bite him in the ass if that storage array fails on his big box.

Personally, I'd put those PC's in an Ikea shelving system or something like that just to get them off the basement floor. Maybe get a bigger UPS as well, and come up with a good off-site backup system to protect your ass from a basement flood or major hardware failure!

True a "real" server is nice and all, but if I had that, I'd still be paying them off, let alone living in my own house. The most expensive of those is the big black one, it cost about 2-3 grand to build, though that's because I ended up with lot of DOA parts so it increased it's cost due to having to order stuff again.

There is already offsite backups of all my data, and since lot of it is virtualized it would be nothing to move the VM to another box and fire it up again, should there be a failure.

The one on the most left is the backup server, so instead of tapes, I have HDDs. Though it is outdated, as it's IDE. Eventually I will retire that server and use a eSata drive dock hooked up to the main server. I just have not had the chance to code the interface yet.

While enterprise stuff is cool and all, and I would not use anything but that, in an enterprise environment, for personal use it's simply too expensive and too limiting. For example, if a part fails in an IBM or dell server, good luck getting a replacement without paying an arm and a leg. With my servers, if a power supply goes, or a fan stops working, it's all standard easy to find parts.

But yeah my priority is to get them off the ground. Most of the piping has been changed over to pex but still don't like the risk I'm taking. Actually I wish we had an Ikea here, bet I could find something for cheap. Though one of those big industrial metal shelving units would maybe work too. Eventually I want to build that section into an enclosed server room and engineer it for heat recycling. Probably push the heat into the return vent of the furnace or something.

 

[Lean L]

Lol. OP is using desktops as servers. I am using a server as my desktop since I got it for a great price. It has a shitload of features that I don't use. IBM even has this remote diagnose card so that if the server is down, you can see what's wrong with it.

 

[effowe]

All I have is an old Dell Dimension 3200 POS running Ubuntu Server. I have LAMP installed so I can do development, and have simple Samba shares set up to stream my music and videos to XBMC frontends.

 

[Colt45]

Originally posted by: RedSquirrel
True a "real" server is nice and all, but if I had that, I'd still be paying them off, let alone living in my own house. The most expensive of those is the big black one, it cost about 2-3 grand to build, though that's because I ended up with lot of DOA parts so it increased it's cost due to having to order stuff again.

There is already offsite backups of all my data, and since lot of it is virtualized it would be nothing to move the VM to another box and fire it up again, should there be a failure.

The one on the most left is the backup server, so instead of tapes, I have HDDs. Though it is outdated, as it's IDE. Eventually I will retire that server and use a eSata drive dock hooked up to the main server. I just have not had the chance to code the interface yet.

While enterprise stuff is cool and all, and I would not use anything but that, in an enterprise environment, for personal use it's simply too expensive and too limiting. For example, if a part fails in an IBM or dell server, good luck getting a replacement without paying an arm and a leg. With my servers, if a power supply goes, or a fan stops working, it's all standard easy to find parts.

But yeah my priority is to get them off the ground. Most of the piping has been changed over to pex but still don't like the risk I'm taking. Actually I wish we had an Ikea here, bet I could find something for cheap. Though one of those big industrial metal shelving units would maybe work too. Eventually I want to build that section into an enclosed server room and engineer it for heat recycling. Probably push the heat into the return vent of the furnace or something.

Outdated enterprise stuff is dirt cheap, and still reliable as hell (not to mention heavy.. christ).
I don't think I put more than $300 into the one I've got..
2x PIV xeon 2.8GHz, w/ HT (yeah, PIV :-/)
4GB ECC DDR
2x 18GB SCSI in raid 1 for OS
4x 72GB SCSI in RAID 5 for data
Redundant power supplies
Remote Supervisor Adaptor ( you can do pretty much everything remotely - reboot the unit, shut it off, turn it on, install an OS with an image on your computer, etc.)
Blinkenlichten everywhere for tracing a fault, So you don't have to randomly swap shit all day if there is a problem.
Parts for them on eBay are peanuts, because once stuff like this gets a bit behind the curve, big outfits get new stuff..

PSUs, HDDs, and fans are hotswap. So I can lose a PS and a HDD, swap in new ones without the machine going down.


Not that I *need* that for personal use anyway, but for the price why not!?
If you are doing something mission critical, nothing beats enterprise hardware. It's beautiful.

For a few bucks more, you should be able to get something quite a bit more modern.

 

[KLin]

http://haacked.com/images/DataCenter.jpg

It's alright. I can play crysis with high settings.

 

[kalster]

I have an Atom based windows home server box which I use to back 3 of my computers and also store all my media (movies, pictures, music)

 

[Rubycon]

It's behind this door.

 

[ViviTheMage]

You don't want to know

It'll be one long ass post!

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: iamanidiot
Lol. OP is using desktops as servers. I am using a server as my desktop since I got it for a great price. It has a shitload of features that I don't use. IBM even has this remote diagnose card so that if the server is down, you can see what's wrong with it.

Yeah... Off-Lease/Refurbished servers are pretty cheap when you get them from Dell's or IBM's financing department. I've seen high end one year old servers go on those sites for 1/3 their original prices, making them on par cost wise with commodity PC's.

I understand the spare parts pricing being a problem, though... although a lot of that can be found on eBay pretty easily.

Anyway, something to think about later. I'll bet that Staples would have some decent metal shelving that would work for the OP's more immediate needs.