[lug] server spec

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Mon, Jun 11, 2007 at 12:26:09PM -0600, Nate Duehr wrote:
>The heat problems of 1RU are many, and I've seen other (better)  
>machines like Dell, HP, and IBM machines all die untimely deaths  

I'd guess it's a problem with your environment.  With modern systems, you
have to be extremely careful about the aerodynamics of the server room.
You can't just stick one thermostat in there and if it reads 70 degrees
assume everything is fine.  You also have to be very careful about knowing
where exhaust is going and where intake is coming from.

Putting an amp or two through 1.75 inches of rack space means you have to
move a lot of air.  Is the intake air 70 degrees, or is it getting recycled
from the exhaust of other machines?  We have cabinets and cabinets of
1U machines in our managed hosting facility, largely Supermicro, some
4 to 5 years old.

I would *NOT* agree that 1U machines "all die untimely deaths".  We have
few if any problems with them.  We don't do anything unusual to the systems
with respect to cooling, we just engineer it so that they are getting good
intake and pretty much can forget about them...

>machines use some kind of (really loud) squirrel cage fan setup --  
>the SuperMicro's I've used had multiple little 1" fans, and they die  
>off pretty quickly.  A couple of years, tops.   I guess the idea is  

Supermicro varies the type of fan from chassis to chassis, depending on the
needs.  We have a number of them with squirrel cage fans, many others that
have the small traditional fans, usually the stacked fans with one running
X RPM connected to another doing 2X RPM, to move a lot of air.  I haven't
had any problems with the fans of either type on our Supermicros.

Fans can vary in quality quite a lot.  I've always tried to get high
quality fans, but even then I find some that last less than a year before
they seize up, others I've had running for 5+ years and were still going
strong.

Sean
-- 
 Hell hath no fury, like a file-system scorned.  -- Sean Reifschneider, 1998
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995: Ask me about High Availability
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