02-23-2022, 10:56 PM
Quote:Have the servers been behaving well so far?
Servers are coming together nicely.
I received the new NIC. It installed easily and works fine.
One of the other new R820s reported a failing DIMM. I am currently waiting for a replacement. Then that worker server will join the crowd. It is currently off.
The R815s were reporting only 96GB of memory. They all have 128GB. This led me to a BIOS setting that caused them to reserve 25% of their memory as spare, to hot replace any memory that might fail. wtf
This drove me crazy for a while until I discovered the BIOS setting. I don't recall ever messing with that setting though I do recall one of those servers persistently only reporting 96GB of memory, once, years ago. I don't recall the solution back then.
I reconfigured each of the R815s to not reserve memory for spare. They all report 128GB of memory now. Yippee. It's the little things in life that keep it spicy.
The CRAC unit is working great, keeping my little computer room a nice comfortable 72F. This is much better than sweating while standing in front of the keyboard and monitor in a tiny 95F room. It may have been the first time in all my career that I perspired in a computer room. Usually you're wearing a sweater or hoodie, maybe gloves if you have to sit and work for a long time.
When the room was very hot, the servers were screaming like hair dryers. The sound was quite audible outside the room. I got nervous looks and a few queries from the people in the neighboring offices.
We installed sound proofing material on two of the walls, to placate the neighbors. We used 1lb Mass Loaded Vinyl, which is designed to stop sound. It is very heavy. At 1lb per square foot, a 25'x4' roll weighs 100lb. It is easy to work with. It is intended to be applied beneath the drywall but it works hanging on the wall too, just looks ugly, like tar paper.
Total site prep cost was about $13,000.