2022-02-03 Server Status Update

[Xantheose]

Thank you Haxus

[Haxus]

Upgrading the PE1950s went quite smoothly. 

The only hitch was six of the units were configured with 8 1GB memory sticks and six were configured with 4 2GB memory sticks. They were all bought at the same time, on the same order, from Dell. I do not know why they configured half of them differently. The end result was six boxes with 12GB each, instead of the 16GB I was hoping for. 

I am changing my mind and plan to set them up as 3 with 8GB and 3 with 16GB. Only 3 were destined to be scene servers and they would benefit from the additional RAM. The other 3 do not benefit from more RAM. 

Each of the new boxes has 256GB RAM. That is 4GB per thread core. I usually plan for 2GB per thread, which has worked out well; memory was getting tight on the 4 core/8GB boxes. I added more to the new boxes because it wasn’t too expensive.

[Zensras]

The new home for the servers is ready. Electricians have installed the power circuits the server needs. ISP has installed fiber to the room. Rack and servers are physically there and assembled. Oof. That stuff is heavy and the office is in the basement of a building with no elevator and I'm a creaky old man, waah. I am concerned about the adequacy of the HVAC configuration but there appears to be options for improvement.

It can't be as bad as where we store our servers at my workplace.

Granted I have no idea how bad yours ramp up when under load.

[jakbruce2012]

Shaking with anticipa....

[Haxus]

At the end of the day there were 2U slots left in the cabinet. I have a 1U face plate for the router to go there. Instead of doing that, I ordered one more of those 2U boxes.

The end result will be 536 CPU threads to animate the game universe. Previously there were 292.

[OnePercent]

I'm excited about the upgrades to the servers Haxus! Glad you have found a sustainable home for them!

Look forward to playing Hazeron once again.

[Rockinsince87]

The end result will be 536 CPU threads to animate the game universe. Previously there were 292.

Now we're talking.

To calculate BTU requirements, use actual current draw (in watts) from your power supplies multiplied by 3.41.

So the older servers sound like they consume anywhere from 270-330 watts so 6752 BTU for the old servers. 
4x 2U servers, most likely running E5 series V3 or V4 Xeon processors? They are usually very power efficient compared to the X5000 series Xeon processors. So without knowing the full specs let's say 250 watts each, so about 3410 BTU for those.

So a grand total of 10,162 BTU or round up a bit so 12500-15000 BTU potentially. Nothing a portable AC can't handle.

[QuakeIV]

Its kindof funny how quickly that turned from 'lets get the old boxes powered back on' to buying a bunch of new hardware.

[Rockinsince87]

Its kindof funny how quickly that turned from 'lets get the old boxes powered back on' to buying a bunch of new hardware.

It was needed honestly. Dell PE1950 servers hit the market in 2006! 16 years is way too old. The CPU instruction sets have drastically changed and the fact that the X5000 series processors still used a front side bus to instead of the modern quick path interconnect only further prove the  point. Memory bandwidth on the X5000 series processors ranges from laughable to meh compared to modern desktops and laptops. 

Also refurb servers are cheep these days. You want a dual socket Xeon E5-2690 V3 (24 Logical Cores each) with 128 GB of RAM, it's $1000 or less per server depending on brand and form factor. Not to mention the E5 series processors consume about 1/3 the power of the X5000 series so for power distribution capacity and cost, it's a good investment. 

To me, this is a no brainer slam dunk by Haxus.

[Haxus]

Total power consumption by the rack is now just over 10kW. That emits about 34k BTUs per hour.

With only five of the PE1950s turned on, the room quickly warmed up to 95F and their fans were screaming like hair dryers.

This forced me to install a CRAC unit (computer room air conditioner) at a cost of $7,500. It is mostly installed and it should be ready to run on Monday.

The 10kW rack with the 10kW CRAC will eat up about 14,400kW hours of electricity per month.

Electricity around here goes for about $.10 per kW hour, for a monthly electric bill that could exceed $1400 per month.