02-03-2022, 10:06 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-10-2022, 06:37 PM by Deantwo.
Edit Reason: Added link to Phoenix's list.
)
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.
There have been a few minor setbacks while rebuilding the server rack. The past year in storage in the barn was hard on them.
Two of the six SSDs in the RAID array did not survive. They were a striped set so that destroyed all of the data stored there. I ordered a single huge high speed SSD to replace all of them. This is a minor inconvenience because installing a fresh OS and configuring the SQL server are not difficult.
Two of the three boxes powered up so far have failed due to "missing" memory. Popping and reseating the memory sticks fixed both of them.
A network port on one of the boxes looks dead. I plan to cannibalize that computer for its CPU and memory, to upgrade others. I've been curious for a long time if I can add a CPU to those PE1950s. They have a socket for a second CPU but I suspect the power supply may be inadequate to run both. Power supply and fans might be useful spares.
It's not worth fixing the dead one; I just saw a refurbished PE1950 on eBay with two quad core CPUs and 16GB RAM for $80. I think I spent around $3500 each for the twelve that I have, and they only have one quad core CPU and 8GB RAM. You just can't look back.
If the second CPU works ok, I will likely consolidate several of the PE1950s to have 2 quad core CPUs and 16GB RAM. Those would make much better worker servers with the additional cores. That would also free up some rack space for new servers to join the party.
There was a small misunderstanding with our ISP about the router. The one they provided was not capable of routing 18 static IP addresses to my rack computers. So I am waiting patiently for a new router to arrive. Then I will proceed with loading and updating OSs on the rack servers. The router should be here in about a week or so.
It is taking more time than expected to get the hardware back up and on line. My initial estimate was to have the servers back up by the end of February. That is still possible unless there are worse surprises ahead.
I have filled time by working on the bug list posted by Phoenix. I'm not sure about the fix to the designer selection bug. Only bugs 9 and 10 remain. I haven't gotten to them yet. They are next in turn.
I have not done anything with Phoenix' list of suggested changes. Design of orbital elevators and vehicles were already on my to-do list.
EDIT by Deantwo: Link to Phoenix's list, since people keep asking where the list is.
There have been a few minor setbacks while rebuilding the server rack. The past year in storage in the barn was hard on them.
Two of the six SSDs in the RAID array did not survive. They were a striped set so that destroyed all of the data stored there. I ordered a single huge high speed SSD to replace all of them. This is a minor inconvenience because installing a fresh OS and configuring the SQL server are not difficult.
Two of the three boxes powered up so far have failed due to "missing" memory. Popping and reseating the memory sticks fixed both of them.
A network port on one of the boxes looks dead. I plan to cannibalize that computer for its CPU and memory, to upgrade others. I've been curious for a long time if I can add a CPU to those PE1950s. They have a socket for a second CPU but I suspect the power supply may be inadequate to run both. Power supply and fans might be useful spares.
It's not worth fixing the dead one; I just saw a refurbished PE1950 on eBay with two quad core CPUs and 16GB RAM for $80. I think I spent around $3500 each for the twelve that I have, and they only have one quad core CPU and 8GB RAM. You just can't look back.
If the second CPU works ok, I will likely consolidate several of the PE1950s to have 2 quad core CPUs and 16GB RAM. Those would make much better worker servers with the additional cores. That would also free up some rack space for new servers to join the party.
There was a small misunderstanding with our ISP about the router. The one they provided was not capable of routing 18 static IP addresses to my rack computers. So I am waiting patiently for a new router to arrive. Then I will proceed with loading and updating OSs on the rack servers. The router should be here in about a week or so.
It is taking more time than expected to get the hardware back up and on line. My initial estimate was to have the servers back up by the end of February. That is still possible unless there are worse surprises ahead.
I have filled time by working on the bug list posted by Phoenix. I'm not sure about the fix to the designer selection bug. Only bugs 9 and 10 remain. I haven't gotten to them yet. They are next in turn.
I have not done anything with Phoenix' list of suggested changes. Design of orbital elevators and vehicles were already on my to-do list.
EDIT by Deantwo: Link to Phoenix's list, since people keep asking where the list is.