Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/04/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thank you, Richard. Nice pictures, delicious cheesecake, and nice sentiments. > http://richardmanphoto.com/PICS/20120409-L1010031.jpg The server that I'm touching is the current (4th generation) LUG server. I put it into service in February 2008 and already it's begging for replacement. It uses a quad-core Westmere Xeon 5160 chip with a Passmark rating of 1968, has 16GB of RAM, a truckload of disks on a 3ware RAID controller having 2 GB/s transfer rate, and occupies 4 units of rack space (a 4U chassis). The 5 1U servers above it are a few months old and sport Xeon E3-1270 8-core processors with a Passmark rating of 9107, also 16GB of RAM, but use an Intel SSD-320 solid-state disk as the system drive and have a single 2TB SCSI-3 disk with 6 GB/s transfer. They are about 10 times faster, use 1/3 the electricity, and occupy 1/4 of the rack space. Oh, and they are quieter. The current server is begging for replacement because I foolishly built it with hardware RAID (a 3ware card) and a gaggle of disks. I've had to replace the 3ware card and this second one is already misbehaving. I've learned that hardware RAID is a bad idea and that by using it you are creating a single point of catastrophic failure. The first LUG server was a Microvax II in a BA123 enclosure that sounded like a jet engine, used 600 watts, and struggled to support 50 LUG emails per day. Like Kyle Cassidy (remember him?) used to say here, "Keep pressing that shutter button. It will get unstuck". Not that digital camera shutter buttons ever get stuck...