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xyar
Premium Member
join:2001-06-21
Portland, OR

1 recommendation

xyar

Premium Member

Our server room

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The new Dell rack
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The old HP rack - used to be a D9000
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Accessories and punchdowns
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State-of-the-art cooling system
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More cooling. And a safe!
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Top-notch fire suppression.
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Superior physical security
This is our fancy computer room. It has 3 consumer-grade A/C units to keep it cool. The racks are backwards from how they should be, which is something I'm changing next month. When I started 2 years ago it was 1 rack, the HP rack, which was a D9000 2-way running HP-UX for our practice management system. We retired that in Feb 2008 with a new 2U IBM AIX server and I reused the rack for other things (obviously).

On top of the Dell rack is an external USB tape drive. Inside is -

- 48-port Dell gigabit switch
- Juniper SSG-140 VPN appliance / firewall / router
- 1U HP server running Win2003 Server (lab information system server)
- 2U IBM p5 AIX server (practice management system)
- 2U Dell server running Linux (Zimbra email / collaboration suite server)
- 5U Dell server running Windows 2000 Server (domain controller, file/print server, DHCP/DNS/WINS server)
- IBM keyboard/monitor (pull-out)
- 5U Dell server running Windows 2000 Server (domain controller, backup server, DHCP/DNS, MAS90 accounting server)
- 8-port KVM
- 5U Dell server running Windows 2000 Server and MS SQL 2000 Server (electronic medical records server)
- Rows of UPSs and external hard drives for backup storage

On top of the HP rack is a Dell PC running XP Pro; it is the Gateworks PC, it just runs a little program that acts as a bridge between the AIX server and the Internet since the AIX doesn't connect outside. Inside is -

- 1U Dell server running Linux (Utility server; MySQL / Syslog-ng as a loghost; OpenNMS for network management; And tons of custom scripts that do all sorts of stuff)
- Ancient HP Netserver LT II running Sourcemage Linux (1996) (Utility server; the Dell is the replacement for this one, I'm almost done moving all the cronjobs over)
- Desktop PC running Linux (Fax server, VM server; under the VM is a terminal server running Windows 2003 Server)
- Generic 2U server running Windows Server 2003 (the old terminal server that I've now virtualized)
- The rest is the UPS for that cabinet

On the wall next to the cabinets is the other stuff that won't go in a rack, and the punchdowns. These include -

- Honeywell Excel 15B building manager (a little web server that controls the HVAC system)
- Old 802.11b router that we don't use anymore (replaced by Airport Extremes throughout the building)
- 2 UPSs
- DSL modem to one of the hospital groups in town for a VPN; Qwest local loop
- Linksys firewall for DSL modem
- Mercury temperature guage ;-P

One of the APC UPSs has an environmental monitoring card in it that pages my cell phone when it gets too hot, if the power goes out, etc.

You should have seen this place when I started .......
imseanbrown
Premium Member
join:2005-12-20
New York, NY

imseanbrown

Premium Member

whoa... i haven't seen an old HP Netserver in [seriously] 10 years... lemme guess... dual pentium pro 200?

i totally remember them weighing AT LEAST 100lbs+ fully loaded.

gheesh.... i think we still have a couple old ass proliant 7000's in our basement somewhere.... those too were easily 100+lbs...

you should send that picture to HP with the capition "still going...... and going.... and going....."

xyar
Premium Member
join:2001-06-21
Portland, OR

xyar

Premium Member

Actually, that particular one is a dual 180 P Pro It hadn't been rebooted since its OS was installed 5 years ago, I know because about a year after I started, it stopped responding so I rebooted and it booted right into the Linux setup - the install CD was still in the drive from years before so obviously it had never rebooted unattended and the guy in my position before me said he's never rebooted it... lol I'm gonna miss that guy. We have 2 or 3 more of those Netservers in storage, when I started they ran the network - one of them was the sole domain controller file/print server! I've upgraded a bit since then...
mediacoretex
join:2004-11-14
Naperville, IL

mediacoretex to xyar

Member

to xyar
Just wondering how do you find managing the Airport Extremes in you environment? Any reason you picked them over a cisco or aruba other than price?

xyar
Premium Member
join:2001-06-21
Portland, OR

xyar

Premium Member

Strictly price, and my boss and I are recent Mac converts with our laptops so it kind of made sense. I have 5 deployed now, going to add more for better coverage. The old ones are ancient Orinoco 802.11b models that were a major pain to administer but had neat features (dual PC card capability, POE, etc)

Only problem with the Airports is occasionally they flip out (starts dropping connections) and I have to reset it, and the admin interface is kind of hokey. Also the latest firmware seemed to be unreliable so I went back one revision and that seemed to stabilize it. Laptops switch between Airports seamlessly so that's nice, plus the speed (n).

jeffmoss26
join:2002-07-22
Beachwood, OH

jeffmoss26 to xyar

Member

to xyar
Scary data cabling...servers look nice though

TomS_
Git-r-done
MVM
join:2002-07-19
London, UK

TomS_ to xyar

MVM

to xyar
Hm, that fire extinguisher thing looks pretty cool.

What brand/model is it?

Im assuming its self contained with some liquid/compressed gas which is released once the glass plug in the outlet is broken/melts?

Either way Im quite interested in looking into these things...
ccoelnslash
join:2009-07-07
Beaverton, OR

ccoelnslash to imseanbrown

Member

to imseanbrown
I used to use HP netservers in my Linux Lab, those were rock solid machines..

I had a proliant 6000 me and a guy setup in class, and i had to DL the boot manager.. had wheels and was such a awsome server. I miss it dearly.

Im also interested whats in the tank..

and hello fellow PDX'er...

if you ever want to get rid of a netserver i would be glad to have one
Hahausuck
Premium Member
join:2003-12-14

Hahausuck to TomS_

Premium Member

to TomS_
said by TomS_:

Hm, that fire extinguisher thing looks pretty cool.

What brand/model is it?

Im assuming its self contained with some liquid/compressed gas which is released once the glass plug in the outlet is broken/melts?

Either way Im quite interested in looking into these things...
I think it is usually some kind of powder dust stuff that is expelled once the melting point on the release has been met.

One of our ghetto-fab sites has one of those styles of units hanging from the ceiling in a location that is absolutely pointless.

xyar
Premium Member
join:2001-06-21
Portland, OR

xyar to ccoelnslash

Premium Member

to ccoelnslash
This one will be retired soon, and we might still have two more across the street in storage, I will check and let you know.
xyar

xyar to TomS_

Premium Member

to TomS_
It's a Cease Fire halon model, we're using it in a passive capacity. My understanding is that it just opens up when the little sensor melts. It's not tied into the building's fire alarm panel.
xyar

xyar to Hahausuck

Premium Member

to Hahausuck
Click for full size
Fire extinguisher
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Old entrance, sealed by cinder blocks
It is.

Also check out these pics - it's from an unused room that I am hoping to turn into the new computer room soon. This fire extinguisher is real old-school from the 1930's - it has a solder sprint-loaded clamp that, when it gets too hot, the clamp breaks the glass, and this poison stuff goes everywhere (along with glass shards) and puts out a fire that's directly underneath it. Sounds dangerous if you ask me... I'm not touching that thing to get it down.....

That door used to be the rear entrance, before they built the new wing in 1957. This is in the basement.
tantivy4
join:2007-03-17
Palo Alto, CA

tantivy4

Member

Carbon Tetrachloride?

That stuff is toxic by itself, but if exposed to high temperatures it breaks down into Phosgene, which is a poison gas used during WW-I. I would get the HazMat boys to remove and dispose of it.

xyar
Premium Member
join:2001-06-21
Portland, OR

xyar

Premium Member

I ain't touching that thing, that's for darned sure!

Splitpair
Premium Member
join:2000-07-29
Cow Towne

Splitpair to xyar

Premium Member

to xyar
said by xyar:

My understanding is that it just opens up when the little sensor melts. It's not tied into the building's fire alarm panel.
Yea that a standard sprinkler head, what happens is when a set temp is reached the glass vial breaks dropping the retaining disk and then the extinguishing agent releases and hits the fan on the bottom of the head and spreads out.

For what it is worth the red color of the vial indicates it is designed to open at 155 degrees.

Wayne

xyar
Premium Member
join:2001-06-21
Portland, OR

xyar

Premium Member

Very cool Wayne, thanks!