Going Rack ! some noob questions

[Pixelab]

I'm thinking about buying a rack server to have a first node-only server. I'll wait the prices cut on Xeons scheduled end of july to make my order, so you have some time to answer

I've read all the stuff on the forum about racks, but I've still some n00b questions :

- Does the racks are more silent or more noisy than a equivalent server/workstation (in average)

- Do you have a specific brand (Dell ?) of racks that are quite good in term of quality and/or price ? (for info, my buisness is in Europe)

- Is it easy to install software & OS ? By what mean ? (shared DVD drive, via VNC?) I'm using VNC so no problem about that

- Is Xp Pro enough as an OS or do I have to buy a MSFT server edition or something ?

- Who did say on this forum "once you've racked, you can't go back" ?

Thanks for your answers ^^

[joconnell]

Racks are normally way more noisy - they have much smaller cases so the heat has less space to circulate. As a result you need to have a faster or more powerful fan to cool the machine adequately.

Dells have been really flakey for me lately - I'd go back to boxx or do a self build based on the spec of the boxx render nodes.

Get one monitor, keyboard and mouse for the racks and use a cheap kvm switch as a way of changing between all of them - install one machine fully then use something like ghost to make an image of the installed machine - you can then use the ghost boot disk to install a copy of this image to the other machines so it keeps everything consistent and takes a fraction of the time to install. Also if one machine goes a bit weird, you can just wipe it and get a full install back very quickly.

Xp pro is fine for a render node - the only place you need a server os or linux is on a machine that has everything else connected to it like your file server where all of your work and textures are stored or your render nodes save their images to - if a machine renders a frame and can't save it due to the number of simultaneous connections being used up at the time, it'll dump the frame as an error and do it again so you'll lose time.

Someone who doesn't have the racks in their room said that

[DaForce]

If you plan on using more than 2-3GB ram best to go with XP 64bit.

But yeah racks are way noisy. You should hear our server room

[dlparisi]

Re: Going Rack ! some noob questions

I'm jumping into this whole rackmount thing for the first time as well so I've done a fair amount of research (naive research, but still research ) Here's my 2 cents...

- Does the racks are more silent or more noisy than a equivalent server/workstation (in average)

As they said, more noisy as airflow is top prioty due to the small enclosure. One option, kind of pricey though, is to go with a server cabinet that promises to cut down some of the noise. I've been looking into the xrackpro (www.xrackpro.com) but there are a few others out there as well. I don't expect it to make them silent, just a little less noisy.

Do you have a specific brand (Dell ?) of racks that are quite good in term of quality and/or price ? (for info, my buisness is in Europe)

For value I haven't seen anything that comes close to supermicro servers. They seem to get fairly good reviews for build quality and prices are generally lower than the usual big name players (dell, HP, Boxx, etc...) In the states the best place I found to get them through a reseller was from www.siliconmechanics.com. Great prices and pretty helpful on the phone for selecting equipment. You should be able to find a reseller in Europe as well. I'm trying the half depth quad xeon and should be getting it in about a week.

- Is it easy to install software & OS ? By what mean ? (shared DVD drive, via VNC?) I'm using VNC so no problem about that

Not sure you'll be able to use a shared DVD drive to install the OS unless you have some hardware level system monitoring in place. On the supermicros it's the IPMI w/ KVM over LAN option that will allow you to remotely boot into the BIOS and share drives at the system level, not the OS meaning you can use a drive not installed on the machine to install the OS. You could always use an external DVD to install the OS and use a regular KVM too.

[BiTcH]

But yeah racks are way noisy. You should hear our server room

they are kind of flight an office.....

[alexthg]

I'm planning on going rack as well. How much do you think is the budget for racks & accessories? I mean for the cabinet etc, not the server itself. Let's say for a 42U close-rack cabinet. Do you need special cooling system? rack size LCD monitor? etc
I'm not familiar with rack server things, names, and parts... so I don't know which 'must-have' rack accessories I have to put on my budget.

[Pixelab]

dlparisi & joconnell: Many thanks for all these explanations !

I found a supermicro reseller in belgium, so I'm gonna contact them to ask a precise offer. Their IPMI w/ KVM over ip seems to be a good administration solution.

I'll also checking here at the office where I can put the new roaring beast, and if a cabinet is needed. I'm not planning to buy more than one rack a year, so a "more or less" quiet 4U cabinet to begin could be nice if it cuts down the noise... but for that I'll still have to find a good reseller.

Daforce : Unfortunately, I'm still on Max7, so I don't need xp64 nor Vista... 3/4 Ghz is still a limit for me. But I can upgrade easily in the future.

- I know that it's not a very good idea, but is it possible to add a wirelss card in a rack server to store it in another room without cables needed ? Isn't Wirelss N fast enough?

- Other side question, what is happening with the XP license when ghosting ?

Thanks again

[DaForce]

wireless doesnt really cut it. Ideally you want a gigabit network.
Wireless is fine but by the time you turn on security you lose ALOT of your bandwidth. Stick with cabled network, ideally gigabit.

[BiTcH]

and u can cut your local network in two parts..one is open acces via local network (wokstations) and the other part (racks) are not. a kind of security for the farm...and think about a NAS......

[Da_elf]

http://www.verari.com/
these guys do awsome racks. its what lucas is using alot of.
you can get as small as a 44 case and you dont need to fill it right away. you can buy blades as you expand

[ene.xis]

those look awesome Da_elf!
thanks for for the linky