Microsoft Mulling Portable Data Centers

1sockchuck writes "An architect of the Windows Live team has published a presentation advocating portable container-based data centers as the future of data center infrastructure. James Hamilton, who previously was GM of Microsoft Exchange Hosted Services, contends that a distributed network of unmanned modular units 'transforms data centers from static and costly behemoths into inexpensive and portable lightweights. ... Multiple smaller data centers, regionally located, could prove to be a competitive advantage.' Both Sun and Rackable have rolled out prototypes of container-based 'data center in a box' products, and Hamilton notes that large generators are also available in trailers."

Comments

What about maintenance and fixes?

[RobertM1968]

How do they plan on making that easy on an OS that needs regular attention? This isnt a Linux, OS/2, Sparc, AIX, BSD machine that you can dump in a closet (or container) for months at a time...

Re:What about maintenance and fixes?

[fm6]

If you have the right hardware, you don't need to be on-site. Serious servers come with something called lights out management. This utilizes a self-contained ROM-based system that's always running, even when the main system is shut down (or displaying a BSOD). As long as the system is getting power and there's an Ethernet cable connected to its management port, a remote user can do anything that an onsite user can do, provided it doesn't require opening the cover of the system. You can even re-install the operating system, used remote ISO and floppy images.

I'm the documentation lead for a server with a LOM that's very fancy indeed. There's a graphic terminal service that supports things like interacting with the BIOS, or logging into the server's GUI. There's a LOM command line you can access using a serial connection or over SSH. The LOM also supports IPMI, which is kind of a basic necessity when you have a lot of servers, even if they're all down the hall.

This server is certified for Windows 2003 (and I understand a lot of our customers buy it for that fell purpose), so it would be ideal for Microsoft's container. However, we have a our own competing container product.

And yes, the company I work for is Sun, and yes, we're selling Windows-based systems now. Shocking, isn't it?

Re:What about maintenance and fixes?

[tomhudson]

It will certainly make it easier to hijack someone's "web browsing experience" - just hook a semi up to the trailer and drive away with it.

Adds a whole new take to "never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of backup tapes."

Re:What about maintenance and fixes?

[tomhudson]

"You would have thought that M$ and all there money they are throughing at vist would be able to make a virus imune OS, but obviously not."

Its not to their economic advantage to do so. How many "unvalidated" copies would they miss if users didn't have to continually patch, update, and reinstall?

Remember - "Follow the money." Its always about either money or power - or in this case, both.

Re:What about maintenance and fixes?

[tinkertim]

What about Sarbanes-Oxley requirements for data security and integrity? Call me crazy, but being portable is somewhat at odds with the text of this law.

I got the same weird vision of a bunch of sea containers on wheels, too. So , the 'meet-me' room would be in the back of the Semi's cab where the driver sleeps? or will that be put in the passenger seat, instead?

# ping domain.com
PING domain.com (x.x.x.x) 56(84) bytes of data.
Reply From y.y.y.y : datacenter got a flat tire en route
Reply From z.z.z.z : driver alcohol content exceeded

Google?

[jkonrad]

Hasn't Google already been doing this for a couple years now?

Re:Google?

[HomelessInLaJolla]

I recall reading something about enormous Borg like Google cubes requiring cities to build nuclear fusion reactors to power them, competing with Fermilab and LLNL for Most Brownouts Caused by Powerup, and being airlifted into remote regions of the world to hide classified data.

Borg

[jeevesbond]

This takes Microsoft one step closer to becoming the Borg. Just wait until one of these mobile data-centre 'cubes' appears outside a rival software company, the voice of Ballmer comes booming out of a loudspeaker: 'We are Microsoft. Open your doors and surrender your intellectual property. We will take your technological innovation and call it our own. Your culture will adapt to service ours. Resistance is futile.'

In fact, didn't I see one parked-up outside Novell HQ recently?

Re:Borg

[MillionthMonkey]

Mobile data centers are nothing new for Microsoft. I know a guy who drove a Luxury Car (forget what kind) and this car was sooooo wonderful it needed an operating system: Windows CE.

It didn't broadcast Bill Gates speeches on the road, but it had the same problem as all Microsoft software- features you didn't ask for, that don't work, that can't easily be removed or disabled. He would park this thing in his garage, and once a month some process would turn on at 3 AM to condition the battery or something silly. It would crash midway through and he kept waking up in the morning to a BSOD and a dead battery powering the dim blue glow of the pixels with its last gasp.

He kept having to take his car to the shop for patches. We loved hearing about this stuff at work, because the car always crashed for something different, but he was getting sick of it, like everyone else at the dealership. Finally one day it screwed something up again- left his windshield washer pump going all night or something- and he took it in for the last patch. The ride home was Linux powered and the fun stories came to an end.

whoa, slow down there!

[hxnwix]

Portable data centers? They can't even get portable music players right!

i seen a photo of Sun's

[FudRucker]

Sun had a shipping container that was painted black, i work for a construction company that has dozens of those shipping containers and they get hot as hell inside during the summer, who ever implements these things in a shipping container (especially black ones) better get a badass air-conditioner to keep those things cool...

Re:i seen a photo of Sun's

[MichaelSmith]

Sun had a shipping container that was painted black, i work for a construction company that has dozens of those shipping containers and they get hot as hell inside during the summer, who ever implements these things in a shipping container (especially black ones) better get a badass air-conditioner to keep those things cool...

The first job I had was building a portable data centre for the Australian air force. When operating in a remote area they needed a way to analyse all the engineering data from their aircraft.

Now for me, that made sense. The shipping container is a bad environment to work in but the military know how to cope with problems like that, and they have a genuine need for mobility.

These days for civilian applications it should almost always be easier to get a fast line to your site and use a fixed data centre somewhere, or a combination of systems.

you mean like this, from Sun, from 2006

[joesilicon]

http://www.sun.com/emrkt/blackbox/story.jsp

A Novel Datacenter Concept

Project Blackbox packages compute, storage, and network infrastructure capabilities into scalable, modular units outfitted with state-of-the-art cooling, monitoring, and power distribution systems. Customers will be able to order a variety of standard and custom configurations of systems, storage, networking, and software. Housed in a standard 20-foot shipping container for maximum flexibility, Project Blackbox will be easily transported using common shipping methods. Simple hookups for water, AC power, and networking will enable customers to quickly deploy Project Blackbox upon delivery.

*snore*

[Tom]

Sun has one one the market, and it's been around for a couple months: "Project Blackbox".

As usual, the "visionaries" at MS simply feed us what others have invented as their great ideas.

The Sun (Microsystems) is rising...

[CoreTech]

With Project Blackbox, it's obvious that Sun is paying attention to their customers. Need to expand the datacenter, but don't have the space? Use their portable container setup. It's sheer genius, esp. for emergency contigencies/disaster situations. If I were a CIO/CTO, I would be taking a SERIOUS look at Sun's product as part of my data/computing landscape.

(And no jokes about hijacking the container with a forklift or breaking into it... That's why you hire 24/7 security if the data is important to you.)

Microsoft seems hellbent on adding their marketing spin to the product arena. This is one instance where they need to SIMPLIFY their verbage. I'm sorry, M$ - I'm far more comfortable putting my IT folks on a laptop, managing a remote UNIX (Solaris) or Linux solution than a Windows-based setup. Not unless I want to keep sending my user to the container's locale every few days for one issue or another.

Microsoft needs to rethink their strategy here. I think Sun ($un?) got it right.

Imagine a...

[greg_barton]

....nnnnggggg....nngGGGGGg....GAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

Re:Imagine a...

[Penguinisto]

...Grendel Cluster? Thor Cluster? Loki Cluster? What? C'mon man, throw us a line here!

(stop staring at me like that).

/P

White elephant

[SuperBanana]

Both Sun and Rackable have rolled out prototypes of container-based 'data center in a box' products, and Hamilton notes that large generators are also available in trailers."

This strikes me an awful lot like a white elephant- it's not terribly hard to stuff a bunch of computers and an air conditioner/heating system into a shipping container with (physical) shock isolation. For Sun, it sounds like they didn't do much more than install water blocks in their servers ("cyclonic cooling", my ass.)

More laughs:

It's not completely plug-n-play, however. The "data center in a box" requires chilled water to support the cooling system, in addition to Internet connectivity and appropriate power infrastructure. Markoff's story notes that the prototype "sits in a container case adjacent to a Sun office building here (Menlo, Park, Calif.), connected to two large fire hoses for water cooling and 500 kilowatts of redundant power."

500kW (which at 220V is over 2,000 amps- which is a HUGE hookup) of power is probably just for the computers. Figure at least some sizable chunk of that for cooling...

Power, cooling, security...this seems rife with problems...

Re:It's one thing...

[afidel]

Uh, I administered a Windows server in Puerto Rico that had a bad T1 line, we were measuring up to 40% packet loss at times and while RDP dropped it auto-resumed once the packetloss went back down. I can't imagine trying to use SSH or X to do the same. RDP also works acceptably over 28.8 dialup, I haven't seen any flavor of X do that. You can bash MS for many things but RDP is not one of them, of course it's a good technology that they stole from Citrix but.....

MS clueless about large-scale installations

[Scareduck]

From TFA:

But incorporating liquid cooling into high-density racks can address cooling challenges, and Hamilton argues that removing support personnel from the data centers will improve reliability, noting that "human administrative error causes 20% to 50% of system outages."

What, humans with remote access won't screw up? Maybe they don't trust MCSE's with screwdrivers... This initiative doesn't address the real problems in large-scale installations, energy density and power conditioning.

Re:MS clueless about large-scale installations

[Penguinisto]

"Maybe they don't trust MCSE's with screwdrivers..."

Be honest now... would you?

/P

Unmanned?

[cxreg]

Who's going to reboot the machines every other day?

Dupe

[KillerCow]

Google's Secret Plans For All That Dark Fiber? Nov 20, '05
Sun To Unveil Project Blackbox Oct 17, '06

Yes, they are about Google and Sun, but does "OMG Micro$oft is doing it too!!!!1111" count as news?

Re:It's one thing...

[guruevi]

I don't know where you get that, but RDP DOES NOT work acceptably over 56k. I've done it in the past (cell phone in laptop made a dial-up connection) and it is laggy and crappy. Right now I work from home, remote into my machine at work using WiFi and I have to use a VPN solution, I can't imagine doing that over anything slower than 128k.

X is neither a good solution for that, there is something out there that is comparable to X and lightweight, but I forgot the exact name. SSH works great over 28k... if you don't have too much of stuff scrolling through the windows (cat /var/log/messages for example). SSH can stand quite some seconds of packetloss unless the whole connection breaks down, but if you got that much packetloss, then RDP is not going to help either. That is why we have utilities like screen. Still, either on Windows or Unix, SSH or something comparable (Terminal) works always better on low-bandwidth than anything VNC-like.

Re:Follow the money.

[LoRdTAW]

I hate to break it to ya but stealing one of those things will be very difficult. Once the container is in place you really think its just going to sit there? It will be placed on a concrete surface with anchors for each corner and for real security the anchors welded and covered with cement to prevent them from being cut. To remove it will require a jack hammer and torch, not so covert. Even if its left on a trailer the tires or the axles can be removed and left on a stand. They aren't going to leave a container full of millions of dollars of equipment in a parking lot with an extension cord running to it.

The 20' container alone has a tare weight of about 4500 pounds. A 1U server can weigh as much as 40 pounds. lets say we have 8 48U racks inside the container thats 48*8*40 which gives us 15,360 pounds. Add to that the weight of a cooling system, power equipment including a UPS, rack enclosures and cable management and you have quite a bit of weight. I am going to conclude that your looking at least 30,000-40,000 pounds for a loaded 20 footer. A forklift to move 30-40,000 pounds is very large and weighs so much that you need a tag trailer or slide axle semi trailer to move the damn thing. Its going to be allot easier to just open the container and rob the equipment. Or possibly use a roll back equipment truck and drag the thing on with a winch assuming it isn't anchored to the ground.

Rackables is crap

[twigles]

My company almost bought a TON of Rackables. We're growing really fast and are building out multiple big DCs (>1k square feet) in the next year. These guys came in saying they could not only deliver a rack of servers on wheels, negating our data center operations team's need to rack everything, but also that they could double the number of servers we could fit in a rack.

The number of servers per rack is constrained by electricity. For a while we couldn't figure out how they fit 48 servers into the same amount of electricity that our current server vendor used to power 24 + 1 switch. That is until we pulled a server apart and saw that they are using LAPTOP CPUS. The servers don't perform nearly on par with normal ones. They were, and are, selling snake oil.