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Welcome to the New Slashdot Chicago Cluster

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the its-been-a-long-time-coming dept.

Thanks to everyone who tested on Friday, as well as to all of SourceForge's netops crew, our corporate overlords at SourceForge for paying the bill, and of course all the engineers on Slashteam- Jamie McCarthy, Tim Vroom, Chris Nandor, Chris Brown, and Scott Collins, we are now running on the new iron in a cage in Chicago. We'll run a story in a few days about the ridiculously overpowered new hardware we have now, but now is the part of sprockets where we dance.

149 comments

  1. Touch my monkey! by schon · · Score: 4, Funny

    now is the part of sprockets where we dance. Touch my monkey!
    1. Re:Touch my monkey! by Divebus · · Score: 1
      Very quick on the SNL reference! Kudos. I had forgotten about that.

      We'll run a story in a few days about the ridiculously overpowered new hardware we have now... ...so that only Slashdot can't be Slashdotted, I'm sure.
      --

      Most of the stuff on /. won't survive first contact with facts.
    2. Re:Touch my monkey! by explosivejared · · Score: 1

      Your monkey has become tiresome. Ehhh.

      --
      I got a catholic block.
    3. Re:Touch my monkey! by Phybertekie · · Score: 0, Troll

      That sure sounds like alotta gerbils they have running on that wheel in the server. I hope they have anti Gere software running.

  2. Down time? by russlar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I tried to log on around 2300 EDT Saturday, and the connection timed out. Was the downtime planned, or did Neal eat the wires again?

    --
    Anybody want my mod points?
    1. Re:Down time? by dreamchaser · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, to both questions. Neal always has a snack around that time.

  3. Finally! by stox · · Score: 1

    Slashdot moves to the true center of the Tech Universe!

    We expect to see the entire Slashdot team at Bluesfest and Taste this year.

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
    1. Re:Finally! by JWSmythe · · Score: 5, Insightful


          Chicago is the center of the universe? :)

          Actually, my work is considering where to move it's servers. It involves a HUGE amount of fact finding. Chicago is one of the places they want stuff, but that's for customer reasons, not for "center of the universe" reasons. Our locations are chosen based on current customer usage, and statistical information I gathered at previous jobs. When you have 8 million users/day from around the world, those demographics stick in your head real well. :)

          In my research, I found the best places to be are.

          New York City. 111 8th ave, 60 Hudson, or 25 Broadway. The selection would be based on provider interconnects and availability. Some providers service all three locations with their own private interconnects, so it really doesn't matter.

          Los Angeles. One Wilshire, or one of a few select locations nearby, again with private interconnects to One Wilshire.

          Miami. Near or at 1 NE First St.

          Chicago. Near or at 427 S La Salle St

          The runners up are:

          Chicago
          San Jose
          Amsterdam
          Frankfurt
          London
          Paris
          Tokyo/Osaka

          In time, I'd like to have equipment in all of those locations. Or we can go the Akamai route, and put stuff anywhere there's a rack. :) I swear, they're everywhere I've had an opportunity to wander the colo space.

          For just about any provider of English based contact, the rankings of customer location by major geographic area are:

          North East United States
          South East United States
          Europe
          Western United States

          Obviously that would be skewed for the content. For example, a Japanese speaking site, with local interest content would be best placed near JPNAP in Tokyo or Osaka. Likewise, a Russian site with say daily weather reports of Siberia would probably want to be in Chelyabinsk, Russia, and you probably want to use Rostelecom.

          I noticed that Slashdot is now using Savvis. They were offering an amazingly cheap deal on bandwidth recently. I wasn't actively pursuing the bandwidth side, I was looking for the physical location side where my providers of choice would be. I'd be willing to bet they're in the Telegraph building. I'm curious now to who's suite they're in. :)

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    2. Re:Finally! by rkohutek · · Score: 1

      Indeed, all of my traceroutes from all over end terminating via Savvis, and that makes me cry.

    3. Re:Finally! by Koutarou · · Score: 0

      DIX-IE and JPIX (and NSPIXP3 if Osaka is your thing) are the must-be-present-at IXes in Japan. I'd very nearly but not quite prioritize even MEX over JPNAP.

    4. Re:Finally! by jbengt · · Score: 1
      "Chicago. Near or at 427 S La Salle St"

      Out of curiousity, what is there that makes that location appealing?
      Looking on Google maps, I do see a lot of what looks like dry-coolers on the roof. (resolution isn't good enough to tell for sure, they may be condensing units)
      By coincidence, last summer my company bid on a job for a major financial company across the street from there, though we withdrew at the last moment due to concerns about the scope.

    5. Re:Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can recommend Iceland - Cheap energy, easy cooling, nice people and wonderful countryside.

      Yes, seriously, look at it!

    6. Re:Finally! by Lennie · · Score: 1

      But what about connectivity ?

      I think I've seen cogent in some traceroutes and I know there are connections from vodafone to the UK or Ireland.

      I also see there is a lot mentioned about satellites.

      Also I see 1 internet exchange (Reykjavik/RIX) ?

      And what about the language barrier ?

      --
      New things are always on the horizon
    7. Re:Finally! by SIGBUS · · Score: 1

      427 S. LaSalle St. is the old Telegraph Building, once a major Western Union facility. Nowadays, it's a big co-lo center, with various data providers and CLECs.

      --
      Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
    8. Re:Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From the traceroute, it looks to be a suburb west of Ohare Airport, not downtown Chicago.

    9. Re:Finally! by JWSmythe · · Score: 1


          Sigbus got it. It's a major telecom building. All the big players that I've looked at are in there. As far as I can tell, that's the MAE-Central IX. It if's not that building, it's one damned close. :)

          Across the street is usually good in internet terms. They'd just have big fiber run under the street, and be very happily connected. More than likely, that building would be lit up too.

          My building of choice for LA isn't actually One Wilshire, but a building 6 blocks away. They have their own dedicated fiber run down the street.

          A well constructed network doesn't use just one location though. I've found out the hard way that cities fall off the grid occasionally, so you *HAVE* to have a presence in multiple good locations if you want to always be up. Of course, with that comes redundancy. If you aren't set up for redundancy, you're just screwed.

          If I remember correctly, Slashdot uses MySQL. MySQL has a global load balanced version that's commercial now, but gives the database capabilities that they'd require. Then it would be a matter of setting up shop in several cities. At that point, they just put one rack, rather than a cage, in multiple locations, and cluster the whole mess. If Chicago (or LA, or NY, or whatever) fails, it's not a big deal.

          I used to shove around hundreds of Mb/s, depending on line quality in a city. We'd get an apology call from the provider when a city was having a problem, and I wouldn't really care. They would though. One city may mean that I'm dumping off 2Gb/s to the other cities. I just hope they have a spare OC48 up to take us. :) I actually tested on a regular basis, so I knew the capabilities of each city, so after the automatic stuff made the immediate correction, I could tune it appropriately. It was fun to do the testing. I'd gracefully turn down servers in other cities, to watch bandwidth come up in the test target city. When the bandwidth flatlined, I knew we reached capacity. I knew our equipment could do way more than the provider could handle, so that was never the concern.

          We actually ran out of another city that I didn't list, that had decent bandwidth, but sometimes that wasn't good enough. From what I understand, they have an extra 4Gb/s of capacity on that provider in that city now, because my old work moved, and another large customer moved. I assume they didn't turn down their fiber backbone links, so the capacity is probably still there. They were planning growth. Ours was about 50%+ per year, so they were putting in bigger fiber everywhere for us. Both our company and the other company bailed within a year of each other, so that kinda sucked for them, but I'm sure it made their customers happier.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    10. Re:Finally! by JWSmythe · · Score: 1


          Screw hosting, I want to move there. :) Their demographics are more pleasing than anywhere else I've looked at. Of course, I'd have to find work there. I'm thinking of becoming a lemming farmer. :)

          The next post mentioned connectivity. Many providers fiber runs through there, but those that don't, you'd then be routing through NY, Amsterdam, or London, which may not be ideal.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    11. Re:Finally! by JWSmythe · · Score: 1


          Is that where Elk Grove is? I'm not terribly familiar with Chicago. I found the street, which is a residential street to the north of LaSalle, which didn't make any sense. :)

          That may be where Savvis' service comes into the city, but ya, it may be where this datacenter is too. I found Savvis building at 2425 Busse Rd, Elk Grove Village, IL, that appears to have 12 generators and a lot of air conditioning. They're also at 175 W. Jackson Blvd, which would seem to be a more ideal location, just about a block from the Telegraph building.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    12. Re:Finally! by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 1

      Akamai is everywhere because that's the whole point of their business. They cache content for their customers, and their software finds the nearest server to an individual client, and uses that as a mirror. This is fast (not many router hops to get to your nearest akamai server) but needs a ton of servers all over the place. Akamai thus has a ton of servers, all over the place.

      --
      Not a sentence!
    13. Re:Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      from the traceroute it looks like they are in Savvis' CHI3 datacenter which is technically in Elk Grove Village just west of chicago and south of ohare. its easy to spot drive north up 83 and look for the building at Devon with all the AC units on the roof.

      I regularly go into this datacenter for my job. its top notch.

    14. Re:Finally! by corbettw · · Score: 1

      Los Angeles. One Wilshire, or one of a few select locations nearby, again with private interconnects to One Wilshire. Yeah, about that: keep in mind that One Wilshire sits right on top of the (very active) Wilshire fault. The building is supposed to be seismic-safe up to 7.0 on the Richter scale, but it's still something to consider when weighing your options.

      I used to work at a place in Beverly Hills that sat on the other end of the Wilshire fault. When I pointed out to my boss that his choice for the new data center sat on the same faultline as the office, he about crapped himself. Ah, memories, they'll keep me warm in my old age.
      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
    15. Re:Finally! by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

      I was out there for a few years. The building we used had direct fiber to One Wilshire, but their building was suppose to be save to a 9.0 earthquake. In their advertising they say the building will only shift 3/4" in a 9.0 earthquake. Hopefully they never have to prove it. :)

          I only felt a few while I was there. A shaking 3.5 while I was in Glendale, and a rolling 4.0 while I was in Northridge. Rolling earthquakes are weird if you're on the second floor. :) I rolled away from my desk, which was my clue to get out. You'd be amazed how fast you can get downstairs and outside when the thought "the building will fall on my head" comes to mind. I think the cat was more disturbed than me, since I grabbed her on the way out.

          I'm glad to be back in hurricane country. :) I grew up in it, so the risk of a little rain and a VERY small chance of anything worse happening is always good.

          I'm pushing my company for redundancy. The way I've run things in the past, if a site disappears, it's not a big deal. We should pick sites for best ideal conditions (like, there's a connection still there). In a worst case, like if LA has a big quake, we should just divert traffic from there until everything is repaired.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  4. Oh thats why I had to log back in... by 3seas · · Score: 1

    ... several times.... before it took.

    Congrats. And hopefully it won't be the kind of upgrade the last four ISPs I've delt with did..... an upgrade to less... quite the opposite of the claims.

    1. Re:Oh thats why I had to log back in... by kesuki · · Score: 1

      you think having to try several times is bad... try not being able to log in at all with your browser of choice and being told 'firefox works though' as if i should switch from opera to firefox because slash has a horrible login bug somehow? great just great.

      --
      https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  5. Obvious question... by JustinOpinion · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So... what is going to happen to the old hardware? Are you going to going to scrap them? Hand them over to sourceforge? Sell them to another company?

    Or auction them off to your readership for charity?

    1. Re:Obvious question... by Precision · · Score: 4, Informative

      Most of the old hardware is exactly that.. really old hardware.. some will be repurposed.. but most will be scrapped.

      --
      - U
    2. Re:Obvious question... by dorath · · Score: 1

      On behalf of my wife, please offer to hook up the ladies over at The Nest. Perhaps they'll date you just long enough for you to get the hardware set up.

      Wife: Does Slashdot ever slow down this bad?

      Me: No honey, Slashdot *causes* slowdowns that bad.

    3. Re:Obvious question... by nospam007 · · Score: 2, Funny

      In Chicago servers get stolen, perhaps you should keep them a bit longer.

    4. Re:Obvious question... by cheater512 · · Score: 1

      It can handle a constant slashdotting. It cant be that bad. :P

    5. Re:Obvious question... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 4, Funny

      What you need to do is switch the faceplates so it looks like the old hardware has the new faceplates, so you can stand to lose the "new" hardware without really losing anything of value.

    6. Re:Obvious question... by az1324 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I heard Twitter might be in the market.

    7. Re:Obvious question... by Provocateur · · Score: 3, Funny

      So when will you break the news to The Robotic Overlord that he is NOT really new, but made of scrap parts, and we only had a new faceplate riveted in, and implanted 1 Gig's worth of fake memories, huh? Huh?

      So that when he asks, Is this all true? You reply with a sardonic tone, Remember all those dupes?

      --
      WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    8. Re:Obvious question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Scrapped? If that means tossed away as useless, I hope not.

      Even if it is old, in an on-line auction people might pay some big money to "own a piece of /." for charity. Heck, if it still works some people would fire the hardware up again to host their own, lowly server.

    9. Re:Obvious question... by Joe+Jay+Bee · · Score: 1

      Only so he can find something else to install GNU/Linux on so he can praise it to high heavens.

      What were we talking about again? ;)

      --
      I write bullshit
    10. Re:Obvious question... by mysticgoat · · Score: 1

      "Scrapped" has such an ugly, ungreen conotation.

      I hope slashdot talks with computer recyclers about the cast-offs. Places like Free Geek in Portland OR use volunteers to break systems down into reusable components, test them, and reassemble what still has some life let in it into working FOSS-based systems. Junk that can't be re-used is recycled in appropriately. A couple of tons of obsolete or failed CPUs sitting in large bin is a sight to behold, and is worth a fair bit for the gold content.

      Most of these places don't lack for volunteer help, not when receiving a newly refurbished Linux computer is the incentive for 20 hours or so volunteering. A lot of churches, non-profits, and volunteer organizations in the Portland area are now using Linux machines to handle their mailing lists, archives of sermons, etc, complements of Free Geek grants. A lot of non-geeky people have been introduced to FOSS through volunteering at Free Geek. And a lot of tonnage has been diverted from the waste stream before it got to the landfills.

  6. OH NO! by Dr.D.IS.GREAT · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh no! Cowboy neal's porno cluster is up and running, its a damn shame to see 100tb of porn just laying around....

    1. Re:OH NO! by moderatorrater · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If only there were a large, dedicated community of introverts who could help him!

      The only down side is that we might scare away NewYorkCountryLawyer since he has morals and standards. There's a good chance we'd get a lot of RIAA lawyers to the site, though...

  7. No more \.ing? by rtyhurst · · Score: 1

    So, no more \.ing \.?

    1. Re:No more \.ing? by dotancohen · · Score: 3, Funny

      So, no more \.ing \.? No. Now we will hear about the update process on thedailywtf.
      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
    2. Re:No more \.ing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, backslashdot is still in development.

  8. SourceForge by friedo · · Score: 4, Funny

    So now that SourceForge has upgraded Slashdot's fancy-pants hardware, when are they actually going to make sourceforge.net not suck so much?

    Just kidding. I love you guys.

    But seriously, sourceforge.net sucks balls.

    1. Re:SourceForge by harry666t · · Score: 1

      If they could just put the link to project's web page in project's summary... Each time I find an interesting project I have to manually type someproject.sourceforge.net in the address bar. Fixing only this will actually improve searching for stuff by 200%.

    2. Re:SourceForge by rho · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I hate it when SF automatically starts a download. Most of the time I'm not downloading to my local machine, I just want the download link so I can paste it in a terminal window for wget.

      It's weird to me because you just KNOW SF is aware that this is annoying and useless. Click a link to download. Don't javascript the download. Morons.

      --
      Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
    3. Re:SourceForge by ahaning · · Score: 1

      I found last night that you can actually wget the prdownloads link and it will download the file rather than the webpage linking to all the mirrors. Pretty nice. I also have no idea what the "pr" in "prdownloads" means.

      --
      Withdrawal before climax is very ineffective and those who try this are usually called "parents."
    4. Re:SourceForge by zobier · · Score: 1

      NoScript, duh!

      --
      Me lost me cookie at the disco.
  9. this would make a disturbing home video by vandelais · · Score: 1

    Here they have come across the body of a server, which in itself is not so disturbing. Until it is turned over to reveal... Ants!

    --
    Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
    1. Re:this would make a disturbing home video by gbjbaanb · · Score: 1

      oh no. disturbing is when you open the casing to find... spiders.

    2. Re:this would make a disturbing home video by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      We have an 'Ant Infestation Test' work instruction at work. The test involves ordering these special lab-grade ants from some lab at Purdue...

    3. Re:this would make a disturbing home video by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 2, Funny

      Red ones.

    4. Re:this would make a disturbing home video by erayd · · Score: 1

      They're back...

      --
      Forget world peace, bring on -1 pointless
  10. Congratulations! by Hacksaw · · Score: 2

    Upgrades are hard and require smarts and planning. Congratulations, I wish you good ROI.

    --

    All the technology in the world won't hide your lack of vision, talent, or understanding.

    1. Re:Congratulations! by sporkme · · Score: 1

      I second wishes for ROI.

      --
      FairTax baby!
    2. Re:Congratulations! by Aehgts · · Score: 1

      Upgrades are hard and require smarts and planning. Congratulations, I wish you good ROI.
      --
      All the technology in the world won't hide your lack of vision, talent, or understanding.
      My congrats on the smooth move too.
      BTW: An interesting sig for the occasion!
      --
      "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" - Albert Einstein
  11. how much for the old gear? by mr_smyrf · · Score: 1

    seriously i need more iron! for my little data center.

  12. description of the process? by SethJohnson · · Score: 4, Interesting



    Do you guys have a description of the migration steps hidden away in a journal somewhere?

    Appreciatively,

    Seth

    --
    $5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
    1. Re:description of the process? by lordkuri · · Score: 1

      Well, it looks like they're in the new Equinix facility that's about 2 miles from my house right now.

      Anyone care to pass me the cage number so I can go visit my hardware and take some pics? ;-)

    2. Re:description of the process? by Precision · · Score: 1

      Savvis, not Equinix.

      --
      - U
    3. Re:description of the process? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you really use 7 lines for a one-line question?

  13. I cannot reply by I+Like+Pudding · · Score: 4, Funny

    For I am but a head in a rusty metal box.

  14. Search? by Das+Auge · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, the search feature isn't working.

    1. Re:Search? by Farmer+Tim · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, the search feature isn't working.

      So everything's back to normal.

      --
      Blank until /. makes another boneheaded UI decision.
  15. Re:!news by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Please tag this story !news.

    Actually, this is news. Slashdot is snappy as hell for me, which I haven't seen in a long time. Nice work.

    Oh wait, that just means I'm going to run into the lameness filter that much faster...

    /sad panda

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  16. Sounds like a challenge by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

    We'll run a story in a few days about the ridiculously overpowered new hardware we have now, but now is the part of sprockets where we dance.

    All we need is a fake story on the new Apple Newton v2 covered in grits to see how overpowered it is. :P

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    1. Re:Sounds like a challenge by corsec67 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Add Natalie Portman as the spokesperson, and that would indeed be quite a test of new hardware.

      --
      If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
    2. Re:Sounds like a challenge by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      Add Natalie Portman as the spokesperson, and that would indeed be quite a test of new hardware.

      But I don't know if getting hot grits in the ports is a good thing or a bad thing.

  17. so its a new server AND I have mod points but .. by waterwingz · · Score: 1

    .. apparently I can't use my mod points for postings about the new server. Interesting.

    --
    . waterwingz
  18. Grats... by Datamonstar · · Score: 1

    ... on yer new loot. Getting new over powered stuff is fun in games or in real life.

    --
    The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
  19. Sprockets? by Doofus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How many people are going to get the Sprockets reference? I can't tell if I'm laughing at the reference, or laughing at myself for finding it strangely amusing. It's frightening that a reference, on Slashdot, to a 20-year-old SNL skit makes me chuckle. Zoiks.

    --
    If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; ... it invites anarchy. - Brandeis
    1. Re:Sprockets? by klokop · · Score: 1

      I dont't get it... the thing about the sprockets. It's the latest meme? Is it?

      --
      Passing silhouettes of strange illuminated mannequins
    2. Re:Sprockets? by gbjbaanb · · Score: 1

      read the first post..

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprockets_(Saturday_Night_Live)

    3. Re:Sprockets? by pudge · · Score: 1

      It was the latest meme almost 20 years ago :-)

    4. Re:Sprockets? by dwater · · Score: 1

      SNL?

      --
      Max.
    5. Re:Sprockets? by sir+fer · · Score: 1
      I live in New Zealand and I get it ;o)

      Good work /. team, no worries down under

      --
      Debian FTW ;o)
    6. Re:Sprockets? by krbvroc1 · · Score: 1

      The recent explosion in the use of the word meme ceases to amuse me. Your story has become tiresome.

      Seriously though, was there some convention or something that added meme to the geek culture lexicon in the past few months? I see it everywhere.

    7. Re:Sprockets? by pudge · · Score: 1

      Seriously though, was there some convention or something that added meme to the geek culture lexicon in the past few months? I see it everywhere. I was using the word in jest, since the word meme itself wasn't popularized until well after Sprockets (although it originated a decade earlier). I hate the word, as it merely means "an idea that spreads." Yawn. Anyway, that said, I have not noticed any change in usage of the word. It has been overused (read: "used") for years.
  20. False. by Kwirl · · Score: 5, Funny

    In the computer world, there is no such thing as 'ridiculously overpowered'.

    Can your servers run Crysis on max settings? :P lol

    1. Re:False. by binaryspiral · · Score: 1

      I'd mod you up for being funny... but I can't - site's broken. :(

  21. I cannot moderate by m0llusk · · Score: 1

    It says I have points, but I cannot elevate this box! :(

  22. Paying the bills by LinuxInDallas · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Speaking of paying the bills, I have always wondered what it costs to maintain a website like Slashdot. Does anyone know what the cost of webhosting a site this large might be?

    1. Re:Paying the bills by Slashdot+Suxxors · · Score: 3, Funny

      100 Gold a month.

    2. Re:Paying the bills by azuretek · · Score: 5, Informative

      Having worked for many large websites that have a boat load of visitors every day I think I can give a little insight. (As well as having worked for many web hosting datacenters)

      More than likely they have a good deal on bandwdith, assume they use 500Mbps a month, a traceroute from seattle shows they're using at least savvis as one provider. We can safely say they're probably paying no more than $18.00USD per month per Mbps. These are prices a small time carrier might get, they may be paying more and who knows how many other providers they're paying for or if they just buy a blend from their colo center.

      Lets put that price at: $9000/month so far

      Then you factor in the floor usage, normally you can get a full rack for about 2000 with 40a. I'm willing to bet they use at least 60a per rack, add in another 500. Plus they say they have a cage, they charge extra per square foot, a guess would put the cage at an extra 1000 per month.

      So I'd say about 3 racks with a cage would cost around: $8500/month

      So far the total is about $17,500.

      Now if they staffed their own people and didn't have any outside monitoring or anything of that nature that might be the total cost. In reality they probably have a contract with their provider for one site maintenance, 24/7 on site support, hardware replacement and the likes.

      At my current place of employ we pay 30,000/mo a month for that kind of service, I think we're a bit above what one would normally pay but we have a pretty high up time SLA.

      Add another 10,000 a month for maintenance/support/supply contracts.

      Grand total I'd say is about $27,000/month USD. It might be higher or lower depending on their deal with their providers but normally for a standard colo deal it's around that price.

      I've seen sites pay out well above that (100,000+) for colocation and have an awesome return.

    3. Re:Paying the bills by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I run a moderately sized network. I pay $8/mbit (and that's for a real provider, not a crap one.) For 505 mbits that's $4,000/month for connectivity.

      For colo I pay $800/month and get 60 amps of DC power, A&B. 3 racks would be $2,400.

      For service I pay $150/hour, in 1 hour blocks of time.

      So, $6,400/month for 3 rack, each with 60 DCA, and 500mbits of service.

      And this is in Chicago with a national A+ carrier-class colo provider. (In fact, they run the best colo facilities I've ever seen.)

    4. Re:Paying the bills by Timmmm · · Score: 1

      > they use 500Mbps a month Megabits per second per month? Right...

    5. Re:Paying the bills by kesuki · · Score: 1

      "Add another 10,000 a month for maintenance/support/supply contracts."

      but, what does cowboyneil do then? I thought he was their primary hardware guy, and maybe they have a second guy so he doesn't have to be on call 24/7

      it's not just slashdot, they run sourceforge everything2, the OSDN, loads of complex websites.

      i doubt they'd pay $10,000 a month when they already have a dedicated hardware guy on the payroll.

      --
      https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  23. Pumped by professorfalcon · · Score: 1

    You just pumped... the server up!

  24. Central is good. by binaryspiral · · Score: 1

    Moving your site to a more central location in the states will improve my page loads - thanks /.

    1. Re:Central is good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh noez, parent is a few states away *plays tiny violin*
      I'm in the Australian Outback. So I win the lag contes-

    2. Re:Central is good. by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

      Its not the lag that causes problems, its the rotating the bits so that they're the right side up that causes the delay.

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    3. Re:Central is good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm in the TGIF's across the street. Food is not quite as good, but there's no lag.

  25. Public safety comes first, I guess by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... we are now running on the new iron in a cage in Chicago.
    While geeks have often struck me as a little weird, I have not previously seen them treated as actively dangerous. I hope they let you out soon.
  26. Unimaginative, tawdry, pale and ineffectual praise by Lacrocivious+Acropho · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Congratulations on your new cage! That sounds odd when said. I don't contribute much, apart from exposing /. to those who might benefit but haven't yet found it. I will take this opportunity to say "Thank you!" for more than a decade of the single most entertaining, informative, rewarding, gee-whiz stuff I have gotten from any site, ever. You guys do a splendid job, and I hope you will continue that effort, and that culture, forever.

    --
    Twice as crazy as I would be if I was half as crazy as I am.
  27. Re:Unimaginative, tawdry, pale and ineffectual pra by plover · · Score: 4, Funny
    Seconded! This has been my favorite link to the tech world (I don't get out much) and for all its warts, it's a great place to hang out.

    However, my employer would love to find your new cluster and beat it with a tire iron.

    --
    John
  28. Re:!news by The+Clockwork+Troll · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is absolutely news.

    Finally, Slashdot has the highly redundant replicated infrastructure worthy of their highly redundant, replicated article topics.

    --

    There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
  29. Only one day of beta testing by ewolfr · · Score: 2, Informative

    Seems like /. would have wanted to do more stress stesting than just one day over a holiday weekend here in the states. Hope that the new cluster can stand up once next Tuesday hits!

    Also, thanks for the relocation as well. My page loads are much faster than from the old location in Santa Clara.

  30. Re:Unimaginative, tawdry, pale and ineffectual pra by Solder+Fumes · · Score: 3, Funny

    Your employer is Tanya Harding?

  31. Dugg! by sonchat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    can you guys host digg on it too? Digg is too slow.

    1. Re:Dugg! by audi100quattro · · Score: 1

      I second that, and ebay too while you're at it.

    2. Re:Dugg! by dmsuperman · · Score: 1

      No, they should host the DTDs for w3c

      --
      :(){ :|:& };: Go!
  32. Re:!news by Rhinobird · · Score: 1

    You owe me a new keyboard. And a coke.

    --
    If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
  33. Re:!news by nightglider28 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh, how I wish I could use my mod points on this.

  34. OT: The Damn Comment Container Bars Are Gone?!? by xanadu-xtroot.com · · Score: 1

    As of this typing, the couple stories I've gone through don't have the damn 4px wide comment container bar things they added a month or so ago. Does that mean they are gone for good? I sure as hell hope so! I played with the CSS, and found that they are really kinda helpful if set to 1px. 4px was just horrible. I hope they are gone for good!

    I now return he horizontal and the vertical back to you.

    --
    I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
    I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
    1. Re:OT: The Damn Comment Container Bars Are Gone?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As of this typing, the couple stories I've gone through don't have the damn 4px wide comment container bar things they added a month or so ago. Does that mean they are gone for good? I sure as hell hope so!

      <AOL> Me too. </AOL>

      If you want fugly, check out idle.slashdot.com, and just pray to whatever gods you worship that they don't turn the rest of the site into that fugliness.

    2. Re:OT: The Damn Comment Container Bars Are Gone?!? by schon · · Score: 1

      Does that mean they are gone for good? I sure as hell hope so! I played with the CSS, and found that they are really kinda helpful if set to 1px. 4px was just horrible. Have you tried removing them with Stylish?

      I use it to fix the ugly fonts and screwed line-height here, it works really well.

      And you're right - it is much better at 1px. :)
  35. Re:so its a new server AND I have mod points but . by cgraeff · · Score: 1

    same problem here ... pretty weird to see all comments with 2 points at most :)

  36. Re:!news by tepples · · Score: 4, Funny

    You owe me a new keyboard. And a coke. Can't help you with the keyboard, but here's the coke.
  37. Overlords in Chicago? by davidwr · · Score: 1

    Who'd've thunk it?

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  38. Re:Unimaginative, tawdry, pale and ineffectual pra by Rayban · · Score: 1

    alt.tonya-harding.whack.whack.whack

    --
    æeee!
  39. What was wrong with California by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 1
    I have plenty of my own suspicions, but what was wrong with being based in California?

    Logistical? Political? Tax (dis)advantages?

    Just curious.

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
    1. Re:What was wrong with California by buffy · · Score: 1

      Fault lines?

      -buf

    2. Re:What was wrong with California by Precision · · Score: 3, Informative

      Mostly... all the data centers in California are at or close to power / space constraints.. that's one of the driving reasons for moving outside Cali.

      Aside from that.. moving away from fault lines definitely helps

      --
      - U
    3. Re:What was wrong with California by hey+hey+hey · · Score: 1

      but what was wrong with being based in California? Mom moved, and her basement went with her.
    4. Re:What was wrong with California by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The PP2PP servers wanted to get married.

    5. Re:What was wrong with California by SuperQ · · Score: 1

      There's also an odd supply of cheap savvis space these days ;-)

      Glad to see all the work on the new colo space end in a smooth transition.

    6. Re:What was wrong with California by hawaiian717 · · Score: 1

      https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Fault_(geology)

      You know, the places where earthquakes happen.

      --
      End of Line.
    7. Re:What was wrong with California by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am sure California would have given you more hamsters after all California has to meet its renewable energy goals.

  40. Re:!news by ari_j · · Score: 4, Funny

    Screw that. Tag it touchmymonkey. Do it, you know you want to!

  41. Re:so its a new server AND I have mod points but . by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 2, Informative
    I am guessing that whatever magic hex string is used for creating authentication keys/session keys/cookie keys, or whatever is not the same as it was before.

    No, I can't explain better than that, those details are for sys admins to deal with. I just know enough to be dangerous.

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  42. Chicago Cluster? by houghi · · Score: 3, Funny

    So now even the dead accounts can mod. Neat.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    1. Re:Chicago Cluster? by value_added · · Score: 1

      So now even the dead accounts can mod. Neat.

      A good Chicago joke.

      I'd include a reference to the post office "where submissions made to an overload server are stored on a pallet and thrown away when the pile gets too high".

      And something about the Cubs, of course.

  43. Chicago Cluster? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All this time I though Slashdot was hosted on a couple of P2/233s running in Hemos's Mom's basement. Does Hemos's Mom live in Chicago?

  44. Strange, but my pings are worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have a server in a chicago datacenter, and now my pings to slashdot.org are worse than they are from my home in texas. From the chicago server, everything gets routed through to comcast (for no good reason) then to new york and back via savvis. From Texas, it goes from time-warner to level3 and then savvis in chicago, avoiding new york entirely. Weird.

    1. Re:Strange, but my pings are worse by schon · · Score: 1

      I guess it's a good thing for you that CmdrTaco has cancelled "/. the FPS" then, huh?

    2. Re:Strange, but my pings are worse by lusiphur69 · · Score: 1

      Welcome to the wonderful world of peering.

  45. I (Filter error: You can type more than that for.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    for one welcome our new Chicago Cluster OVERLORDS!

  46. Well done by Admiral+Lazzurs · · Score: 1

    Nice move guys. Doing this sorta stuff is never fun but at least it is over now...time to party.

  47. That's nice by xonar · · Score: 1

    But is it a beowolf cluster ;)

  48. Lies! by crhylove · · Score: 1

    Tim Vroom is OBVIOUSLY just a stage name. Nobody is that fast!

    --
    I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
  49. IPv6 please by ptudor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Greetings Germanic Dancers,

    Could you please add an IPv6 VIP to slashdot now that you've got this move out of the way? I mean, it's 2008 already :)

    Have you ran any stats on your dns logs to see what percentage are requests for quad-As?

    If you're nervous about suddenly blackholing because of misconfigured remote sites, perhaps you could add an ipv6beta.slashdot.org site à la ipv6.google.com? Or, I read of a long-running test a website had been running where a third of clients were served a one-pixel image from a hostname with a single AAAA record, another third a dual record, and finally a single A record to test against reachability problems.

    So, I'm sure you're all smart and working on it and I'll just have to keep patiently waiting, but I'll be so pleased when your v6 integration matches undeadly.org.

    1. Re:IPv6 please by moosesocks · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't know..... does Slashdot's network provider allow IPv6?

      If they did, would anybody actually use it?

      It just seems that at the moment, IPv6 doesn't appear all that necessary.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    2. Re:IPv6 please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I second that. At least ipv6.slashdot.org, but I would rather see slashdot.org being IPv6. Less to type. ;)

      We talked about Slashdot IPv6 more five years ago.
      http://slashdot.org/articles/03/02/12/2036205.shtml

    3. Re:IPv6 please by Precision · · Score: 3, Informative

      That's the problem, once we can get a native v6 feed from Savvis we'll have v6 versions of the sites. The idea of running these sites via 6to4 makes me cringe.

      --
      - U
    4. Re:IPv6 please by lusiphur69 · · Score: 1

      Hmmm... lets see..add extra complexity for no particular reason? Sounds great!

      In honesty, sure it would be neat, but outside of the geek factor, what purpose does it serve? v6 won't be deployed on a wide scale for a long time - we've been talking about it forever, but with NAT much of the impetus has gone away.

  50. Re:!news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And here I was imaginging somewhere deep in the /. organization ...

    "Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL website! [flips switch] Slashdot at will, CmdrTaco!"

    Way to burst my bubble.

  51. So ? by unity100 · · Score: 1

    we wont be able to bring down /. by posting a link to a /. article in /. no more ?

    holy cow ! what the world is coming to...

    --
    Read radical news here
  52. Just wondering... by hyades1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    So did my outrageously hilarious, utterly off-topic and completely irreverent "test remark" about CowboyNeal and his extra-species amorous adventures help to set a high enough standard for sophistication and good taste in the new home?

    I always like to help...

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
  53. /. Plan of Action by coppro · · Score: 1

    1. Add powerful new hardware (*COMPLETE*)
    2. Design/steal software to automatically mirror all linked pages.
    3. Hijack linked DNS entries so as to prevent slowdown due to /. effect.
    4. ???
    5. Profit!

  54. Audio feed by dgcom · · Score: 1

    Moving to a new data center broke an audio-enabled RSS feed: http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/audio
    Sad, I liked it more than a regular one.

  55. New Hardware by brianc · · Score: 2, Funny

    the ridiculously overpowered new hardware we have now That was posted nearly two hours ago! That's ancient technology
    by now...

    --


    SIGLOST && SIGUNUSED && SIGQUIT
  56. Oblig. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    /. is running on Windows 95 now?

    1. Re:Oblig. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still needed: -1, Stupid mod.

  57. Your engineers are in a cage? by billstewart · · Score: 1

    Your engineers are in a cage, running on big iron? Are you using them to power some kind of large hamster wheel or something?

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  58. Re:Unimaginative, tawdry, pale and ineffectual pra by sporkme · · Score: 1

    alt.nancy.kerrigan.why.why.why

    --
    FairTax baby!
  59. anonymous coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Very cool. Especially the reference to... SPROCKETS!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-fLW-QNy4I

  60. I was 8 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm 28 and I got it. Then again, I also know about SCTV.

    Damn it, I'll never get on a jury at this rate!

  61. Yeah, and since it is 2008 by marxmarv · · Score: 1

    how about charset=UTF-8 already?

    --
    /. -- the Free Republic of technology.
  62. Is this why I can't log in? by Reziac · · Score: 1

    Does this change explain my problems here?

    Since Friday morning I've been unable to post as myself. Login for article/comment pages simply doesn't work, and the automatic login (thru a bookmark/cookie) only works with the front page. I try to log in, and it just spits me back to the AC page with a login box. Login only works on a PER COMMENT basis. Who the hell wants to have to log in and screw with the captcha for each and every comment?

    This has happened before, but those incidents never persisted more than a few hours. We're now on Day 5 of this problem.

    --
    ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?