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Microsoft Innovates Tent Data Centers
1sockchuck writes "The outside-the-box thinking in data center design continues. Microsoft has tested running a rack of servers in a tent outside one of its data centers. In seven months of testing, a small group of servers ran for seven months without failures, even when water dripped on the rack. The experiment builds on Intel's recent research on air-side economizers in suggesting that servers may be sturdier than believed, leaving more room to save energy by optimizing cooling set points and other key environmental settings in the server room."
Microsoft Pitches a Tent.
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Wow 7 months uptime... was it running Linux?
a small group of servers ran for seven months without failures, even when water dripped on the rack.
ie: The trick to water proofing is to let your system be constantly near over-heating, any contact with water immediately results in water vapour.
When I said there would never be any Microsoft servers running in my department, I don't think they quite got my meaning.
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Datacenter break-ins are becoming more and more commonplace, and it costs so much to replace the reinforced doors etc that the thieves bust up on their way in. Now with this innovation, they can just walk in and take the servers without doing any infrastructure damage. I think I'll pitch (groan) this idea to the boss right now!
Oh no... it's the future.
On one occasion a disk unit started giving "media error warnings" but apart from that no ill effects again.
So, apart from doing the exact sort of damage that most technical people would predict you'd see when hard drives are repeatedly subjected to shock, nothing happened?
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
On one occasion a disk unit started giving "media error warnings" but apart from that no ill effects again.
Understandable. I once watched a cricket match, and pretty much the same thing happened to my brain.
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This is ridiculous. There is no situation that comes to mind, even after some consideration, that would compel me to operate anything remotely critical in this manner.
Honestly, servers under a tent. I guess if the ferris wheel ever goes really high tech, the carnies will have something to play solitaire on
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Have you even considered the possibility of sentient tomatoes? I mean, how reckless can you be? Didn't we learn ANYTHING from the movie "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes"
Kids these days...so reckless......
Monstar L
You could fertilize them with this article
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Maybe the PHB's are just trying to market to the many people becoming homeless due to the increase in foreclosures.
If there are going to be more citizens living in tent cities like during the great depression, corporate America will want to be there to provide desperately needed services, like up to the minute stock quotes and SPAM for new investment opportunities in Nigeria.
Oh my, who's that burly, rugged, well-tanned guy with the rolled-up shirtsleeves?
Him? Oh he's our server admin
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
How about using them in chillier climates to warm greenhouses and get a carbon offset? Might even prompt a healthier diet for workers if they were allowed to graze.
They'll be testing this in Galveston, Tx.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
my "corporation" has been running servers in tents for going over 5 years now ;)
Not too long ago, there was a small furor in the local media about a major disaster at The State's Technology Services Division. The details were a bit sketchy â" mostly because The State was "unable to comment on an ongoing investigation" â" but what was reported was that, for two full days, employees of The State were unable to logon to their computers or access email, and that this caused business within The State to grind to a halt.
As the "investigation" carried on, the media lost interest in the story and moved on to more newsworthy stories like who Paris Hilton was partying with last weekend. Fortunately for us, a certain employee of The State named J.N. works in the Technology Services Division and decided to share what really was behind those fateful days.
When employees of The State came in to work following a three day weekend, they found their workstations overloaded with "cannot logon" and "Exchange communication" error messages. The Network Services folks had it even worse: the server room was a sweltering 109 Fahrenheit and filled with dead or dying servers.
At first, everyone had assumed that the Primary A/C, the Secondary A/C, and the Tertiary A/C had all managed to fail at once. But after cycling the power, the A/Cs all fired up and brought the room back to a cool 64. At the time, the "why" wasnâ(TM)t so important: the network administrators had to figure out how to bring online the four Exchange Services, six Domain Controllers, a few Sun servers, and the entire State Tax Commissionâ(TM)s server farm. Out of all of the downed servers, those were the only ones that did not come back to life upon a restart.
They worked day and night to order new equipment, build new servers, and restore everything from back-up. Countless overtime hours and nearly two hundred thousand dollars in equipment costs later, they managed to bring everything back online. When the Exchange servers were finally restored, the following email finally made its way to everyone's inbox, conveniently answering the "why"
From: ----- -----------
To: IT Department
Re: A/C constantly running.
To whom it may concern,
I came in today (Monday) to finish up a project I was working
on before our big meeting with the State ----- Commission tomorrow,
and I noticed that there were three or four large air conditioners
running the entire time I was here. Since it's a three day weekend,
no one is around, why do we need to have the A/C running 24/7?
With all the power that all those big computers in that room use, I
doubt it is really eco-friendly to run those big units at the same
time. And all computers have cooling fans anyway, so why put the A/C
for the building in that room?
I got a keycard from [the facility managerâ(TM)s] desk and shut off the
A/C units. I'm sure you guys can deal with it being warm for an hour
or two when you come in tomorrow morning.
In the future, let's try to be a little more conscientious of our
energy usage!
Thanks,
-----
As for the employee who sent it, he decided to take an early retirement.
-Daily WTF
It's Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld coming to upgrade your servers to Vista. OMG! Run!
or are you just happy to see me?