Hi! Many of you might be wondering why i was hardly online since the past few days. The reason was this 
I was setting up 3 IBM Series x3455 servers for my company CSC. These are blade servers which are supposed to run Sourceforge Enterprise Edition have the following configuration:
- 2 x AMD Opteron 2.6 GHz Dual Core 64 bit processors (that’s 4 cores with 2.6 Ghz per core)
- 4 GB DDR2 667 Mhz RAM (ECC RAM)
- 2 x 160 GB SATA II HDDs
- 2 x 1GBps LAN cards
The servers came from Singapore with every component in a separate box! So they had to be assembled first over here. After assembling, RedHat Enterprise Linux v4 was chosen as the OS with the following partitioning scheme:
- /boot - 400 MB
- swap - 8 GB
- / - Left available space
The partitions are over LVM so that the “/” partition can span both the 160 GB disks. Since the software package (Sourceforge Enterprise Edition) was supposed to be installed over an SSH account over the internet from the US, i had to stay up in office all night to assist them. The servers were connected to each other via a HUB and one of the servers was on a DSL link to the internet with its own static IP.
All in all, it was a WONDERFUL experience setting up these servers and i would really like to thank CSC for giving me the opportunity to set up these servers and trusting me on this one
The first server, while installing RHEL (You can see the CDs lying above the server)
The second server.
The POST screen.
Temporary arrangement of servers. Just before we left office at 5:00 AM You can see the hub on top of the 3rd server. The server which has a direct connection to the internet is at the bottom. Heh.. We had to put those post-it notes so that no body disturbs them 
This is the video we made while booting the server! Notice the sound?
Great monsters!
lucky you
most users don’t a sight of these biggies
Hehe.. i know.. It was FUN!
You are really lucky Kalpik. Job well done! Anyway, why is that the sound so loud during the initial boot up?
Hehe.. Ok ill give an explaination.. Servers are supposed to be powered on 24/7. This makes sure that all fans are moving and so that dust doesn’t settle. Dust can hamper the normal functioning of servers cuz even a 1 degree rise in temperature can be harmfull for a server operating at full load. So once the server is switched off, dust begins to settle. So to tackle that, once the server is powered on, it makes the fans spin at very high speeds to blow the dust off.. Kinda like an in built vaccum cleaner
^^
Cool, I didn’t know that. So… Can we touch it after switching on? I’d love to feel one!
Send one of these atleast at my ~ if not your PC.
@Harsh: Ofcourse you can touch it!
@mehul: Dream on
Opteron > Xeon ?
Click Me
In short, yes, Opteron >> Xeon
Even I didn’t know that the fans blow hard in the beginning to blow away the dust. Would love to work on those monster servers one day……. soon
WOW!!!!!
So, U have a great story to tell around now.
But, frankly telling , we had a great experience and exposure with these servers.
Yup! Its a story alright! Hehe.. For those of you wondering, She’s Nidhi Jain, Technical Lead at Office of Innovation, CSC India
I also get to see all the biggies in out company. Set em up and all. Most of all the HP ones suck when u install Linux onto them. Throughout the install process the fans go at highest possible speed. Damn i change the cds and get the hell outta there.
Cool Kalpik, good going, ahahaha 8GB swap, ORGASMIC
:D 