Suitable conditions

[Berko]

Hey guys,

I bought a large rack mount server of eBay about 10 months ago and my intention was to put it in the loft as it would be out of the way, and the noise would not be bothersome. I put some sockets up there but never added them to the upstairs ring main. However, more recently I have been reluctant to put the server up there as I’m worried about the environment. My house originally had a flat concrete roof, and a few years later a wooden framed one was plonked on top and a hatch cut into the concrete. The gable end is just some wooden lats and one or two have fallen off.

As it’s getting cold I was wondering if condensation would form on the server and cause it to short/arc and damage it, then I wondered if condensation could from on the plugs sockets causing them to short/arc? What do you guys think?

 

[riveralt]

You seem to have already answered your own question.
Servers generally require stable environments.
I cannot think of a worse place to put one in a domestic environment.

Don't forget that, as well as cold and condensation, depending of your level of insulation lofts also get extremely warm/hot in the summer.

Crispy fried server anyone?

 

[Berko]

I thought someone was going to say that :/

Now, the server also says it's rated at 400W. But that is a ridiculous figure as not a single component inside uses more that 12v at 0.5amp, what's that all about?

That means to keep it on 24/7 it would cost about 40 pound a month :O

 

[bhm1712]

400watt is low for a server. Are you forgetting about the power supply consumption???? just because components dont use much on their own, together and coupled with a PSU it all adds up.

Some of our control net servers at work are over 800 watts for the small ones.

The manufacturer wont just pluck a figure out of the air

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I thought someone was going to say that :/

Well of course, it's blindingly obvious.

Now, the server also says it's rated at 400W.

That will be the rating of the power supply, and it will be designed to cope with the server at maximum configuration - all drive bays full, all PCI slots full, maximum memory etc, so unless yours is maxed out you won't be using that much.

But...

But that is a ridiculous figure as not a single component inside uses more that 12v at 0.5amp

Sorry - what's ridiculous is that assertion. Nothing inside uses more than 6W?

Some PCIe adapters might come in under that, but not PCI-X or PCI.

No disk drive will use that little.

The CPU when running hard could easily be consuming hundreds of watts, and depending what it is, and how well designed the server is, it may use that sort of power all of the time.

That means to keep it on 24/7 it would cost about 40 pound a month :O

See my first observation. You could easily find that it's only costing £30 per month.

 

[Monkeh]

Sorry - what's ridiculous is that assertion. Nothing inside uses more than 6W?

Some PCIe adapters might come in under that, but not PCI-X or PCI.

No disk drive will use that little.

Actually, many HDDs do use less than 6W. And I'd be quite surprised if many of my PCI cards use as much as 6W.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

With disks it will depend on what they are doing, and I was basing my "No disk drive will use that little" on what you need to assume when sizing rack power consumption and cooling requirements.

Just sitting there idle will use less than actually reading and writing.

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~acr31/pubs/hylick-harddrive2.pdf

And although power consumption reduction was a big focus with PCIe, I would be surprised if the cards in the sort of large rack mount server that you find on eBay will be coming in at under 6W.

 

[Monkeh]

With disks it will depend on what they are doing, and I was basing my "No disk drive will use that little" on what you need to assume when sizing rack power consumption and cooling requirements.

Just sitting there idle will use less than actually reading and writing.

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~acr31/pubs/hylick-harddrive2.pdf

And although power consumption reduction was a big focus with PCIe, I would be surprised if the cards in the sort of large rack mount server that you find on eBay will be coming in at under 6W.

I know it depends on what they're doing. A lot of modern disks use under 6W seeking, especially 2.5" ones. Spinup current is higher but it's brief and what staggered spinup exists for.

As for PCI cards.. It really depends on the card. Even a rackmount server can have small, simple cards in it, like an RS232 card, single-port NIC (especially fibre, hell, I doubt a dual port fibre NIC uses 6W. Donate me a decent test rig for that and I'll tell you, got loads of them.), or even a USB controller (which will use 6W if it's powering two 500mA devices and itself, I admit, but that's not common).

 

[toasty]

I've got a few servers in my loft as well as some routers, switches, f/wall etc... To be honest it's ok most of the time, in the very height of summer however it does get warm, I've seen a maximum internal temp of 38C in one of my NAS (it reports the temperature) but a simple extractor fan positioned near the 'rack' seems to do the job, and if you place your kit on something soft like a few layers of carpet to absorb the vibrations it can be quiet in the rest of the house.

The cold certainly isn't a problem, I don't see any issue with condensation as once the kit is up to temperature it's generally quite warm and so unlikely have water vapour condense on it.

My word of warning would be dust/dirt. I took the opportunity to apply that silver insulation over my roofing timbers to keep the black dust down. Withouth that I'm afraid that in such a dirty environment your server(s) will soon fill with dust.
Regarding electricity usage, yep, expect a small server to burn about 100-200 watts and therefore cost you a noticable amount per year. My electricity bill is not pleasurable reading I'm afraid!

I should add that I did originally have my kit under the stairs, but it was far too noisy especially (as is inevitably the case) one server turns into three and you develop a 'requirement' for more equipment - it's addictive.

I'll try to find a picture of my set up if I can.

Cheers, and good luck.
Dan