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From: Invisible
Subject: Slightly worrying
Date: 14 Jan 2009 06:24:40
Message: <496dcb78$1@news.povray.org>
OK, so today I sat down to decommission one of our servers. Oh what fun! 
It turns out that the server fails a memory check, the CD-ROM drive is 
marginal, and ALL THREE of the drives in the RAID array have bad blocks 
at various places. The hot spare doesn't even spin up properly.

But... but... but this server was *working* in a production environment 
just a few weeks ago! And it's a nearly brand-new Dell PowerEdge! How 
did it get this busted so far?! o_O

Damn... I was going to take that thing home with me. (Since HQ IT thinks 
it's worthless.) But I won't bother if it doesn't even work properly.

Still, the other server I'm decommissioning still works great. 
Unfortunately, it's a dual Pentium-III 1.0 GHz. (According to PassMark, 
just about any cheap-ass PC you can buy today will outperform that.) Oh 
well! Maybe the RAID controller and the 6 SCSI HDs might be useful? 
Though I'm not sure what for...


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From: Eero Ahonen
Subject: Re: Slightly worrying
Date: 14 Jan 2009 12:28:56
Message: <496e20d8$1@news.povray.org>
Invisible wrote:
> 
> Still, the other server I'm decommissioning still works great.
> Unfortunately, it's a dual Pentium-III 1.0 GHz. (According to PassMark,
> just about any cheap-ass PC you can buy today will outperform that.) Oh
> well! Maybe the RAID controller and the 6 SCSI HDs might be useful?
> Though I'm not sure what for...

Creating authentic serverroom noise to your home.

-Aero


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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: Slightly worrying
Date: 14 Jan 2009 12:55:17
Message: <496e2705$1@news.povray.org>
Invisible wrote:
> And it's a nearly brand-new Dell PowerEdge! 

We had awful luck with brand new Dell PowerEdge machines. We bought six or 
eight of them, and at least half had hardware failures within the first 
month or so. Both drive controllers and motherboards needing to be replaced, 
etc.

> Damn... I was going to take that thing home with me. (Since HQ IT thinks 
> it's worthless.) But I won't bother if it doesn't even work properly.

Open it up and scavenge!

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.


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From: Orchid XP v8
Subject: Re: Slightly worrying
Date: 14 Jan 2009 15:24:18
Message: <496e49f2$1@news.povray.org>
Darren New wrote:

> We had awful luck with brand new Dell PowerEdge machines. We bought six 
> or eight of them, and at least half had hardware failures within the 
> first month or so. Both drive controllers and motherboards needing to be 
> replaced, etc.

That's just it. When we were using it, there was absolutely no hint that 
anything was wrong. But now suddenly it seems to have all mannar of 
faults... WTF? It's been turned off for 3 months!

(The RAM faults all happen at quite a high address - I guess it was 
never used?)

>> Damn... I was going to take that thing home with me. (Since HQ IT 
>> thinks it's worthless.) But I won't bother if it doesn't even work 
>> properly.
> 
> Open it up and scavenge!

LOL! Two 3 GHz Xeons? (Not sure if they're single-core or dual-core 
though.) How many FLOPS is that?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*


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From: Orchid XP v8
Subject: Re: Slightly worrying
Date: 14 Jan 2009 15:24:36
Message: <496e4a04$1@news.povray.org>
>> Oh
>> well! Maybe the RAID controller and the 6 SCSI HDs might be useful?
>> Though I'm not sure what for...
> 
> Creating authentic serverroom noise to your home.

LOL! Yeah...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*


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From: Darren New
Subject: Re: Slightly worrying
Date: 14 Jan 2009 15:54:37
Message: <496e510d@news.povray.org>
Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> (The RAM faults all happen at quite a high address - I guess it was 
> never used?)

Dunno. I always run a full-disk write-and-read-back and an overnight memory 
test when I buy a new disk or memory (or computer). Never had a problem, tho.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.


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From: Nicolas Alvarez
Subject: Re: Slightly worrying
Date: 14 Jan 2009 18:12:41
Message: <496e7169@news.povray.org>
Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> LOL! Two 3 GHz Xeons? (Not sure if they're single-core or dual-core
> though.) How many FLOPS is that?

I'll take anything.

Oh wait, my parents will kill me if I keep increasing the electricity bill.


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From: andrel
Subject: Re: Slightly worrying
Date: 14 Jan 2009 18:19:05
Message: <496E734F.2090308@hotmail.com>
On 15-Jan-09 0:12, Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> LOL! Two 3 GHz Xeons? (Not sure if they're single-core or dual-core
>> though.) How many FLOPS is that?
> 
> I'll take anything.
> 
> Oh wait, my parents will kill me if I keep increasing the electricity bill.
> 
If most of the house is heated electrically that is only true in the 
summer. By then they will have forgotten.


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From: Nicolas Alvarez
Subject: Re: Slightly worrying
Date: 14 Jan 2009 18:39:42
Message: <496e77be@news.povray.org>
andrel wrote:
> On 15-Jan-09 0:12, Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
>> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> LOL! Two 3 GHz Xeons? (Not sure if they're single-core or dual-core
>>> though.) How many FLOPS is that?
>> 
>> I'll take anything.
>> 
>> Oh wait, my parents will kill me if I keep increasing the electricity
>> bill.
>> 
> If most of the house is heated electrically that is only true in the
> summer. By then they will have forgotten.

Heated electrically??

We use natural gas here. The closest to "electrical heating" is air
conditioners with "heat" mode, which don't convert electricity to heat;
they behave like an inverted fridge (taking heat from outside and bringing
it inside).


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From: Invisible
Subject: Re: Slightly worrying
Date: 15 Jan 2009 03:54:41
Message: <496ef9d1$1@news.povray.org>
>> (The RAM faults all happen at quite a high address - I guess it was 
>> never used?)
> 
> Dunno. I always run a full-disk write-and-read-back and an overnight 
> memory test when I buy a new disk or memory (or computer). Never had a 
> problem, tho.

I typically only run tests like that if I'm actually having a problem. 
But anyway, this server was purchased in the USA and arrived in my 
server room fully configured. As in, it came through the door, was 
plugged in, and has been in production use ever since.


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