Data center at home
It happens that amateurs and IT professionals create data centers in their homes, placing equipment in improvised server rooms, garages, basements or home offices. Such people are called server servers ("server huggers"). These are people seeking to be closer to the equipment they use.
Home data centers, or, as they are called, "cave DCs," play an important role in modern life and the development of IT technologies. Data DC, as opposed to large-scale data centers, are pioneers in testing server hardware. This kind of enthusiasts have a passion for IT and, as a rule, some of the first are starting to use new server systems, testing them in extreme conditions.
The reasons for creating such data centers are varied. For example: small web hosting, launching your own unique projects or just a passion for electronics and IT. Whatever the motivation, such a project in any case requires some adaptations, including both finalizing the power supply and network connections, as well as adapting and updating cabling throughout the house. We offer you some examples of such projects.
')
Canadian IT specialist Alain Boudreault has in its arsenal enterprise-class equipment from manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Sun, Juniper, IBM and IBM BladeCenter. He placed the racks with this equipment in the basement of his house. His website provides a detailed overview of the installation, including diagrams of all components . The data center includes the Open Stack MAAS cloud (Metal as a Service) and several data storage systems (iSCSI and Fiber Channel).
“My first step was to install an electrical substation, allowing a current of 40 amperes at 240 volts, i.e. able to cope with a load of 9.6 kW / hour if necessary, ”says Alan. He teaches application development and uses his DC for testing. “Servers are rarely started all at once, so the average consumption is 1-2 kW per hour,” he says. The cost of electricity in Quebec is about 7 cents per kW. Briskly writes that this type of DC is not an activity for the faint of heart.
Some owners of home DCs post videos about them on YouTube. The most popular of these is the Home Center Data Project , another project in Canada, the development of which began in 2005 in the form of two computers in a cabinet and grew by 2013 to more than 60 servers. The project was documented in a series of videos that scored over 500,000 hits on YouTube. The rollers and website also document extensive cabling, cooling and network infrastructure improvements.
“This project was not designed for profit,” writes developer Etienne Vailleux of Hyperweb Technologies. "This installation was collected as a hobby, but after a while it quickly grew into a passion."
In 2013, the project migrated from one house to another. “Part of the foundation was specifically designed to house servers and air conditioners,” said Valle. "Currently, the project contains 15 servers, the connection capacity of which is 60 Mbit / s."
Sometimes people install entire data warehouses. For example, in 2012, an IT professional known as houkouonchi published a video of his rack that gained over 220,000 views on YouTube.
“The installation was not really in the data center. Not many have a full-size rack capable of storing more than 150TB of data, ”he wrote. “The rack is fastened through a wooden floor to the cement foundation of the house. A fully equipped rack uses only 1 kW of power, but its capacity is quite another matter. ”
In 2013, houkouonchi said he contacted Verizon, who was surprised to see a home Internet user generating more than 50 terabytes of traffic per month. Placing a server with such a large traffic generation violated the terms of service for the home Internet service, and he had to switch to a business plan.
Here is the houkouonchi stand tour on YouTube
Why use standard racks for data centers in your home if you can place equipment in a stylish IKEA table? In one of the home data center implementations, people who are passionate about their hobbies have adapted the Swedish side table LACK to comfortably accommodate servers and network equipment by creating LACKRack. It turned out that the space between the legs is 19 inches. The same is the width of the standard slot in specialized server racks. Improvised units were created with the help of corners, screwed to the legs of the table with screws.
The lack of racks stimulated the emergence of many design innovations. Frank Dennemen, a PernixData technology evangelist, adapted the LACKRack initial specification to create a portable 19-inch rack.
“My home office is designed to be an office, not a data center,” Dennemen writes. “So I tried to accommodate 19-inch server racks without destroying the aesthetics of the home office.” You can place such a rack anywhere in the house.
So, you - the head of the company and decided to organize a server in the office, or just an enthusiast who decided to try everything in life and build a server house, basement or garage. It is not so important why you need a server, if you have already decided to create such a miracle, you need to know how it should look. Ideally, the server should comply with the standard TIA-569. The list of requirements for a room allocated for a server room looks like this:
Stand requirements:
The optimal temperature for server operation is 20 degrees Celsius. This does not mean that such a temperature should be in the whole room, it should be at least in a rack with servers. And if you cannot afford to buy a server cabinet with cooling or air conditioning, then you can solve this problem with the help of ordinary home fans, displaying ingenuity and collecting a rack from them that will perform the same function as the cooling door in the server cabinet.
To minimize potential power problems, use an uninterruptible power supply. A 5-6 kVA UPS is best, but if your budget is limited, or you do not plan to use powerful equipment in large volumes, but want only 3 or 4 cars, for example, you can use a weaker UPS on your own risk. Sales consultants can offer you UPSs with different topologies: Line-Interactive UPS, Passive Standby (Off-Line) UPS and Double-Conversion (On-Line) UPS. Manufacturers claim that Line-Interactive UPS is the best option for home servers, but this is not true. Still, the best option is a UPS with On-Line UPS (continuous) topology, for example, APC Smart-UPS RT 5000VA.
These tips - this is the main thing you need to know for arranging the server and comfortable work of your equipment.
I would like to add that no matter how tempting the prospect of hosting servers at home is, it is worth remembering and realizing that it will be quite difficult to achieve acceptable uptime at home. As an example, I will give a few words from the forum .
It is also necessary to remember that:
Rent equipment in DC is much more appropriate. There your equipment is always supervised. In addition, DCs are built exclusively for servers and are optimized for maximum comfort of the equipment, you are spared from having to buy expensive equipment, and pay for hardware only when you need to use it. The leased equipment also provides for a number of specialists to quickly solve problems. And the most important advantage: your equipment can be located outside your country of residence, which in turn can save you from the visit of unexpected guests.
Do you know examples of cave DCs? Perhaps such craftsmen live in your home, or you yourself have set up a small stand? Share your experience.
Home data centers, or, as they are called, "cave DCs," play an important role in modern life and the development of IT technologies. Data DC, as opposed to large-scale data centers, are pioneers in testing server hardware. This kind of enthusiasts have a passion for IT and, as a rule, some of the first are starting to use new server systems, testing them in extreme conditions.
The reasons for creating such data centers are varied. For example: small web hosting, launching your own unique projects or just a passion for electronics and IT. Whatever the motivation, such a project in any case requires some adaptations, including both finalizing the power supply and network connections, as well as adapting and updating cabling throughout the house. We offer you some examples of such projects.
')
Cloud in the basement
Canadian IT specialist Alain Boudreault has in its arsenal enterprise-class equipment from manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Sun, Juniper, IBM and IBM BladeCenter. He placed the racks with this equipment in the basement of his house. His website provides a detailed overview of the installation, including diagrams of all components . The data center includes the Open Stack MAAS cloud (Metal as a Service) and several data storage systems (iSCSI and Fiber Channel).
“My first step was to install an electrical substation, allowing a current of 40 amperes at 240 volts, i.e. able to cope with a load of 9.6 kW / hour if necessary, ”says Alan. He teaches application development and uses his DC for testing. “Servers are rarely started all at once, so the average consumption is 1-2 kW per hour,” he says. The cost of electricity in Quebec is about 7 cents per kW. Briskly writes that this type of DC is not an activity for the faint of heart.
Data Center - YouTube Star
Some owners of home DCs post videos about them on YouTube. The most popular of these is the Home Center Data Project , another project in Canada, the development of which began in 2005 in the form of two computers in a cabinet and grew by 2013 to more than 60 servers. The project was documented in a series of videos that scored over 500,000 hits on YouTube. The rollers and website also document extensive cabling, cooling and network infrastructure improvements.
“This project was not designed for profit,” writes developer Etienne Vailleux of Hyperweb Technologies. "This installation was collected as a hobby, but after a while it quickly grew into a passion."
In 2013, the project migrated from one house to another. “Part of the foundation was specifically designed to house servers and air conditioners,” said Valle. "Currently, the project contains 15 servers, the connection capacity of which is 60 Mbit / s."
Surprise your provider
Sometimes people install entire data warehouses. For example, in 2012, an IT professional known as houkouonchi published a video of his rack that gained over 220,000 views on YouTube.
“The installation was not really in the data center. Not many have a full-size rack capable of storing more than 150TB of data, ”he wrote. “The rack is fastened through a wooden floor to the cement foundation of the house. A fully equipped rack uses only 1 kW of power, but its capacity is quite another matter. ”
In 2013, houkouonchi said he contacted Verizon, who was surprised to see a home Internet user generating more than 50 terabytes of traffic per month. Placing a server with such a large traffic generation violated the terms of service for the home Internet service, and he had to switch to a business plan.
Here is the houkouonchi stand tour on YouTube
Racks from IKEA
Why use standard racks for data centers in your home if you can place equipment in a stylish IKEA table? In one of the home data center implementations, people who are passionate about their hobbies have adapted the Swedish side table LACK to comfortably accommodate servers and network equipment by creating LACKRack. It turned out that the space between the legs is 19 inches. The same is the width of the standard slot in specialized server racks. Improvised units were created with the help of corners, screwed to the legs of the table with screws.
The lack of racks stimulated the emergence of many design innovations. Frank Dennemen, a PernixData technology evangelist, adapted the LACKRack initial specification to create a portable 19-inch rack.
“My home office is designed to be an office, not a data center,” Dennemen writes. “So I tried to accommodate 19-inch server racks without destroying the aesthetics of the home office.” You can place such a rack anywhere in the house.
What should the right mini server look like
So, you - the head of the company and decided to organize a server in the office, or just an enthusiast who decided to try everything in life and build a server house, basement or garage. It is not so important why you need a server, if you have already decided to create such a miracle, you need to know how it should look. Ideally, the server should comply with the standard TIA-569. The list of requirements for a room allocated for a server room looks like this:
- the minimum area should be 12 square meters, and the ceiling height - not less than 2.44 m;
- the room should not be finished with flammable materials;
- the room should have at least one double grounded outlet, and if you strictly follow the standard, in a room with an area of ​​12 square meters of such outlets should be 4;
- server should be located away from strong sources of electromagnetic radiation (server at a distance of 2 m from the transformer booth is a bad idea);
- for lighting in the room, it is recommended to use halogen lamps, “economical lamps” are also suitable, which will ensure minimum heat generation, good lighting and a high service life;
- humidity in the room should be at the level of 30-55% at a temperature of 18 to 24 degrees Celsius.
Stand requirements:
- rack width should be 19 inches (482.6 mm);
- depth is selected depending on the equipment used: 60, 80 or 90 cm;
- mounting holes are located on the vertical elements of the rack every 1.75 inches (4.4 cm);
- The height of standard posts is 6.12, 20, 42 U, etc.
The optimal temperature for server operation is 20 degrees Celsius. This does not mean that such a temperature should be in the whole room, it should be at least in a rack with servers. And if you cannot afford to buy a server cabinet with cooling or air conditioning, then you can solve this problem with the help of ordinary home fans, displaying ingenuity and collecting a rack from them that will perform the same function as the cooling door in the server cabinet.
To minimize potential power problems, use an uninterruptible power supply. A 5-6 kVA UPS is best, but if your budget is limited, or you do not plan to use powerful equipment in large volumes, but want only 3 or 4 cars, for example, you can use a weaker UPS on your own risk. Sales consultants can offer you UPSs with different topologies: Line-Interactive UPS, Passive Standby (Off-Line) UPS and Double-Conversion (On-Line) UPS. Manufacturers claim that Line-Interactive UPS is the best option for home servers, but this is not true. Still, the best option is a UPS with On-Line UPS (continuous) topology, for example, APC Smart-UPS RT 5000VA.
These tips - this is the main thing you need to know for arranging the server and comfortable work of your equipment.
I would like to add that no matter how tempting the prospect of hosting servers at home is, it is worth remembering and realizing that it will be quite difficult to achieve acceptable uptime at home. As an example, I will give a few words from the forum .
Uptime even close to 5 minutes a year will not be due to the human factor. This is what happened in my practice and led to such low uptime:
- forgot to pay for the Internet;
- the screw in the server died, there was no raid;
- clogged with dust - must be cleaned;
- dead fan - must be changed;
- hit the wire;
- The server was used as a file manager, the place ran out because they recorded several movies;
- the linux core has not been updated, the computer has not left the reboot;
- the provider dramatically changed the dns settings;
- the light blinked;
- parents decided to wash the floors;
- fell out of the connector sata-cable;
- The wi-fi card that was distributing the Internet hung sharply and put the computer into a stupor, etc.
It is also necessary to remember that:
- this idea is not cheap;
- It will be difficult for you to provide optimal conditions for server operation;
- in case of fire, etc. You risk not only data and equipment, but also your living space;
- constantly monitor the operation of servers is possible only if you are constantly within the quick reach of your server;
- during long trips, your project will be frozen, since leaving the equipment turned on without revision is a big risk.
Rent equipment in DC is much more appropriate. There your equipment is always supervised. In addition, DCs are built exclusively for servers and are optimized for maximum comfort of the equipment, you are spared from having to buy expensive equipment, and pay for hardware only when you need to use it. The leased equipment also provides for a number of specialists to quickly solve problems. And the most important advantage: your equipment can be located outside your country of residence, which in turn can save you from the visit of unexpected guests.
10 signs that you are a server server
- You prefer large rooms with air conditioning and a minimum of upholstered furniture, as well as with fluorescent lighting;
- the constant hum and white noise soothes you;
- the use of a digital fingerprint or manual biometrics to gain access to the rooms still interests you;
- You cannot pass by dirty or disorganized cable connections without expressing disapproval or shaking your head;
- flashing green or yellow light has a calming, almost hypnotic effect when you look at it;
- You like the feeling of cold from metal racks, you often strive to touch them;
- You think that the cloud is the same as virtualization, something that you should ever pay attention to, but for now you need to solve the current problems of users;
- You believe that cloud data is not secure, no matter what the provider tells you;
- You have your own thoughts on how to improve equipment performance through direct impact (for example, replacement of elements);
- You have a passion for computer equipment, always trying to improve it and find non-standard solutions for optimal performance.
Do you know examples of cave DCs? Perhaps such craftsmen live in your home, or you yourself have set up a small stand? Share your experience.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/236217/
All Articles