NANOGers home data centers - What's in your closet?

Sat Aug 13 04:22:39 UTC 2011

On 13/08/2011, at 11:08 AM, Leo Bicknell <bicknell at ufp.org> wrote:

> Beyond that, a nice home file server, rsynced to something in a
> real data center each night.  This a combo of backup plus high speed
> access no matter which side of the home connection you are on.  I
> currently use a PC I built myself, which is good, but I would like
> something that uses less power.  I'm looking hard at a Mac Mini
> "server", with an external RAID (perhaps 2x3TB drives, RAID 1) as
> I think it will draw even less power, but I'm not sure yet.
> 
> You might notice a trend with me, low power, which means low heat
> output and long runtime on UPS, fanless so no noise, small footprint.
> Gotta have GigE to every room wired for desktops, printers, cameras,
> TV's, playstations, etc.  Netgear 5 port switches are awesome,
> lifetime warranty, small, cheap.
> 
> The holy grail I'm searching for now?  A GigE switch with POE,
> unmanaged is ok, and probably preferred from a price perspective;
> but with NO FAN.

We moved overseas and power/space/cooling is harder to provide so
out with all of the rack-mount gear, in with the efficient and small stuff.
I had a 42U rack at home full of various kit that I'd collected.
Much of the rack mount went to work where I've squirreled it in to a 
closet and use it to archive my mail -- much cleaner solution than the 
crap (Exchange with mandatory automated archiving) that IT provides.

@home:
X-Serves running OS X Server became Mac Mini's without much fuss.  
Rackmount Cisco 35xx's became 3560's (fan less) and I added a small 
Netgear GigE switch.  Moved away from the Nokia IP380 running pFsense
and back to a Soekris.  By far my favorite addition was a used QNAP 
from Ebay.  6 Bays - holds 4 x 2TB drives currently and has my movies,
music, laptop backups, family pictures, and so forth...  QNAP client for
the iPad has saved many a fight over the TV.

Still working on the Asterisk server to power the VoIP phones -- moving
from a 4U rack mount intel to a dedicated G4 mac mini.  Also bought
a Intel Solo Mac Mini for cheap and upgraded the processor to a 2.33Ghz
Intel Duo -- fun project and dedicated the box to PLEX in the media 
center.

jy