[BlueOnyx:16841] Re: Soliciting Suggestions

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Chris,

> However, this particular customer has a wife, and she 
> objected to the constant noise that had been introduced into the house 
> with the 2x 2U servers, a 1U server and a managed switch.  All those 
> little fans at high RPM's can add up.

Hehehe ... I can really relate to that. Back in 2005 I was running
around 30-35 boxes in small windowless room in my basement. Most of them
RaQs, but also some newer 19" and some repurposed desktops. I did have a
19" rack-tower (open, no enclosure) and there really was no other choice
than using this windowless room. The noise? Utterly and mindboggingly
incredible. My office was three floors up under the roof. I could still
hear the constant whining, which the open stairwell distributed evenly
to all rooms. I had disks in the servers that warmed up to 98°C
according to their SMART status. Ambient room temperature? No idea
exactly, but easily +45°C. Even when it was freezing outside. :p

When I moved in 2006 the new "server room" had a window. It was in an
extension building behind the kitchen and due to the floor plan the
noise didn't penetrate much further inside than the kitchen and the
guest toilet. In the dining room it was manageable and beyond that
almost nonexistent.

With the window in the server room I could also set up a (semi-portable)
air condition (2.3 kW/h) to keep the heat down during summer or to
provide proper circulation in the room when the "freezer" function
wasn't used.

With virtualization I had already started to cut down on the number of
boxes by then. Still: The consumption of electricity amounted to 20.000
kW/h per year to run a lot of my stuff inhouse. At todays prices that
would be between 4500-5500 Euro/year. So I was easily paying as much for
"juice" as I was actually paying in rent for the house.

And ... (of course) ... the neighbors complained about the noise. It
didn't molest me much, but due to the floor plan and the window location
it was now their problem. So there was the constant whining of high
speed fans through the open window 365 days a year. And about four
months a year the intermittent compressor nose from the air condition's
outdoor unit that sat on the window-sill. Especially at these warm
summer nights that created a certain "discomfort zone" in a 200m radius.

So for anyone considering it, think about these factors: Noise,
electricity and heat. To combat the heat you need more electricity. Or
open windows and proper circulation. But these distribute the noise
further than comfortable in a residential zone. The noise can be
combated with a bit of insulation (15-30cm of glass wool, Styrofoam or
similar). Which is cheap. But it keeps the heat in, too. Using deskop
systems (towers) as servers allows to use bigger fans with fewer RPM's.
Or water cooling (which I'm no fan of). Still: It might amount to
steeper electricity bills, noise and heat than your significant other
might sustain.

Plus: You miss out on redundancy factors. What if your domestic
electricity fails due to grid failure? In a domestic environment you
might have an APC (or two or three), but that won't last long. What if
your internet goes down? There might not be a "Plan B" for that.

In all these years the extra "flexibility" that I had with the servers
in house did lead to some prolonged outages due to uplink failures with
my ISP. Especially that one time when my landlord had dug into my line
by accident and it took days to get the phone company out to lay new
wires for me. A datacenter not only provides a better, more robust and
dependable environment than a domestic setup. Just because they have a
"Plan B" (and "C" and "D") and more options to begin with. They also
throw more weight around when the dirt hits the fan. For your domestic
utility companies (electricity, phones, internet) you're just another
"John Doe" who's washing machine isn't running. You'll get fixed when
they eventually get there. But not a week or day sooner.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber