New server came in--UPDATED with pics...56k beware

blade_146 · Post by **blade_146** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 1:51 pm

Here at the school we got our new IBM Blade Server in today. What a huge rack it came in. For the time being we are hooking up 3 of our 8 schools to it to get the bugs and kinks worked out as we are migrating from Novell to Server 08. We have Left Hand SANS also with 16 terabytes of storage I believe. Ill get some picks when I can. Shes a beauty!!

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 8:01 pm

cool...post up the details. we have a few blade enclosures at work with a mix of half and full-height blades. the last few i set up also took advantage of the mezzanine cards...pretty slick to use those instead of standard HBAs and such.

blade_146 · Post by **blade_146** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:35 pm

Heres a few pics of the new and old setup. We finally got to fire her up this afternoon and man those blade blowers move some freakin air!!

New rack
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... t=rack.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... 8/rack.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Left Hand SANS with 9 terabytes. Thought we had 16 but they took the lower bid.
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... t=sans.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... 8/sans.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Tape backup and KVM
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... t=tape.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... 8/tape.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

The Blades!! Only running 3 atm but will eventually move to 8.
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... blades.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... blades.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Back side of blades wiring in progress
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... t=back.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... 8/back.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Finished wiring job

<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... wiring.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... wiring.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Now the old shit

Old rack
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... ldrack.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... ldrack.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Old IBM and other crap
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... server.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... server.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Like the 2 servers on top? lol
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... rejunk.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... rejunk.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Fiber and ingress
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... =fiber.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... /fiber.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

A wiring nightmare that i refuse to touch. It doesnt bother the Admin so why should i worry

<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... remess.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... remess.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Just your friendly "tech guy" as Im called at work

mile
<a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... geek-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg25 ... geek-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:49 am

I know most larger UPSs and possibly servers have 220V inputs. How soon will it be before they need 3phase power to run properly?

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 4:02 am

I totally couldn't stand that wiring. I would spend my first week working there fixing & labeling it. But I'm told that I'm anal.

b-man1 · Post by **b-man1** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:32 am

nice...thanks for sharing the pics. my management would EXPLODE if we had cable management like that, but be glad yours does not mind.

that specific rack doesn't look too bad to clean up, but you still need the down-time to do it (i.e., computer guy working in the middle of the night again).

i can look into sharing some pics of what i see at work day-to-day...but i have to make sure that is allowed (i don't know if datacenter pics are "confidential" or something goofy).

blade_146 · Post by **blade_146** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 8:40 am

Actually Im pretty anal as well as Ive never seen wiring that bad and it is a HUGE pain to work with when something goes down because absolutely nothing is labeled. Even worse is that we have switches in the hallway ceilings all over the school and guess what...none of those are labeled either. So if a room goes down its literally a process of popping ceiling tiles and toning lines...for a while til you find it. I hate it but I love my job. Ive just gotten used to it. They have talked about gutting the whole school and rewiring it sometime in the near future and I hope they do. That would be a huge job as there is like 15 yrs worth of wadded up cables in the attic. Nothing has ever been taken out when new lines were added or replaced. But hey, at least my wiring on the new rack looks decent lol

normalicy · Post by **normalicy** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:23 am

Maybe the crazy wiring is some sort of job security. If it looks like a puzzle, no one else will mess with it & just let the "tech guy" handle it.

blade_146 · Post by **blade_146** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:21 am

Lol I like the way you think!! Yeah the admin says he has "cleaned it up alot"
ummmm yessir capn'

Key Keeper · Post by **Key Keeper** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:02 pm

I need to shoot some photos of the server room at the college....Just the cooling system they have for its a work of art. Looks like something off of Mission Impossible.