41398685
submission
1sockchuck writes:
Will submerged servers come to Facebook? The social network is the latest company to conduct tests in which servers are submerged in dielectric fluid. Facebook doesn't appear poised to retool its data centers just yet, but immersion cooling is getting a closer look after Intel affirmed that the technique is highly efficient and safe for servers.
41254531
submission
1sockchuck writes:
The major Internet downtime incidents of 2012 illustrate the range of causes of outages — major disasters, equipment failures, software behaving badly, undetected Leap Year date issues, and human error. This year's top 10 includes many outages discussed here on Slashdot, including the Go Daddy DNS outage, a data center fire that crippled municipal services in Calgary, and SuperStorm Sandy. Each incident caused pain for customers and end users, but also offered the opportunity to learn lessons that will make data centers and applications more reliable.
41253801
submission
Lucas123 writes:
After dropping 20% in the second quarter of 2012 alone, SSD prices fell another 10% in the second half of the year. The better deals for SSDs are now around 80- to 90-cents-per-gigabyte of capacity, though some sale prices have been even lower, according IHS and other research firms. For some models, the prices have dropped 300% over the past three years. At the same time, hard disk drive prices have remained "inflated" — about 47% higher than they were prior to the 2011 Thai floods, according to DRAMeXchange.
41042135
submission
1sockchuck writes:
The U.S. Department of Defense will soon begin cooling its servers with hot water, converting one of its data centers to use a liquid cooling system from Asetek. While most air cooling systems use chilled water at temperatures as low as 45 degrees,it's possible to use higher water temperatures in tightly-controlled environments that focus the cooling as close as possible to the heat-generating components (see other examples of this technique). Asetek has been a leading supplier of liquid cooling solutions for high-performance gaming PCs and workstations, and is now expanding into the data center market.
40679849
submission
1sockchuck writes:
Facebook has begun running the latest Open Compute hardware design in its North Carolina data center. That's where the social network is testing Open Rack, which features a wider layout and a new approach to power supplies. The 21-inch wide rack retools the Facebook design to house three 2U servers per sled, compared to the initial use of a single 1.5U server per tray. Power supplies are now separate from the server motherboards and reside in a “power shelf” at the base of the rack, where they tie into the busbar at the rear of the unit. And then there’s “Knox” – the Open Compute storage design, which shares the enclosures with the new servers. In a video, the Facebook team also discusses its growing use of SSD storage in its operations.
40483071
submission
1sockchuck writes:
Putting your servers outside in a hurricane sounds like a bad idea. AOL says its new server huts remained online throughout hurricane Sandy. The unmanned micro data centers are housed on a slab outside a facility in Virginia, and are supporting production workloads (including the AOL home page). “We experienced no hardware issues or alerts from our NOC, nor did we find any issues with the unit leaking,” said Scott Killian, AOL's Senior Tech Director of Data Center Services. These rack-sized units have been marketed for remote offices, mobile deployments and temporary IT capacity for the military or disaster relief. But they’ve been a niche product, as companies historically have been wary of deploying IT gear outdoors in small enclosures.
40394375
submission
1sockchuck writes:
During SuperStorm Sandy, few data centers faced a bigger challenge than the Datagram facility in lower Manhattan. The storm surge from Sandy flooded its basement, disabling critical pumps. “It was apocalyptic,” said CEO Alex Reppen. “It was like a tidal wave over lower Manhattan." While companies like CoreSite dealt primarily with the loss of ConEd power, the Datagram team sought to recover operations in an active flood zone. Why was mission-critical equipment in the basement? Because city officials restrict placing fuel tanks on rooftops and upper floors, citing concerns about diesel emerging from the 9-11 attacks.
40144843
submission
1sockchuck writes:
Can you envision a server farm next to a pig farm? Or a landfill or water treatment plant? Microsoft is developing Data Plants that locate data center capacity wherever there's a source of biogas. The company hopes to create a distributed network of these "off the grid" server farms to power its global cloud. This could be especially helpful in extending cloud infrastructure to countries with unreliable power grids, Microsoft said. Apple is also using biogas in its North Carolina data center, tapping a landfill for its energy.
39949643
submission
1sockchuck writes:
Facebook has been able to use fresh air to cool its servers on 102 degree days in North Carolina, the company said today. The strategy, which it first used in Oregon's cool climate, allows Facebook to slash its power bill by eliminating mechanical cooling. To make its free cooling work in a warmer climate, Facebook raised its server inlet temps to 85 degrees F, a strategy supported by The Green Grid but lightly implemented in the data center industry, By fine-tuning its temperature and humidity range, Facebook was able to run its servers more efficiently in North Carolina than in Oregon.
39928119
submission
1sockchuck writes:
Google recently “gutted” the electrical infrastructure of its data center in Oregon to upgrade it for more powerful servers. The rip-and-replace was done in phases, according to Joe Kava, Vice President – Data Centers at Google, so the work didn't interrupt uptime. "We’re always changing things,” he said. “You may be putting four or five generations of equipment into that facility over its lifetime." In a conference presentation, Kava also revealed that Google has an alligator living in a pond at its South Carolina data center.
39761517
submission
1sockchuck writes:
The Open Compute Project has challenged students at Purdue University to develop a biodegradable server chassis. Although the steel used in most server chassis can be recycled, the OCP says it wants to "explore designs that retain the needed resiliency but push the boundaries of sustainability,” even allowing a chassis to be composted. The project aligns with Facebook's goal of separating the technology refresh cycle for CPUs and other components from the surrounding chassis and racks. The Purdue students will tackle this issue next semester, but Slashdot readers can brainstorm the issue now. Is a biodegradable server chassis viable? If so, can it be affordable?
39694095
submission
1sockchuck writes:
As flood waters inundated Moonachie, NJ during SuperStorm Sandy, the town's public buildings were soon underwater. Local officials and emergency responders regrouped at one of the few local buildings that was dry and had power — a SunGard data center in nearby Carlstadt. The disaster recovery facility served as an impromptu command center for officials, and refuge for more than 100 local residents forced from their homes. For the cold, wet and scared residents, the Sungard facility "was like a beacon of light on a very dark night," said one Moonachie official.
39466071
submission
1sockchuck writes:
Staff and customers at a New York data center have formed a bucket brigade to haul diesel fuel up 17 flights of stairs to keep their emergency backup generator running. The storm surge from Sandy flooded the basement levels of the building at 75 Broad, where the diesel storage and fuel pumps were housed. 75 Broad is one of multiple Manhattan data centers struggling with storm damage" from Sandy.
39373045
submission
1sockchuck writes:
Data center providers along the East Coast are testing and fueling up their emergency backup generators, preparing to remain online through any utility power outages caused by the hurricane. Major facilities in New York and northern New Jersey will be closely watching the storm surge from Sandy, which is projected to reach records levels of between 6 and 11 feet. At least one data center building is in the Zone A evacuation zone in lower Manhattan. For staff, the massive storm could mean spending days inside the data centers. What are the key considerations for IT teams riding out these type of multi-day events?