I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but does anyone out there use blade servers and if so what has been the benefits to their use/would you recommend them??.
Read an article recently about the heat problem with blade servers -- Google (which has over 10,000 servers) doesn't buy them -- they buy dual CPU Pentium III's because of where the curves of power consumption, heat production, cost of rack space, and computing power intersect.
Of course, your application might be different. For example, in the new Virginia Tech supercomputer (powered by 1100 Apple G5's), they had to go to chilled water cooling, as air cooling would have resulted in 60mph winds in the server room.
Thanks for the info and links, I never get a chance to get my hands on kit like this but have been interested in their practical applications since reading some articles on them.
We use dual PIII 1U servers at my organisation so it is interesting to here that is what google prefer.
Not to mention that they probably saved a bundle by not going with blades. Blades tend to be a bit pricey.
Didn't HP or Compaq or whatever they're calling themselves now put out a press release in the last couple of weeks talking about their developing a blade desktop?
google uses pIII because they don't fix them if they break who care they leave don't even remove them most people don't have that much room in there server room so they do have there up side tons of power on a small pack I would not want just pIIIs
In my opinion blade servers arn't the best solution.
Here's my reasoning for this. I work in a datacentre that has over 800 47u racks (nearly all full). Each rack gets a standard 10amp supply to it. If you put 5 8 port apc masterswitches into a rack, 1 48 port switch and the best part of 35-40 pentium 4 class servers watch that 10amp meter go right upto the top..
Power is becoming a serious issue in datacentre's now and if i we're to load a 47u rack with blade servers i doubt i would fill half of it. While its great having these high density servers there are cons. Most datacentre's supply 16amp max to a rack, this would be pretty much maxed out in my opinion. Plus their expensive and if the manufacturer decided's to discontinue blades on the chassis you have bought then youre pretty screwed.
Great idea, badly executed or just very difficult to execute.
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