[ubuntu-uk] Micro-ATX server advice

[Tony Travis]

Steve wrote:
> On Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:51:29 -0000, Tim Dobson <lists at tdobson.net> wrote:
> 
>> Hey there,
>>
>> I wonder if anyone can help as this isn't exactly something I have a lot
>> of experience doing and I can either start off in the direction I think
>> looks best and possibly regret it later or I can ask for some pointers...
>>
>> So we are looking at putting together a custom server in a micro-ATX
>> sized case with the provisio that it needs to be able to accomodate a
>> full height PCI/PCI-E card.
>>
>> Who does one go to for Micro-ATX server-grade motherboards?

Hello, Steve and Tim..

By 'server-grade' you normally mean designed for 24/7/365 operation and 
ECC memory, PCI-X slots and these days 64-bit CPU's. This is quite a lot 
to put on a Micro-ATX motherboard and cram into an SFF (Small Form 
Factor) case, but IWIll did exactly this with the Zmaxdp and Zmaxd2:

   http://www.flextronics.com/iwill/product_2.asp?p_id=36
   http://www.flextronics.com/iwill/product_2.asp?p_id=105

I bought four Zmaxdp's and three Zmaxd2's, of which only two Zmaxd2's 
are still in use: The Zmaxdp's were impossible to keep cool with 
standard Opterons in them and the PSU's were overrun, eventually failing 
and now passing the point of economical repair.

My reason for sharing this sad tale of woe with you is that SFF servers 
are notoriously difficult to build and even more difficult to keep cool. 
The Zmaxdp/d2 PSU's are impossible to obtain and mine can't be repaired 
now (most have already been repaired). I've now used the CPU's RAM and 
disks in standard 12x13 SuperMicro server motherboards instead...

>> Sorry, I'm slightly clueless in the land of putting *servers* together
>> and I wonder if anyone would be able to give me a few pointers in ther
>> right directions..
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Tim
>>
> Depends what you mean by a server and what you intend it to do.  Any old
> PC can be a server.

Not quite - Any old PC can indeed run server software, but 'commodity' 
motherboards are not designed to be run continuously and most of the 
motherboards designed for 'desktop' PC use don't have ECC memory.

I built a Beowulf cluster with 88 'commodity' desktop systems and it has 
been a difficult task to get them to run reliably 24/7/365. We got there 
in the end, but only by replacing about 25% of the 'cheap' RAM using 
brand-name RAM and testing it a lot using "memtest86+" and "memtester":

   http://www.memtest.org/
   http://pyropus.ca/software/memtester/

You should at the very least stress test your RAM for server use, but 
it's better to use ECC memory instead on a motherboard that supports it.

This site has quite a lot of info about SFF systems:

   http://www.sfftech.com/

HTH,

   Tony.
-- 
Dr. A.J.Travis, University of Aberdeen, Rowett Institute of Nutrition
and Health, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, Scotland, UK
tel +44(0)1224 712751, fax +44(0)1224 716687, http://www.rowett.ac.uk
mailto:a.travis at abdn.ac.uk, http://bioinformatics.rri.sari.ac.uk/~ajt