[tech] Recabling the machine room

Davyd Madeley davyd at madeley.id.au
Tue Oct 11 12:53:10 WST 2005


I believe we have now received all of the required cables to repatch
the machine room.

I propose that this is done at the beginning of the holidays (that
is in 6 weeks).

Since we are currently running very close to capacity for heat and
current, I propose the following should also be done:
 - Remove Cthulhu (the Accellar)
 - Remove the 10Base2 network
 - Remove the DECTerms and dodgy old VGA monitors

The monitors should be replaced by a single 15" LCD (that supports
DPMS-off mode) connected to the KVM. We can talk minicom to the
DECservers from one of the machines.

I would like to additionally propose:
 - the shutdown of machines with easily miagratable tasks (ie. nayk)
 - the complete removal of the colo network
 - Removal of the DECServer from the corridor, instead patching
   through serial from that side of the machine room
 - Some attempt to consolidate the webcam machines in the
   machineroom together (if this is possible).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On removal of the colo machines:

The UCC is not a colocation service, nor should it be. The club does
not exist to offer members free colocation. We do not make any
profit off this service, instead only offering it to people who know
the secret handshake.

Colo boxes are commonly old and shoddy, producing a lot of heat and
drawing a lot of current as well as being a liability for the club,
both in bandwidth costs, as well as being unable to monitor the
activities on them. There are activities, illegal or otherwise, that
would cause us to violate the Aarnet terms. I am not saying these
things are happening, but we have no way to ensure they are not.
Additionally, many of them are running on our secure networks.

Frenchie has suggested that we move them into a locked rack in the
clubroom on their own vlan. I would like to propose the radical step
of removing them altogether. Members with colocated hardware should
either move services onto UCC machines (if appropriate), ask the UWA
data centre for colocation (if appropriate) or purchase professional
colocation.

Alternatively, I propose we sell colocation at the special member's
rate of $70/year for 2RUs of colocation (traffic costs extra).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am going to bring all of this up with committee. However, I feel
this is going to be the only way to put a cap on our heat and
current consumption. We may not be paying for power, but we
shouldn't just plug in every old piece of hardware we get.

Remember, in the summer it is going to get hot. The University came
very close to blowing its 6MW allocation last summer. Continuing to
up our current draw is disrespectful to the uni and the Guild, who
are kind enough to provide us with these facilities (which I remind
people are a priviledge, and not a right).

--d

-- 
Davyd Madeley

http://www.davyd.id.au/
08B0 341A 0B9B 08BB 2118  C060 2EDD BB4F 5191 6CDA



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