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Cluster Support
So, the Dell cluster (petal/swallow-tails) has run out of support January 25th of this year. As I found out when I called on 03/01/2010 with a hardware problem. So the question is what to do next?
The Dell hardware is now 3 years old, but still in good condition. The failure rate during those 3 years has included: replaced 4 disks, 2 system boards and power fans, and perhaps 8-10 memory sticks. Lets assume that stays the same for now.
Contacted Dell for renewal and received a quote for $60,000 for 3 years. Well, I'd rather have the monies.
Contacted SMS for renewal and received a quote of $28,250 for 3 years. Well, I'd still rather have the monies.
With tight budgets (amuses me, is the market not up 68% over last 2 years?) what would it take to do-it-yourself? Secondly, if the NSF proposal “recommendded for funded”, gets funded, would we even consider support on the Dell cluster?
DIY
So, based on the price information below
- $2500 buys a spare pe2950
- $2000 buys a spare pe1950
We probably should have one of each on hand. If a server dies, for whatever reason, the spare can be put in place, and more spare parts are generated (minus the failed part).
We probably do not need to be prepared to replace a failed MD1000 enclosure and can decide when it happens. We do need some spare disks ($750).
Power fans are the most likely to go, so purchase 10 of them ($500)? (That contains 4 fans for the servers in the ehwfd queue which currently have a single power source, leaving 6 spares).
The DIY proposal is then to spend roughly $6,000 now. Or spend it when things go awry. OR downsize when things go awray. Petaltail and Swallowtail could take over each other's services but it would take time, and be disruptive if it is Petaltail. Rebuilding Petaltail would imply wiping Swallowtail, and afterwards, reinstalling/relicensing commercial software.
Price Info
Collected on web circa early April 2010.
- Dell 146GB 15K SAS Hard Drive MD1000
- $250 or 14 of them $3,500
- Ebay Dell PowerEdge 73GB 15K SAS Hard Drive 2900 MD1000
- $125 or 14 of them $1,750
- Ebay brand new MD1000 (assume no PERC controller, no disks, no cables)
- $1,600
- Dell MD1000 (PERC6 (backup), 2×146 gb 15K rpm scsi disks, SAS cable)
- $3,498 with 2 disks or loaded with 14 146gb scsi drives $7,500
| Ebay | Dell Poweredge 2950 | 2x Quad C 2.66ghz,16gb (hard disks?) | $1,800 |
| Ebay | Dell Poweredge 2950 | two quad core X5355,8gb 4x146gb 15k | $2,350 |
| Ebay | Dell Poweredge 2950 | 2x Quad C 2.66ghz,16gb 2x72gb SAS | $1,900 |
| Ebay | Dell Poweredge 1950 | 2x Quad Core 2.66ghz,8g 2x146g 15k | $1,795 |
| Ebay | Dell Poweredge 1950 | 2x Quad Core 2.66ghz,8g 2x72g SAS | $1,650 |
| Ebay | Dell Poweredge 1950 | 2x Quad Core 2.66ghz,16gb 2x72g SAS | $1,950 |
