[Beowulf] Q: Cooling units? Raised floors? General machine room stuff..

[Robert G. Brown]

On Fri, 2 Jul 2004, John Hearns wrote:

> On Fri, 2 Jul 2004, Robert G. Brown wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 2 Jul 2004, Jim Lux wrote:
> > 
> > cable to keep your ears warm, exclude room noise (likely considerable),
> > and let you listen to that 20 GB ogg collection we know that you've got
> > squirrelled away somewhere while working...;-)  
> Great idea.
> I've been working in front of a 46-node dual Xeon cluster for the
> last couple of days. The noise is getting to me.
> 
> > 
> > A phone.  One with a really loud ringer or even a blinking light ringer,
> > if your AC is as loud as ours.
> Agreed - I missed a call earlier, and my mobile was in my pocket.
> 
> 
> > He says as he prepares to descend into the bowels of the physics
> > department to work in OUR cluster/server room... sigh.  Comfort is key.
> 
> Of course, if outfitting the ultimate server room,
> the 19inch rack mount fridge is high on the list
> http://www.canford.co.uk/commerce/productdetails.aspx?productid=13-022
> 
> And I'm sure you can spare 4U for the wine rack
> http://www.canford.co.uk/commerce/productdetails.aspx?productid=11-231

Sigh.  Seth has such a narrow view of systems people performing delicate
maintenance tasks on boxes that are critical to dozens to hundreds of
people while drinking (unlike myself, with my much broader viewpoint:-).
So the wine rack is out.  The refrigerator, now, could be used to house
Jolt Cola or the like -- something on the "approved beverage" list
(although a hand trembling from a caffeine overdose could also make a
fatal mistake;-).  However, we can keep cola at 5C or so just by putting
it at the appropriate place in front of the primary AC delivery system
-- the air coming out of the overhead vents is >>cold<<.

Unfortunately, the room is locked with highly limited access, it already
houses mutant roaches from the old days when radioactive materials were
stored there, and the housekeeping people don't have a key, so we have
to remember to put trash outside where they can pick it up.  Computer
hardware is highly allergic to liquids, and we only go down there to
work on hardware innards.  Consequently we don't drink a whole lot in
the room of anything at all, and what we do drink (an occasional soda)
we bring in open and bring out the empty can.

This is highly unlike my programming style, which frequently involves an
open beer or glass of wine to calm the spirit and keep it properly
focussed on threads of possibly convoluted logic...

   rgb

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-- 
Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu