[Beowulf] clustering using off the shelf systems in a fish tank full of oil.

[Jonathan Aquilina]

On 12/28/2011 12:43 PM, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>
> On Dec 28, 2011, at 7:06 PM, Jonathan Aquilina wrote:
>
>> On 12/28/2011 11:30 AM, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote:
>>>
>>> On 12/28/11 8:18 AM, "Jonathan Aquilina"<eagles051387 at gmail.com>  
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Was thinking that after i sent the email.
>>>>
>>>> I think the solution to part one of your answer Prentice is the 
>>>> following.
>>>>
>>>> You would have spare machines on hand that you would swap out with a
>>>> faulty machine allowing you the necessary time to replace parts as
>>>> needed with out the risk of spilling the oil on the floor and creating
>>>> any hazards in the workplace.
>>>
>>> And you'll have your oily floor "service depot" somewhere else...  (and
>>> you'll still have oily floors under your racks.. Oil WILL move 
>>> through the
>>> wires by capillary attraction and/or thermal/atmospheric pumping.    
>>> Home
>>> experiment:  Get a piece of stranded wire about 30 cm long.  Fill a 
>>> cup or
>>> glass with oil to within a couple cm of the top.  Drape the wire 
>>> over the
>>> edge of the cup with one end in the oil and the other end on a piece of
>>> paper on the surface of the table. (do all this within a raised edge 
>>> pan
>>> or cookie sheet).  Wait a day or two.  Observe.  Clean up.
>>>
>>> Bear in mind that a 4 U case full of oil is going to be pretty 
>>> heavy.  Oil
>>> has a specific gravity/density of around .7 kg/liter.  It's gonna be 
>>> right
>>> around the OSHA 1 person lift limit of 55 lb, and I wouldn't want to be
>>> the guy standing under the chassis as you pull it out of the top 
>>> slot of
>>> the rack.  So you're going to need a rolling cart with a suitable 
>>> lifting
>>> mechanism or maybe a chain hoist on a rail down between your server
>>> aisles, sort of like in a slaughter house or metal plating plant?
>>>
>> Wait a min guys maybe i wasnt clear, im not saying using standard server
>> cases here.
>
> That's because i guess Jim had already given his sysadmin a few 
> flippers as a Christmas gift to service the rackmounts.
>
>> I am talking about actually using fish tanks instead. would
>> you still have that leaking issue?
>
> And after a few days it'll get really hot inside that fish tank.
>
> You'll remember then the bubbles which do a great cooling job
> and considering the huge temperature difference it'll remove quite
> some watts - yet it'll keep heating up if you use a box with 4 cores 
> or more
> as those consume more than double the watts than what the shown systems
> used.
>
> But as you had explained to me you only have some old junk there anyway
> so it's worth a try, especially interesting to know is how much watts 
> the fishing
> tank removes by itself. Maybe you can measure that for us.
>
> It's interesting to  know how much a few bubbles remove, as that 
> should be very efficient
> way to remove heat once it approaches a 100C+ isn't it?
>
> Jonathan, maybe you can get air from outside, i see now at the weather 
> report that it's 13C in Malta, is that correct
> or is that only during nights?
>

Honestly not sure as I am back state side till next tuesday, but it is 
possible that that is at night or during the day. As of right now I am 
not sure.

> Maybe Jim wants to explain the huge temperature difference that the 
> high voltage power cables
> cause default and the huge active cooling that gets used for the small 
> parts that are underground.
> Even then they can't really put in the ground such solutions for high 
> voltages over too long of a distance,
> that's technical not possible yet.
>
> Above me is 2 * 450 megawatt, which is tough to put underground for 
> more than a kilometer or so, besides that
> they need the trajectory to be 8 meters wide as well as a minimum.
>
> Not sure you want that high temperature in your aquarium, the 
> components might not withstand it for too long :)
>
> Anyway, I found it a very entertaining "pimp your computer" youtube 
> video from 2007 that aquarium and i had a good laugh!
>
> Vincent
>
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