Building a rack-mountable 1U chassis web server

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:15 pm

Legit Reviews needs another server update and this marks the sixth upgrade of the server since the site was launched back in 2002. This time around we are making some really big changes. The server will be moved from LA to STL and will now be hosted on a Tyan 1U rackmount server that is powered by two AMD Opteron processors and a bunch of Corsair PC-3200 Registered ECC modules.

The Brand New Tyan Transport GT24 (B3992) was used as we could cluster more together if more power is needed.

I opted to have the CD-ROM as it would make loading the software easy and since it will be located in STL I could make the hour drive to work on the server if needed.

Here are the insides of the server. The Tyan Transport GT24 has four hot-swap drive bays for SATA2 or SAS support, PCI-X and/or PCI Express expansion support.

Here are the two 1207-pin ZIF sockets for the Opteron processors that haven't arrived yet.

Each processor will have 2GB of Corsair PC-3200 Registered memory for a total of 4GB of memory on the server. Since the database of the forum and the site are smaller than 4GB most the of the database will be able to be stored in the system memory which will reduce the pressure on the hard drives and allows us to save money as we can get away with SATA and not SCSI drives.

The hard drives are due in this afternoon and the processors should be on their way. I'll post more pictures when more hardware arrives. How big of an impact will this have for the site? I'm hopeful that it will improve performance drasitcally. Right now LR is run on an Intel Xeon 3GHz processor with 1GB of memory. Without a doubt moving from a Xeon 3GHz CPU to a pair of Opteron dual-core CPU's with 4GB of memory will be an improvement.

Sovereign · Post by **Sovereign** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:41 pm

Cool, nice to see the hardware behind the site!

Post by **dicecca112** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 2:07 pm

I still say we should have stuck with Intel (j/k)

Looking good Nate, can't wait to see the rest

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 3:00 pm

VERY SEXY!!!!!

Be careful, i want to have a home ok!!

Post by **Illuminati** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 3:19 pm

Can't wait til the new toy is online!

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:49 pm

The Western Digital Hard Drives came... Just wanting on the two AMD Opteron processors!

Topher · Post by **Topher** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 5:59 pm

I expect you're mirroring those drives?

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 6:14 pm

It will have four hard drives and yes it will be running RAID.

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 7:23 pm

So this one will be able to stand up to the digg barrage that is hitting us lately?

Dan

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Nov 09, 2006 8:36 pm

This server should be able to handle the growth and when another server is needed I'll add a second.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 4:40 pm

A deal has been worked out with a local host here in St. Louis and the new LR server officially has a new home. The server will be moved from Media Temple to CyberCon.

Most of the Internet's traffic is carried by a few major backbone providers such as ATT, Verizon (UUNET), Sprint, Qwest, and Level 3. To ensure Legit Reviews will be fast, the new server will be located at a host that is directly linked to four of the top five Internet backbones.

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 7:34 am

wow, nice going nate. Cheers!

Dan

Post by **Apoptosis** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 10:08 am

processors have been mailed out...

Status: In Transit - On Time
Scheduled Delivery: 11/14/2006

Looks like I'll have to wait till next week... I'm amazed how quickly this all came together... All the hardware was picked out, someone locally was found to setup the server software, all the software has been purchased/downloaded, a site has been picked for colocation, the deal has been signed with the colocation provider... All that needs to be done can be completed next week and if all goes well in less than two weeks this whole adventure will be completed and the site will have a faster machine to call home.

Dragon_Cooler · Post by **Dragon_Cooler** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:21 pm

YAH!!!!!!

Home................ Quicker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pcrobot · Post by **pcrobot** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:17 am

The procs should be here tomorrow!

Post by **Apoptosis** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 9:31 am

pcrobot wrote:The procs should be here tomorrow!

If they come to the warehouse here in STL this morning I'll go pick them up... The UPS tracking page has no status changes since last week though...

Post by **dicecca112** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:04 am

lucky, Fedex is an hour drive for me, and UPS is on the opposite side of the state more like 3hrs.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:51 pm

A pair of used AMD Opteron 270 Processors are now resting in their new home.

After placing a couple pounds of copper (no joke) on top of each procesor they are not going any place!

The fan shroud was put back in place and the system cover was placed back on it.

Pushing the power switch.... and.... oh thank god... TYAN!

Waiting on the linux guru to get the OS and PHP and MYSQL installed on the server and then we are ready to go!

Post by **dicecca112** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:52 pm

outside job or someone from here doing the Linux thing?

Post by **Apoptosis** » Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:58 pm

It's actually an outside job.... Justin knows someone from work that does linux servers and we are paying him per hour to set it up for us. He is local and will be able to do updates on the server as new software versions come out.