[HN Gopher] Planning for Servers in 2022 and Beyond
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       Planning for Servers in 2022 and Beyond
        
       Author : vanburen
       Score  : 56 points
       Date   : 2021-08-07 10:57 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.servethehome.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.servethehome.com)
        
       | pdimitar wrote:
       | That's super interesting, enjoyed reading it.
       | 
       | I am pondering of getting a good future-proof server Soon(tm) but
       | I have my doubts about how cheap (or awfully expensive) this is
       | going to be so I will likely settle for a refurbished Xeon E5
       | workstation (since I'd like less noise and the ability to cram it
       | full of HDDs/SSDs).
       | 
       | I wonder if the coming of this new-age SSDs will herald a price
       | drop in the classic 2.5" SSDs? I don't believe so because they
       | will be viable for a long time in the future still but I am
       | curious to hear other people's perspective?
       | 
       | What do you guys and girls think?
        
         | jlawer wrote:
         | Markets like web hosting will eat any discounted 2.5"
         | enterprise SSDs. Don't even mention stuff like chia.
         | 
         | There is such a large market for 2.5" storage that I don't
         | think we are going to have a large discounted sell off, unlike
         | say DDR4 ECC DIMMs
        
       | ksec wrote:
       | Cant wait for all of those to arrive. We have a sort of
       | stagnation in the past 4-5 years and only only just started
       | moving again. Network, Storage and Compute.
       | 
       | For consumer I really hope we will get 5GBASE-T. Even if it is
       | just one port on the Router would be better than 1Gbps port.
        
         | sokoloff wrote:
         | It seems to me like 10Gbps is already "cheap enough" to use
         | where it's appropriate. DAC (copper) is crazy cheap and
         | fiber/UTP are also pretty cheap. 30m (~100 ft) OM3 fiber is $25
         | retail; SFP+ 10G fiber modules are $20.
        
           | vbezhenar wrote:
           | How do you connect fiber? I thought you need very expensive
           | soldering tool which stopped me from looking at fiber for
           | home network.
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | Buy pre-terminated fiber patch "cables". They have ends on
             | them (LC is the common one) and plug in like pre-terminated
             | Ethernet cables.
             | 
             | Terminating bulk fiber does require special tooling, but is
             | generally not needed for a home installation.
        
           | tremon wrote:
           | The modules and NICs are in the affordable range for network
           | enthusiasts, yes. But I haven't been able to find 10GBase-T
           | switches at consumer prices yet. Do you have some
           | pointers/recommendations?
        
             | pdimitar wrote:
             | Mikrotik have 2-3 great 10GbE switches in the $250-$400
             | range, if memory serves.
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | Have a look at the Microtik CRS305-1G-4S+IN. 4 10Gbps SFP+
             | ports with an MSRP of $150 and a street price just under
             | that.
             | 
             | For direct connections (NAS to VM host, for example), you
             | can also forgo a switch and wire them directly on a private
             | point-to-point network.
        
         | dnautics wrote:
         | A minimal used 10Gbps switch from a cloud-provider grade mfg
         | (arista, cisco, juniper) will run you ~5k, which is pretty
         | expensive. But they are really loud and most people shouldn't
         | put them in their homes.
         | 
         | Microtik is probably good enough for most home serving usage
         | (honestly it would probably be good enough for a small cloud
         | too), and is much cheaper, and way quieter.
        
           | pdimitar wrote:
           | I am still pondering buying a 10GbE Mikrotik switch. There
           | are 1 or 2 models without a fan -- or such that ServeTheHome
           | says don't make a lot of noise but I'd still be super
           | hesistant to use those -- and I haven't pulled the trigger
           | yet.
           | 
           | Do you have any experience with them? Any pros and cons?
        
             | dnautics wrote:
             | I've only ever configured a mikrotik _router_ in the
             | datacenter and it was a good experience. We did not wind up
             | deploying it though so I can 't speak to it's reliability,
             | uptime, or anything.
             | 
             | PS hi pdimitar ;)
        
         | jonatron wrote:
         | Fiber is easy if you buy fiber patch cables, and just coil up
         | the excess. Copper just has limitations, I wouldn't be
         | surprised if there's no real progress in copper networking in
         | the next few years.
        
           | sleepydog wrote:
           | I've been considering getting fiber to connect two switches
           | on opposite ends of my apartment. The distance is short
           | enough that I could use a slim Ethernet cable, but even the
           | slim ones are pretty noticeable. Fiber cables can be
           | incredibly thin.
           | 
           | I did research, and the problem I found was that there is
           | very little availability for fiber cables of alternative
           | colors. Most of the cables I found that were the right type
           | and thickness I wanted, I could only find in bright yellow
           | that would stick out.
           | 
           | There are a few products like invisilight that are incredibly
           | thin and almost clear which would be ideal. However, they're
           | only sold in bulk to businesses so I could only find some on
           | ebay. It felt too adventurous for me to pull the trigger.
           | 
           | Currently 5Ghz wifi is sufficient, but its bad enough that I
           | refrain from doing anything that consumes a lot of bandwidth,
           | like torrenting.
        
             | candiddevmike wrote:
             | The color of fibre optic cabling jackets typically
             | signifies the type of mode/distance it supports, unlike
             | CAT5/6 where it's insignificant.
             | https://www.thefoa.org/tech/ColCodes.htm
        
             | kingosticks wrote:
             | Do you have coax connections in each room? If so, is
             | ethernet over coax an option?
        
               | sleepydog wrote:
               | I do not have coax. Power line ethernet is an option, but
               | I've heard mixed stories about latency/loss.
        
           | lxchase wrote:
           | I believe some prefer Copper despite length limitations or
           | interference, because it's less power and heat compared to
           | fiber and the receiver to translate the light.
        
             | wmf wrote:
             | 2.5G/5G/10GBaseT is probably higher-power than fiber.
        
       | candiddevmike wrote:
       | Really looking forward to reasonably priced ARM servers with
       | modular/beefy RAM. I don't get the trend of everyone running RPi
       | clusters with the tiny amount of RAM they have, how do you use
       | that for anything serious?
        
       | dijit wrote:
       | Something I didn't quite realise with the rise of "The Cloud";
       | many businesses aren't reselling their 3-5 year old Servers.
       | 
       | That notion only just hit me with the title, and I'm a little sad
       | about it to be honest.
        
         | siftyy wrote:
         | While this is certainly true, facebook, google, Microsoft, and
         | a bunch of other hyperscale cloud providers still regularly
         | dump hardware on ebay for great prices.
        
           | rejectedandsad wrote:
           | As many of them start migrating to more bespoke proprietary
           | solutions I doubt this is going to continue.
        
             | rb2k_ wrote:
             | A lot of these providers are part of the Open Compute
             | project [0] that Facebook created in 2011 and all the
             | hardware is open source. At least for FB, all the new
             | hardware is part of that.
             | 
             | [0] https://www.opencompute.org/
        
           | _448 wrote:
           | Do they?
           | 
           | I was working for a big US tech company in the UK. They
           | regularly use to give servers and computers for
           | decommissioning/dismantling. Once I asked if I could get
           | those servers and computers to give it to schools and
           | students who could not afford to buy one. I was told that it
           | is not legal to give company computer away. There are
           | restrictions on giving company computers in the open market,
           | even if it is free.
        
             | wmf wrote:
             | Hyperscalers _sell_ decommissioned equipment; they don 't
             | give it away for free.
        
             | mistrial9 wrote:
             | this is entirely a matter of policy and not "illegal"
             | 
             | source: used computers trade in California
        
               | pbalau wrote:
               | Is a matter of policy and the reason for this policy is
               | to avoid being sued.
               | 
               | Afaik, in uk, schools and the likes need to get
               | warranties for everything "donated" in an effort to not
               | become an e-waste dumping ground.
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-07 23:01 UTC)