Re: Getting the status of a Portmaster
Jason Philbrook (jasonph@sidehack.gweep.net)
Fri, 14 Jun 1996 09:52:55 -0400 (EDT)
>
> On Thu, 13 Jun 1996, Jacob Suter wrote:
>
> > > I've been using a Digicom modem rack for about a month and a half, and
> > > have had no problems yet. It uses quad modem cards, they're hot
> > > swappable, and the unit is generally very nice looking. My only
> > > complaint is the lack of rx/td/aa lights.
> >
> > I don't get the big advantage to the rack. Yeah, its really nice, and if I was co-locating
> > with the phone company or another organization I would take this route, but otherwise the most
> > hot-swappable easy to use setup is a bank of regular modems (like the cardinals, they run cool
> > enough to be stacked, and are easily stackable).
>
> Yes...but how many of these external Cardinal's are you dealing with?
> We're not colo with anyone...have our own shop...but after busting my ass
> building custom shelves so we can have up to 80 sportsters and 2 64-port
> term servers on a single shelf unit, the 64-port rack is _really nice_.
> We're about to use up our first 100 phone line telco box, and the space
> taken up by the modems and the wire mess is just getting to be too much
> to deal with.
>
> Standalones are ok for the small/budding ISP...but they just don't scale.
>
> Talking about scale...what do other ISP's do about A/C for server rooms?
> Our server room has around 13 servers and nearly 100 modems. I think the
> A/C is not capable of cooling that much gear. The thermostat stays set
> at 75, but the thermometer never gets that low. This is a store in a
> shopping center, and I doubt they had a dozen servers in mind when
> designing the A/C.
>
Next best thing is to keep the air moving, with some big fans or
soemthing. It really does help. This was we did when our equipment was in
our warm office when we first started. Our equipment remained there for a
couple months.
One year later... We have 8 computers and 100 modems in our machine room,
aka server room. The machine room is in the basement of our building,
where there are few visitors, the air is naturally cool, and wiring it
easy. We dont need a/c there. If things get too hot in the summer, perhaps
an oversized walmart fan at the most. Temperatures are about 50f in the
winter, and 70f in the summer in the basement, and the computer equipment
may raise that 4-5 degrees fahrenheit.
-Jason Philbrook
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