[ale] Advice for old equipment use

[jeff hubbs]

Robert E. Karaffa, II wrote:

> Hi folks,
>     I've just put together two Linux boxes for use as servers for our
> clients.  They do web, ftp, AppleShareIP.  We use Webmin for remote admin
> (it's fantastic!).  The question:
> Both Linux boxes are old.  Gateway P5-200 (200MHz) w/64Mb RAM, two old IDE
> HD, and Dell Dimension P90 (100MHz) w/128Mb RAM, new 20Gb HD.
> 
> Having said that, these boxes are relied upon to work 24/7.  Data I/O speed
> is not critical, and with 10/100 nics they scream!  However, they're old,
> recycled computers.  I got them for next to nothing at our Surplus Goods
> Dept on campus at Emory.  I had RAM SIMMS lying around, the nics are new,
> power supplies and fans all seem to work OK (I de-dusted everything).  So
> far, I've not seen any trouble.  Anybody want to chime in here and offer
> their thoughts?  I don't want to have to think about this, but it's there
> and I have to deal with it.  They have monitors attached, but we rarely use
> them (shame to waste a brand new 17-inch monitor, but otherwise it gathers
> dust), so they power down most of the time.
>     I guess what I'm looking for is advice for the care and feeding of these
> boxes.  I'm not yet fluent enough in Linux to back them up in an automated
> mode (soon!), nor am I confident enough yet to figure out how to put them
> into a semi-sleep mode at off-peak hours.  Any thoughts are much
> appreciated.
> 
> -Bob K.
> 

I'm not sure that I understand your problem or, for that matter, even 
that you *have* a problem.

My understanding - I'm open to change, but I do have inertia so bear 
with me - is that the happiest computers are running computers. 
Basically, the less *change* they undergo, the better, and powering up 
and down constitute change.  You may want to do something to help them 
out in case the fans fail - perhaps one of those Antec slot-fan 
thingies.  You need to position the machines such that there is a 
chimney effect - air rises inside and is heated as it goes.  Generally, 
that's going to mean PS on top.  If the PS fan fails, you'd like there 
to still be some airflow there.  You might want to add drive coolers; 
I've got two in my file server and they work very well.

OH, YES!  Look at the dmesg output and see if the kernel detected buggy 
CMD640 or RZ1000 (?) IDE controllers.  If you have either one, you are 
playing with fire.  Something like a third of all IDE machines of the 
era have bad controllers and in some subset of those, they're actually 
wired up wrong.  There are kernel config params that you can select to 
implement workarounds for those controllers but that can't get you 
around any miswiring.  Generally, if you see those buggy controllers, 
best to just avoid them.  So look out for that.


- Jeff


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