[geeks] Dell T105 server arrives

[Mark]

On 1 Apr 2008, at 23:01, Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>
>>> How many people burn DVDs in a Server. Seriously?
>
> Everyone who needs backups and can't afford the extremely high cost  
> of tape... :)

3 words: external hard drive. I mean you could use a USB burner if you  
had to...

>> That's... erm... to stop people.. switching it off? I sure as hell  
>> wouldn't want a hard power switch stuck out of  the back of our  
>> server. Certain folks would take it as a quick reboot switch.
>
> Sun, SGI, HP, Cray, or IBM servers, mainframes, and  
> supercomputers... they all have hard power switches.

Well taking aside rack-mount units, they are usually locked in data  
centers, or server rooms and in a rack it's hard to reach the back.  
SGIs... I only have 3 and all are soft power, but ok. Again though  
workstations like that are used in a certain professional environment,  
although admittedly not all SGI users were that clued up.

You miss a vital point about the low-end Dell server range. They are  
intended for office environments where (and I speak from experience)  
it doesn't matter how many times you tell people NOT to use THAT  
switch, use the one on the front they won't listen, because that's how  
they used to turn off the electric typewriter in 1981, so it's good  
enough for a server. I know everyone here rails against making stuff  
idiot roof, but honestly sometimes it's the only way to actually  
ensure stuff doesn't get broken.

> All of my Sun, DEC, and SGI systems have hard switches, and it has  
> never caused a problem.

Not with you. I wasn't implying you were the reason they didn't put  
one on the T105 :)

> Not sure what you are getting at here.

It's an anti-stupidity weapon designed to safeguard the server in the  
environment it's designed to work in.

> They are usually on the back or otherwise hidden, so it is rarely a  
> problem.

Our sever is stood on a table with 3 sides exposed for better through  
airflow. It's not in the main office and I thankfully work somewhere  
where that box at least gets treated with enough respect. I'm aware  
some people don't, however. A T105 could easy be mistaken for a normal  
PC too, whereas our server (a P1800) couldn't really :)

> Where it was a problem in the past was when hard power, software  
> power, and reset were all unprotected switches on the front, and  
> easy to press.

It's a problem in some environments if it even exists :P


-- 
Mark Benson

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