Benjamin Smith wrote:
>What it comes down to is this: so far, all the servers I've been administering
>have been 32-bit P3/P4/Athlon alikes, so if a server died and we needed it up
>NOW we could go to a local computer store here in smalltown USA, buy some
>desktop machine, swap harddrives, press enter a few times while kudzu does
>its thing, and have a working machine.
>
>Now, we're moving to Opteron-based servers, and I just was wondering if it's
>reasonable to expect that, in a worst-case scenario, we could get an
>Athlon/64 system locally, and have it work, even if not optimally.
>
>Obviously, the Opteron is better and faster, but if the Athlon 64 will run
>CentOS X86/64, then I can be pretty certain that in the worst case, I can run
>to the local Performance Leet g4m3rz store, and get an Athlon/64 to get a
>needed database server back online.
>
>Just checking the accuracy of the data behind my decisions. (I've turned down
>Xeon servers for this reason)
>
>
I'm sure you already know this, but....
if it's THAT critical of a machine then it would probably be in your
best interest to have a spare or two. Whenever I stop using one brand
of server and begin using another type (at least in rackmount datacenter
situations), I always have at least one spare installed. On more than
one occasion, I've had the power supply fail on a Compaq or HP rackmount
machine or a motherboard failure. I just popped out the "hot plug"
drive(s) on the stricken machine and plugged them into the spare system,
flicked a power switch, and voila. At one of our datacenters, I
actually have a Cisco 7513 that's been hollowed out and is a stealth
storage bin for spare parts (the 7513's internals were immolated in a
rather spectacular PS failure/fire). 8-)
Cheers,
