> I'm not sure that google actually does servicing per se.. they mark it > dead, and just move on. The cost to service (or even to diagnose) is > probably higher than the cost of just overprovisioning.
I would assume this as well. Over provision for an expected decay rate and life cycle. Colonizing insects figured this out already. -- Doug > > Jim Lux > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Robert G. Brown > Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 6:15 AM > To: Ellis H. Wilson III > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Beowulf] Servers Too Hot? Intel Recommends a Luxurious Oil > Bath > > On Tue, 4 Sep 2012, Ellis H. Wilson III wrote: > >> Yes, Google does house these containers in a fairly basic building, >> but there is no reason I can think of why it couldn't put them out in >> the open and run all wires, etc, into the ground instead. I think >> they just put them in a building for convenience to the maintainers, >> rather than for some property of the building itself that would enable >> the containers to work better. > > Google in particular, though, lives and dies by means of instantaneous > access to parts. A computer is to them as a mere neuron is to us -- nodes > fail in their cluster at the rate of many a day, and are replaced almost > immediately the way they have things set up. This is multiply economical > for them -- minimum downtime, minimum human costs (because it is EASY and > FAST for them to pop a node out and a new one in), minimum hardware costs > because IIRC a "node" for them is literally a motherboard, memory, CPU and > it just fits into a harness in the trailers, I don't think they even > bother with a proper enclosure per motherboard. Over the counter, > commodity, cheap, almost hardware agnostic. > > > > Which are all reasons that it would be a terrible idea for Google to fill > the containers with any sort of gas or immerse the nodes in oil or use any > sort of non-contained direct-contact liquid to cool them. It would take > ten times as long to replace a node, literally. It would mean (very > probably) that they'd have to "mess" with the nodes in some way putting > them in -- I don't see normal CPU cooling fans moving oil, for example, or > there would be custom plumbing to a per-CPU, per-Mobo water cooled sink > that wouldn't work or would have to be replace if they changed Mobo, or > the fire/explosion risk and need to pump down an entire container in order > to replace a single motherboard, which might come with a need to SHUT DOWN > the entire container while this was going on. > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, [email protected] sponsored by Penguin Computing > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > > -- > Mailscanner: Clean > -- Doug -- Mailscanner: Clean _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, [email protected] sponsored by Penguin Computing To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
