What to do with hundreds of spare servers

[xor]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

I would be laughing if there weren't some left wing nuts that actually believed that.

Disclaimer: This should no way be construed as a political statement against left wing nutjobs.

Lets hope there isn't someone right now at the CIA saying; hey Xor's got a point.

xor

[bascule]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

And using lots of energy which is bad for the earth, to keep people alive longer, who use more energy, which is, you guessed it, bad for the earth.

killall humans
problem solved

[streaker69]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

killall humans
problem solved

Better yet, kill all humans that think humans are the worse possible thing for the planet.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

Cluster the servers to run a politics-free weather model, and see if global/warming/freezing/climate change is true

i recall a news story recently about satellites being deployed to monitor all sorts of atmospheric and celestial data but at the last minute all earth-facing instruments were scrubbed from the mission.

the potential for some real answers concerning solid numbers about climate patterns, etc. was lost, but i cannot recall now what the popular spin was on that story (who killed that part of the mission package, etc.)

anyone else remember this?

[Lincoln]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

You could always setup some Rack Time rental program. Lots of people always want to train for certs. That's what I plan do to with my extra Cisco equip. You could install various flavors of Windows and platforms (exchange, SQL, etc.) and rent it out on an hourly or daily basis.

Only thing you would need to do is segment them from your existing companies network which wouldn't be too hard. Not sure if it's a profitable adventure but wouldn't take much work on your side.

(Also another idea would be a pentest lab, I know people pay lots of money for labs they can practice in. The more servers, the better)

[not5150]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

You could always setup some Rack Time rental program. Lots of people always want to train for certs. That's what I plan do to with my extra Cisco equip. You could install various flavors of Windows and platforms (exchange, SQL, etc.) and rent it out on an hourly or daily basis.

Only thing you would need to do is segment them from your existing companies network which wouldn't be too hard. Not sure if it's a profitable adventure but wouldn't take much work on your side.

(Also another idea would be a pentest lab, I know people pay lots of money for labs they can practice in. The more servers, the better)

Funny you say that... we have a full onsite CCIE rack (augmented by an insane Dynamips setup). We haven't thought about renting that out, but it might be worth a shot.

Two of us are studying for the CCIE R&S (myself included). Unfortunately, most oft the production network is Foundry based.

[astcell]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

How about searching for the next Mersenne prime?

http://www.mersenne.org/

[bascule]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

How about searching for the next Mersenne prime?

http://www.mersenne.org/

The only thing I dislike about looking for Mersenne Primes is that besides the Mersenne Twister they have no practical applications and looking for them is a pointless intellectual exercise. I'm also confused as to why the EFF gives out prizes for finding them in lieu of more important projects like Folding@home...

When it comes to using distributed computing to crack NP-hard problems, I'd prefer finding Optimal Golomb Rulers as at least that has applications in things like designing antenna arrays.

[xor]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

The only thing I dislike about looking for Mersenne Primes is that besides the Mersenne Twister they have no practical applications and looking for them is a pointless intellectual exercise. I'm also confused as to why the EFF gives out prizes for finding them in lieu of more important projects like Folding@home...

When it comes to using distributed computing to crack NP-hard problems, I'd prefer finding Optimal Golomb Rulers as at least that has applications in things like designing antenna arrays.

I knew people that were working on digital copiers. The math they used to create the code that took and translated the pictures was apparently in a book written by someone who stated in the forward that he didn't think there would ever be a practical use for his math.

The rest is history.

xor

[liberator]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

I'm kicking around ideas to make use of these servers for fun and profit (with the blessing of management).

Any other ideas?

Maybe a distributed cracking service?

Check out this project that is trying to break a few remaining unsolved Enigma messages from WWII: http://distributedcomputinginfo.pbwi...eaking_Project

[FarmerPete]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

While I'm sure many of these projects people are mentioning are noble, (I have participated in my fair share of these over the years) I doubt management will give the green light on anything that doesn't involve revenue. It's hard to justify the electric bill these servers will cost. Even assuming your systems are using 200 watts, 200 watts * 100 servers = 20 kwh or $2 an hour, $48 a day, and $17520 a year. That's not even taking into account the secondary costs (which could EASILY be even higher) such as climate control.

Do you plan on needing these systems in the near future? I'm just wondering if you are trying to find a long term revenue stream or a short term way to make a bit of cash while the regular business is down.

[telemonster]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

i recall a news story recently about satellites being deployed to monitor all sorts of atmospheric and celestial data but at the last minute all earth-facing instruments were scrubbed from the mission.

the potential for some real answers concerning solid numbers about climate patterns, etc. was lost, but i cannot recall now what the popular spin was on that story (who killed that part of the mission package, etc.)

anyone else remember this?

Sounds conspiracy-theory. NASA has a large project called the EOS (Earth Observation System). It is comprised of a number of instruments on various satellites. They collect lots of data on the atmosphere, database it, and make it available.

Cloud data, temperature data, ocean temperature data, the atmosphere makeup between a satellite and the earth by shooting a laser down... pretty wild stuff. It's all running, and being updated routinely.

See free data and all the satellite / sensor docs:

http://eospso.gsfc.nasa.gov/

(And as far as the hosting systems, rainbow tables?)

[telemonster]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

While I'm sure many of these projects people are mentioning are noble, (I have participated in my fair share of these over the years) I doubt management will give the green light on anything that doesn't involve revenue. It's hard to justify the electric bill these servers will cost. Even assuming your systems are using 200 watts, 200 watts * 100 servers = 20 kwh or $2 an hour, $48 a day, and $17520 a year. That's not even taking into account the secondary costs (which could EASILY be even higher) such as climate control.

Do you plan on needing these systems in the near future? I'm just wondering if you are trying to find a long term revenue stream or a short term way to make a bit of cash while the regular business is down.

Many data centers that do co-location bill for the power drop, not for the actual usage. So to the customers, what the equipment consumes isn't an issue. You pay for the circuits or full racks. It would be cool if you could get a discount if you weren't fully loading the power, but probably not the case.

Management might be more afraid of liability issues.

[IamReck]

Re: What to do with hundreds of spare servers

Password recovery for your clients potentially, and selling to Hollywood sounds like a good idea.

Better yet, donate it to someone that needs the computing power for a paper that they plan on submitting to Defcon or a presentation.