[HCoop-Discuss] Comments on Semi-Finalized New Hardware Setup

[Clinton Ebadi]

Adam Chlipala <adamc at hcoop.net> writes:

> Clinton Ebadi wrote:
>> At <http://wiki.hcoop.net/Migration2009/HardwareUpgrade#OptionB> I have
>> made an alternate shopping list for our new hardware setup. What does
>> everyone think?
>>   
>
> In earlier discussion, Adam Megacz (may he rest in peace) suggested not 
> picking Dell over IBM, because the latter's hardware is much more 
> reliable.  Does anyone else agree?

The IBM xSeries stuff is quite a bit more expensive. I've been chatting
with a few friends who do stuff like this as their Real Jobs (tm) to
help figure out what kind of hardware we needed, and they all (sample
size: 3; employed at GSFC and NIH and some ISP type thing... ) suggested
Dell server hardware as having the best price/reliability ratio.

Although it is only one machine, deleuze has held up admirably these
last few years (especially considering that it has been operating with a
continual load average no lower than three for months on end).

>> The final price on this is looking to be around $3500 (but we could
>> shave $400 off of that if we went with one processor in each machine
>> instead of two). Is this reasonable given our current account balances?
>>   
>
> The total amount in our bank account, PayPal balance, and pending 
> Checkout transactions is just under $6k, so we could afford a purchase 
> like you suggest.  All of this money is member balances, so it's not 
> like "the co-op has this money" and is free to decide to spend it.  I 
> would feel most comfortable if, before making a big purchase like this, 
> we got a set of members to agree to accept certain amounts of the 
> liability each, re: possible worst-case scenarios.  (E.g., the whole new 
> arrangement ends up as a fiasco and members depart en masse, asking for 
> their balances back)

I have scratched together a tiny scheme program to calculate various
monetary scenarios, and am going to finish up something on this in the
next day.

I think we should have a general membership meeting in a week and then a
board meeting shortly thereafter to discuss all things migration
(hardware, colocation, how to fund this, etc.).

-- 
Jessie: i thought your beard took the oxygen from the air and made it
        breathable for you