At 2AM this morning I went downtown to help Wayne and Stephen install a new Dell 1850 server to the cage. We like to install servers at 2AM in the morning because it has the least effect on traffic – most people on this side of the world are asleep. It’s also a bonus that I can park right in front of the building because nobody is there.
It has been quite a while since I last step foot in the data center. Quite a lot has changed. The most notable change is the upgraded AC system. The thing is so powerful it felt like being inside a fridge! It was damn cold! What hasn’t change is the fan noise – you can hear it even before you enter the data center. Imagine a room with over a thousand servers and each server runs 4 to 8 high power fans and you’ll get an idea of the noise level. And the fact that the AC system can keep all those hot servers cool is even more amazing.
We had to disconnect the TTZ database server and the main Apache server in order to install the new server. Some sites were off the net during this time, but it was only for about 15 minutes. I doubt anyone noticed. At least I hope so.