So, I got a 14U server rack that fits in my closet...

[Jade]

The logistics here don't seem to have been planned out at all.  To break it down:

Power: Your parents would be pissed to see their electric bill with that gear running.  Even if you live on your own, the electric costs would be far more than you could make from trying to sell out the gear.

Heat: You want to put this in a closet?  I have a small rack in my office that runs most of our networking, VoIP, and misc network storage at Coke.  And even this small bit of gear puts out enough heat that my office has it's own dedicated A/C unit to keep things cool.  Closets have zero air flow.

Noise: Pretty obvious.  And if your plan on eliminating noise is to 'close the door', then see the above.

Redundancy (Power): You would need fairly massive APC units, since generators are obviously out of the question.  These tie right back into my first point.  The alternative is _not_ having backup power, in which case any time your house has an outage, all this gear goes offline.  I hope you like fscking.

Redundancy (Network): A single business line?  Absurd.  Residential/"Business" ISPs are finicky at the BEST of times.  Not only will you likely never be able to deliver what you promise on network speeds, but you'd be very lucky to actually hit 90%+ uptime any given month.

This isn't even touching situations such as professional hands-on tech work, parts shipping, or the fact that nobody is going to trust "gear running from my house, yo".  Instead of trying to make a quick buck from it, _maybe_ rack a single 1U and use it for dev/learning.

You pretty much summed it all up

 

[drmike]

9 servers sharing 20mbit up (and 100mbit down for that matter), hosted in a closet on Comcast business? And you think anyone is going to pay $60 per month?? 

L O L

I'm late to the party.

One question, is this a Comcast Business connection?  If so, well, not entirely unbelievable.

Folks poke at the line speed vs. a mere 9 servers.

I think lots of folks would choke on reality if they knew what some providers were running total bandwidth capacity versus their perceived mass of customers.   Can anyone say single gigabit uplink?

$20 a month is too much for a single homed host with lack of redundancy on multiple levels.  There is issue with IP allocation also.

It's a real low end model, so expect resistance unless the money is low end.  (i.e. Atom at < $10/mo).

 

[wdq]

It's a real low end model, so expect resistance unless the money is low end.  (i.e. Atom at < $10/mo).

I agree with this. Assuming you have just enough bandwidth, and the uptime is decent, the price would still have to be significantly lower than what another provider would charge for a similar dedicated server that's in a proper datacenter.

Not very many people are going to take a risk just to save a few dollars per month on a dedicated server.

 

[qps]

Also, something to consider is that if power goes out in your area, it's pretty likely that your Comcast service will go out too if the outage lasts very long, regardless of if you have battery backup.

 

[NodeBytes]

lol.  opcorn:

 

[KuJoe]

Having been forced to use Comcast for 6 months against my will, I would say this is a BAD IDEA. Aside from Comcast's conflicting statements about bandwidth caps, their routing makes me cry sometimes and their use of throttling makes me down right angry (they throttle ALL encrypted traffic so if you want to run a VPN server or use SSL on a webserver expect 1/10th of your total speed).

Back to the bandwidth cap, I was told by 2 techs, 1 supervisor, and their website that both Residential and Business plans have a 300GB cap before they turn you off while at the same time using over 400GB of bandwidth in one month, so maybe this is loosely enforced but not something I would risk with paying clients.

 

[drmike]

 that both Residential and Business plans have a 300GB cap before they turn you off 

I hope this is some regional issue.  Not a Comcrap subscriber, but such low limits on plans across the board, that's just BS on their part if true.

Now if they want to bill based on use or something, I guess I can revise my dislike.

 

[Aldryic C'boas]

I hope this is some regional issue.  Not a Comcrap subscriber, but such low limits on plans across the board, that's just BS on their part if true.

Now if they want to bill based on use or something, I guess I can revise my dislike.

I've seen a lot of residential ISPs start to do this.  My own, SuddenLink (used to be Cox Communications here) recently started capping at 250GB.  Finally got them to raise mine to 500GB after I showed them I could legitimately blow through 250GB in a day or two.

 

[MartinD]

No. Just no.

 

[notFound]

True. But Atoms and i3 servers with decently efficient power supplies and single SSDs or hard drives, don't use much power and thus don't create much heat. The atom servers can run fanless or at least minimum fan speed so I'm not too worried about noise.

What happens when your pink knickers catch fire in the closet? But seriously, that's why datacenters exist, they have cooling, they have fire prevention, and the list goes on...

 

[KuJoe]

I hope this is some regional issue.  Not a Comcrap subscriber, but such low limits on plans across the board, that's just BS on their part if true.

Now if they want to bill based on use or something, I guess I can revise my dislike.

http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/data-usage-what-are-the-different-plans-launching

I should point out that this is not enforced (to my knowledge) as I've never had a single month where I used less than 300GB of bandwidth.

http://n3rd.info/upl/comcast_usage082013.png

http://n3rd.info/upl/aug2013_traffic.png

 

[drmike]

Yeah, I use to run quite a bit of traffic and use to have web sites hosted on site.  On site use to be  my customized block garage.  Yes AC, yes generator backup, yes battery backup, yes multiple upstreams (although not pulled from far enough points to avoid every scenario).

Ran that for years without any real issue.

Only real reason I quit that was due to moving elsewhere and no longer was an option.   Frankly, I'll take an on site server any day of the week.

Will I trust someone else to do that?   Maybe.  You have a generator with auto transfer switch to invest in.  You need another upstream too.

 

[drmike]

http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/data-usage-what-are-the-different-plans-launching

I should point out that this is not enforced (to my knowledge) as I've never had a single month where I used less than 300GB of bandwidth.

Uggh!

We need to split out the Comcast stuff World of hate for them and limits.

Take it in those markets they have an effective monopoly?

 

[KuJoe]

I know in my area and most of the larger areas around me our options are Comcast or CenturyLink and it's sad to say that CenturyLink has an even worse reputation than Comcast. For my apartment complex I am limited to Comcast only which is why I've been looking at 3G/4G providers like FreedomPop as a backup but cell service around here is hit or miss at best.

 

[nunim]

I would not, as I can get a $20-ish Atom server from quite a few sources, that are in a regular datacenter and I get 100mbit up/down.

This...

Why would anyone want to buy a server in your closet when they could get the same spec'd server at similar prices in a real datacenter?

This reminds me of all those WHT posts back in the early days about people "building" their own datacenter.

With the costs involved why would you not just colo that gear in a real DC and then rent it out?  I wouldn't trust you to run your own network, I surely wouldn't trust you to run your own "datacenter".  To even attempt something like this you would surely need FIOS or a similar real high speed internet plan, not Comcast's 100/30..  

BTW, is your rack from Ikea?

 

[SeriesN]

This...

Why would anyone want to buy a server in your closet when they could get the same spec'd server at similar prices in a real datacenter?

This reminds me of all those WHT posts back in the early days about people "building" their own datacenter.

With the costs involved why would you not just colo that gear in a real DC and then rent it out?  I wouldn't trust you to run your own network, I surely wouldn't trust you to run your own "datacenter".  To even attempt something like this you would surely need FIOS or a similar real high speed internet plan, not Comcast's 100/30..  

BTW, is your rack from Ikea?

Damn! That looks real useful. I need one for my room. I live a messy life.

 

[Tux]

I know in my area and most of the larger areas around me our options are Comcast or CenturyLink and it's sad to say that CenturyLink has an even worse reputation than Comcast. For my apartment complex I am limited to Comcast only which is why I've been looking at 3G/4G providers like FreedomPop as a backup but cell service around here is hit or miss at best.

I can tell you that Charter is just as bad. In fact, it's worse because you get Cogent routes whichever way, so you're fucked 6 ways from Sunday. Cell coverage here sucks as well, and our only other landline choice is AT&T (who annoyingly call us wanting us to switch - we just give them the middle finger).

 

[SeriesN]

What happens when your pink knickers catch fire in the closet? But seriously, that's why datacenters exist, they have cooling, they have fire prevention, and the list goes on...

FDC had shit

 

[shovenose]

Comcast is great here. 250GB residential cap is not enforced. I know because I use way more than that per month.


Friend has Comcast Business, gone down twice, each time less than half an hour, in a year.


What if I ditched the i3 thing, and just did 11 1u atoms for $20/month. Would people buy them?


Barely covers comcast not to mention power.


Again, right now the issues are:


-bandwidfh


-heat


Noise is non issue since the atoms can be fanless except for psu fan which is quiet.


Power is non issue because as I san I can get a lot of APC UPSs.


Have one for network stuff and 2-3 servers each on the rest.


Can I daisy chain UPS?

 

[Tux]

Can I daisy chain UPS?

I would not recommend this. Just no.