Bubba on Rack Server.

[Strider]

Dear Friends,


I was thinking about a new and very interesting idea about the usage of Bubba ...

It occured to me and certainly to many other foks that a 1U Rack server with standard 19'' X 27'' = 482.6mm X 685,8 mm.

Weel I actually started to picture on my head a very interesting thing ... i picked up my ruler and...
My Bubba 2 measures 185 mm X 116mm X 45mm.


The standard height of a 1U Rack is 44,45 mm.

That combined with the thickness of the actual metal case means that Bubba will not fit inside.

But ... and there is always a but ... I did not open the device, but I am sure that without the case there is more then enough room for the PCB and HDD to fit inside the 1U height of say, 42mm (counting with the metal 1U rack metal case).

This opens a lot of possibilites that I would like to discuss with the Excito "crew" ...


Meaning:

In that configuration, that is: Bubba PCB Board plus HDD bellow it (the current Bubba setup as shipped by Excito without the black case around it) a 1U Standar rack can take about ...let see:


Lenght:

685.8 / 185 = 3.7

Height ... 1

Width

482.6 / 116 = 4.16


that means that Geometrically as it stands above a 1U rack unit can fit:

3 X 4 = 12 !!!

Twelve Bubbas inside (without the actual case).

This of course does not take in consideration an internal PS and a switch ...

And also this does not take in consideration possible geometrical space saving configuration like stacking several Bubba boards on top of each other and then connecting the hdd's a bit far away of their board.
And the actual deployment of a "diskless" or ssd configuration could be even More Interesting ...
I really did not see the actual inside of the Bubba so I do not know about the PCB and the connector and all ... but this is a very interesting topic to discuss ...


Now to the Bubba crew: Is it possible to buy just the Bubba2/3 Board and respective Hdd in order to arrange for this type of applications?
Is there a plan from Excito to move into thsi type of stuff: Multiple Bubbas on a Rack Server for colocation purposes ?

Also 2U/3U configuration can also make possible a LOT of stuff inside ...

Oh and to all of you folks, a Happy new Year of 2011.


Best regards,
Pedro

[LasseL]

interesting idea but with virtual servers a much higher service level can be reached. And you can fit 50 virtual servers on one decent 1u server.

just something to think about

[Ubi]

true, but when the CPU cooler of the host system dies, all 50 virrtual servers drop. But I agree bubbas are not suited for high-performance computing, especially now that you can buy decent second hand xeon servers for less than $200

[Strider]

Hi,

I am about to add a dual 12 Core Server for a customer and make it a ESX Server ...
the problem with that is double: Price, and Power consumption ... two thing not good for a Colocation scenario
Although the machine is a beauty!

But also this idea about ARM on a Server can go a long way ... very long ...

I think Marvell (design is ARM 15) is planning to make Quad Core ARM's for Servers and ARM is planning for the ARM15 to come out with 4 maybe more cores ... and lots of memory support ...

Now just imagine folks .. a simple and cheap system for a server:
Imagine a simple Baseboard or support grid with just connectors for Ethernet an power. Simple, snap-in connector to fit credit-card and smaller size discardable plug and play modules or cpu boards...
And more important the snap-in modules that go on that ... each module not bigger than a simple credit card.
Inside one can easily place a simple ARM system with 4 Cores, 2GHz+ and say 4GB Ram.

The supporting snap-in plug and play grid would be the size (more or less) of a 1U rack system.

A system like that would be killing!

Each module would have just the CPU + memory plus simple dedicated connectors to fit the basebord/support grid in order to have power and connectivity. Simple, snap-in , plug and play, extendable, reliable!
The modules, easily smaller then a credit card do not need to have the complex PowerVR graphic chips or nothing of the sort ...
Just google the net and some examples of that size are already available, even smaller.
A SoC like that is also not very expensive.
The base snap-in grid could easily be double-sided ... to increase cpu density ...

We are speaking about easily 200 modules+ on each of those things !
A 1U system with build-in networking and 400 - or maybe 800 Cores!

A Opteron 12Core 4 CPU system running at 2.2GHz with 64GB Ram ..costs ... a whooping 18.000$ at minimum ( configure one at siliconmechanics.com)
Takes about a 1400W PS ...

Oh ... that is 48Cores ...64GB Ram ... say 8TB Hdd.

A system like the one I mentioned above could be easily say 150 base modules.
That is a whopping 150X4 = 600Cores at 2GHz+ and 600GB Ram!
Hdd could be say 128GB SSD on each = 150 X 128 =19.2 TB !

I bet the overall price would be not much bigger ... and power consumption would be around ... lets say 150 X (6W /node)= 900W ...

Now ... try to compare that with any X86 out there ...

Also ... my simple system is not at the level of a 1U server ... but what about the price?
And power consumption ? Energy is a Very Expensive stuff at DC's ...
And also I think 1U x86 server can not take 12 Hdds ... A lot of application can leave perfectly well on a thing like that !


Regards,
Pedro

[Ubi]

150 x 128GB SSD disks servergrade = $50.000 at least

anyway, you just described a combination of blade servers and googles server implementation.

[Strider]

Hi,

Obviously I was not mentioning Server grade SLC (or MLC) SSD flash drives ...
If Google implements that stuff great for them.
Anyway I did not find any commercial offering of that sort.
And that is why I asked if Excito sells just the motherboard of Bubba3.

Regards,
Pedro