Retiring the Server

I resolved my server crash issue, but not in a helpful way to many people. I never found the cause of the crashes. Instead I retired the dedicated server and merged the system with the new office desktop. That is the way I ran the previous office desktop for many years, with the office system acting as a server.

I ran the dedicated server for more than two years, but the merger made sense.

For some time I had been feeling awkward about running both systems concurrently. Other than middle of the night recording old movies, the server was powered on about the same amount of time as the office desktop. The server used about 69 watts for about 16 hours per day and night when powered down used about 6 watts in standby. Add an average of 1 hour for recording movies and the server was on for a average of 17 hours a day per week. With 6 watts of standby wattage that would be a total of 1215 watts per day. That will be a nice savings on the electric bill.

The new office desktop has a four core i5-6400 CPU and 16 GB of RAM. To date I have done nothing to make the system sweat. The system is more energy conservative too, idling at about 54 to 60 watts.

Now that the server SATA III server drives are installed in the office desktop the drives no longer will be bottle necked at SATA II speeds.

Another motivation and anticipated windfall for the move is less maintenance and administration. Less time with backups. Less stress.

I spent a couple of days evaluating and testing the merger. When the time came to move the hardware and adjust a handful of config files I was done in a couple of hours. Nary a bump. Basically just move the drives with nominal adjustments. Try that with a proprietary system.

There are a few remaining challenges. For example, I moved the TV capture card from the server to the office desktop. Now I have two cards in the office system. I will have to adjust scripts and support files for two cards.

Overall the merger was a quiet affair. So far everything seems to be humming nicely. I am pleased with the results.

I have not decided how I will use the old server. Likely I’ll keep the system around as an emergency system or a test system.

Posted: January 20, 2018 Category: Usability Tagged: General

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