Comments on: New from Microsoft: Data Centers In Tents

By: mike

mike — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:18:15 +0000

labs.google.com/papers/disk_failures.pdf

Check out the temp section (3.4), figure 5.

By: Wooden Monkey

Wooden Monkey — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:52:44 +0000

They should start building the server racks out of wood next

By: Lucy Stockton

Lucy Stockton — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:47:18 +0000

Hi Ron, Funny Comments, Lucy Stockton, ATS

By: Cwilly

Cwilly — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:38:16 +0000

This sounds okay if a company wants to do it on the cheap. Too many issues though. Physical security? Weather that includes snow or hail, and temps ranging from below freezing to above 100 degrees during the year? Electronic engineer brings up several points about the effects on the server electronics. Not really a good idea for a company serious about their data center.

By: AM

AM — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:56:56 +0000

This is new? Not so much…

By: Blowtorch » Can you help a Datacenter out?

Blowtorch » Can you help a Datacenter out? — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:54:23 +0000

[...] our boys at Microsoft have flexed their intellectual muscle and gone one step further with Homeless Data Centers. Not only are they cooling with outside air but they also occasionally use rain and windstorms to [...]

By: michael

michael — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:52:01 +0000

Oh yea… but think of the DR possibilities!!

I could set up DRP involving an old army tent in the carpark of my (now a shell of a burnt out) office; pull the fibre feeds back from the burnt office into the tent.
No aircon costs.
No paying hotel bills – the DR staff can sleep in tents too – or their cars!
sweet!

I’m off to book a meeting with the board to float that idea!

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:58:42 +0000

Physical security???

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:29:34 +0000

Nothing says secure data like putting it in a tent.

By: just another electronic engineer

just another electronic engineer — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:57:20 +0000

Let’s look at this tent setup at a component level. I mean the PCB, capacitors, resistors, inductors, heatsinks (copper or aluminum), wires (rubber, teflon or silicone) and ceramic ICs.

In the tent, the electronic components are exposed to rapid and continuous wet/dry and hot/cool cycles (relative to a 24/7 A/C datacenter). The result is shortening the service life of the parts exposed. Under these conditions, the parts will reach its EOL sooner than compared to conditioned environment in these ways:
PCB will warp,
capacitors will lose its charge/discharge ability,
inductors will rust (the sealed ones are better),
resistors will deviate from its initial resistance,
heatsinks will oxidize (higher thermal resistance),
wire sleeves will become damaged (dry, crack, peel…etc)
ceramic IC, if heated when it has absorbed enough moisture, will crack
the solder joints, when the PCB and part above expand or compress at different rates, will weaken or break.

If the hassle is trying to save money, then the balance should depend on the intended lifetime of a server. If its intended service life is, for example, 2 years, then of course the decrease in the part life out of its spec’d 10 years will not be observed; however, if the servers are intended to last until it dies, that’s where it will make a difference.