Server Fault Stack Exchange
Server Fault Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [hardware]

Computer hardware is the collection of physical elements that comprise a computer system.

There are multiple, physical components that are required for a computer to function. This is collectively referred to as the "hardware". The most notable components inside of a computer system is the RAM, Hard Disk (or hard drive), CPU, and Power Supply.

Outside of the case, however, hardware exists as well. Some of these components include the keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

1692 questions
467
votes
7 answers

Something is burning in the server room; how can I quickly identify what it is?

The other day, we notice a terrible burning smell coming out of the server room. Long story short, it ended up being one of the battery modules that was burning up in the UPS unit, but it took a good couple of hours before we were able to figure it…
Chad Harrison
  • 6,960
  • 10
  • 28
  • 41
163
votes
5 answers

Are SSD drives as reliable as mechanical drives (2013)?

SSD drives have been around for several years now. But the issue of reliability still comes up. I guess this is a follow up from this question posted 4 years ago, and last updated in 2011. It's now 2013, has much changed? I guess I'm looking for…
hookenz
  • 14,132
  • 22
  • 86
  • 142
149
votes
12 answers

Should servers be turned off at night?

There is a server that is used from 4:30 am in the morning until ~ 22:00. Should it be turned off? I think that it is a server and that it won't have a problem to stay on, but serious professors are telling me that it is dangerous and that HD can…
GorillaApe
  • 1,379
  • 2
  • 10
  • 11
75
votes
13 answers

SSD or HDD for server

Issue I have read many discussions about storage, and whether SSDs or classic HDDs are better. I am quite confused. HDDs are still quite preferred, but why? Which is better for active storage? For example for databases, where the disk is active all…
genderbee
  • 901
  • 1
  • 6
  • 10
72
votes
17 answers

Does orientation affect hard drive lifespan?

Are there any studies or evidence which show that mounting a hard drive horizontally is better than vertically for the lifespan of the device? Or upside down, or any direction for that matter.
Bob
  • 2,917
  • 5
  • 28
  • 32
63
votes
10 answers

How to extinguish a small fire in a server rack to minimize damage to surrounding equipment?

Suppose I have a rack with several servers and other stuff. One of servers overheats severely and either starts smoking or catches fire while there's a serviceman nearby. If anything similar happens in an apartment and there's a fire extinguisher…
sharptooth
  • 2,727
  • 4
  • 32
  • 38
61
votes
8 answers

Moving Servers Within The Same Building

Here's my scenario: I'm a developer that inherited (unbeknownst to me) three servers located within my office. I also inherited the job of being the admin of the servers with a distinct lack of server administration knowledge and google /…
Gareth
  • 735
  • 5
  • 10
58
votes
12 answers

What should I pay attention to when I'm buying a network switch?

Since I'm not a hardware expert, I don't know what features make a network switch a good network switch. What should I pay attention, when I'm comparing the different models from different vendors?
splattne
  • 28,348
  • 19
  • 97
  • 147
56
votes
4 answers

DIMMs: Single vs. Double vs. Quad Rank

What difference does the 'Rank' of DIMMs make to server memory? For example, when looking at server configurations I see the following being offered for the same server: 2GB (1x2GB) Single Rank PC3-10600 CL9 ECC DDR3-1333 VLP RDIMM 2GB (1x2GB) Dual…
MikeyB
  • 38,725
  • 10
  • 102
  • 186
56
votes
6 answers

Why do we still use power supplies on datacenter servers?

Computers mainly need three voltages to work : +12V, +5V and +3,3V, all of them are DC. Why can't we just have a few (for redundancy) big power supply providing these three voltages to the entire datacenter, and servers directly using it ? That…
user186340
56
votes
14 answers

Is UPS worthwhile for non-production equipment?

Over the years, I've had to throw away a quite a few bits of computing equipment (and the like): Several ADSL routers with odd symptoms (losing wireless connections, losing wired connections, DHCP failures, DNS symptoms etc) Two PVRs spontaneously…
Jon Skeet
  • 4,767
  • 1
  • 24
  • 17
54
votes
8 answers

How is fire spread in server rooms and datacenters?

Every now and then I read that a severe fire has happened in some datacenter, lots of equipment has been damaged and customers have gone offline. Now I wonder what is there to support and spread fire? I mean walls in a server room usually have…
sharptooth
  • 2,727
  • 4
  • 32
  • 38
48
votes
7 answers

Probability of Blade Chassis Failure

In my organisation we are thinking about buying blade servers - instead of rack servers. Of course technology vendors also make them sound very nice. A concern, that I read very often in different forums, is, that there is a theoretical possibility…
ChrisZZ
  • 737
  • 1
  • 8
  • 13
45
votes
1 answer

HP ProLiant DL360 G7 hangs at "Power and Thermal Calibration" screen

I have a new HP ProLiant DL360 G7 system that is exhibiting a difficult-to-reproduce issue. The server randomly hangs at the "Power and Thermal Calibration in Progress..." screen during the POST process. This typically follows a warm-boot/reboot…
ewwhite
  • 194,921
  • 91
  • 434
  • 799
44
votes
12 answers

Where did "Wait 30 seconds before turning it back on" come from?

I guess these are the kinds of things I think about on the weekend... When I was growing up (not that long ago) my parents always taught us to wait 30 seconds after shutting down the computer before turning it back on again. Fast forward to today in…
Brandon
  • 2,807
  • 1
  • 22
  • 28
1
2 3
…
99 100