FQ WAlkthrough

[garyamort]

Is the review the the FQ facilities up to date? http://www.visionquest.net/ I was looking through it and it doesn't seem to have changed for a number of years, which may be because there haven't been any changes, or might be because it just hasn't been updated.

Also, what's the best method of pointing out outdated links/information? I've been using the "contact us" form and opening trouble tickets(no reason to post an outdated link/data only to make a fool of myself if the data is accurate and I misread it, eh?) but that seems like a wasteful drain on stafftime for relatively minor issues.

[Bob]

The overall review of the Facilities (Data Center) remains fairly static, new machines and racks have been added over the years however overall no real change in layout has occurred as far as I can remember. The network information is kept up to date as it has changed since VisionQuest was first introduced.

The best way to point out bad links or content issues is still to send an email to the Service Desk, Service@FutureQuest.net We don't consider those to be minor issues at all. :)

-Bob

[Kevin]

Lets see if I can walk through the images and tell you what has changed...

http://www.visionquest.net/images/DoorSign.jpg: The comma fell off and was lost.

http://www.visionquest.net/images/F-3.jpg: We now have an electronic temperature monitor that alerts us if the temperature is outside of a set range. I think that thing is still mounted on the wall though so the picture is still accurate ;) The new one is just a little box with power and ethernet cables going to it so I doubt we will bother to post a picture of it.

http://www.visionquest.net/Hardware.php: In addition to the 4 cabinets you see in those pictures we also now have 5 sets of wire shelving with mini or mid sized tower computers on them. All of the shared web servers are still rack mounted but most of the back end servers (email, MySQL, etc) as well as our dedicated MQS systems are on these shelves.

http://www.visionquest.net/images/Foundry2.jpg: We still have the Foundry switches however all of our new switches are HP ProCurve units.

http://www.visionquest.net/images/apc.jpg: We still have these original rack mount APC power controllers however the new ones are all the more modern tower shaped units that mount on the side of the cabinet or on the side of a shelf unit.

http://www.visionquest.net/Hardware.php: The part at the top about the 1U dedicated servers is no longer accurate and will be updated soon. We do not have any dedicated ISP1100 servers left. The only ISP1100 systems in use are the first 5 MySQL servers. The current dedicated servers are Asus boxes with either an AMD Sempron 3000+ or an AMD Athlon X2 4200+ CPU depending on need. They also use 3Ware hardware RAID for redundancy.

[kitchin]

Kevin, the colon fell onto all your links so they're broken. ;) thanks for the update

[Kevin]

Fixed. Should have known better than to let VB auto-format my post :\

[Bradley]

Kevin needs to take some updated pictures for the site. Specifically one certain cabinet. :rasberry:

[Bradley]

http://www.visionquest.net/images/apc.jpg: We still have these original rack mount APC power controllers however the new ones are all the more modern tower shaped units that mount on the side of the cabinet or on the side of a shelf unit.


Would those happen to be these (http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=70)?
I procured one off eBay earlier this year and it's been a really big help due to lack of outlets where all my junk.. er equipment is. I only wish it had web management.

[Kevin]

This is the model we have been using: http://www.amazon.com/APC-Basic-Rack-PDU-Zero/dp/B0007KPM88/ref=sr_1_1/102-7581792-4544969?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1190828786&sr=8-1
Amazon had the best price the last time I looked.

[kmc500]

Kev,

Please help me understand why a power strip costs $700!

Yikes.

Kevin C

[Kevin]

Because it allows us to turn each of its 20 outlets on and off from home. It also has a 30A input so it can handle the load of 20 computer systems. That also means it requires a special plug.

[Kevin]

Actually, those APC poles have 24 outlets. I was thinking of the Baytech poles we used to use that had 20. At the time APC only had 8 or 16 outlet choices.

[kmc500]

No doubt power-cycling individual outlets remotely is a boon, particularly in your business.

Still at nearly $700, it seems like there is room for some competition there.

Kevin C

[Bradley]

Pretty sure the AP7532 (http://www.apcc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=AP7532) is the one I picked up. Couldn't locate a model number on the thing anywhere and my documentation is put up somewhere.

I really would've preferred to have gotten one of the switched PDUs but that was a bit out of my price range. :blah:

[Kevin]

To us that is a ~$30 one time cost per server. It really isn't a huge cost increase but it is a huge administrative benefit.