Servers Now on New Hardware

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Themicles
Game Server Admin and Web Monkey
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Servers Now on New Hardware

Post by Themicles »

So as you all know I was on vacation for a week between Wednesday of last week and the Wednesday before that. You all also know that Poseidon failed once on that Sunday, and twice on Monday.

Before leaving for our vacation, I set up SpeedFan on Poseidon and configured it to send an e-mail to the text message address for my phone. In the event of the processor reaching temperatures over 70 degrees celsius, it was to send a message stating that it was over 70C and contain current temperatures and fan speeds.

The first text message arrived on Sunday. I attempted to connect to Poseidon remotely, and just as I was looking at SpeedFan, it dropped and was unreachable. After calling home I found out our central air was out of commission. I had someone at home set up some fans and turn Poseidon back on. All was well for the rest of the night.

I received the second text message at around 11am EDT on Monday. Again Poseidon was over 70C and again it went down after I connected to it remotely. I was going to try to copy the server folder over to another computer and start them back up remotely but was clearly denied the opportunity. I again had someone at home turn it back on, but it would not stay on long enough to boot into Windows. After that first attempt it wouldn't even try to power on at all. When I looked over the text messages SpeedFan sent, I noticed that each time the temperature rose, Fan Speed 1 was at 0rpm. That's no good. I figured that either the fan had failed or the motherboard was failing to drive the fan. I now needed someone to do a hard drive swap into another computer.

I got my sister to come over on her way to the family Memorial Day gathering. I walked her through removing Poseidon from the server rack, opening it up and removing the hard drive. I then had her install the hard drive into my personal computer (Andromeda) which I had already shut down remotely. I completed the process of redirecting ports to Andromeda and getting the servers playable remotely. It was during this time that the donations started coming in thanks to a bump from the team here. I had mentioned to the team that Arkon and I had already been discussing rebuilding Poseidon and that I already had a parts list of what I felt was the best upgrade for the cost using the latest hardware lines. The donations quickly rose to the total and I immediately ordered the parts.

The parts arrived on Thursday, the day after we got back from vacation. I assembled the server as soon as I got the parts out of their boxes. With the servers running stable on Andromeda, I then took my time setting up Windows and getting it configured for running the servers. I wanted to make sure to get it right before even attempting to move the servers back to it. I started by taking the original XP Service Pack 1 CD and slipstreaming Service Pack 3 and all the new drivers for the new hardware. I then had to convert the newly built installer to USB instead of CD as the new system does not contain any removable media drives. I had one bad USB installer forcing me to make it again, and one bad Windows install. After getting Windows installed, up-to-date, and configured for the servers, I was able to move them back early Sunday morning after the last few Saturday night players logged out.

The servers have been running stable since then. Hala and Ysgard each are assigned to their own CPU core. The full specs and link to photo gallery are below:

Photos of the build!

MB: ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM Motherboard
CPU: Intel Pentium G630 Sandy Bridge 2.7GHz Dual-Core Desktop Processor
RAM: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3 1333 Dual Channel Kit Memory
HDD: Western Digital RE4 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Enterprise Hard Drive
PSU: Antec EarthWatts 380W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
World Leader: Tairis'nàdur
Administrator: Confederation of Planes and Planets
Server Host & Web Monkey: Hala The Heroic Domain of Ysgard
bidocks
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Post by bidocks »

Themicles,

Awesome work, so far above and beyond what is expected. Thank you so much for everything you've done, and thank your sister too! I truly is appreciated.

:D

-B
Player of:
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nwmtrigger
Whelp of the Unholy Church of Newbieism
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Post by nwmtrigger »

Good work!

Loving the use of remote logging and so on that shit is so cool!

Trigger
Themicles
Game Server Admin and Web Monkey
Posts: 313
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:46 pm
Location: Michigan
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Post by Themicles »

nwmtrigger wrote:Good work!

Loving the use of remote logging and so on that shit is so cool!

Trigger
Did all that remote stuff with my phone too. Brought a bluetooth keyboard and mouse on the trip just in case this sort of thing happened. Was a bit slow going on such a small screen (lots of scrolling around) but it worked.
World Leader: Tairis'nàdur
Administrator: Confederation of Planes and Planets
Server Host & Web Monkey: Hala The Heroic Domain of Ysgard
Rali'vinee
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Post by Rali'vinee »

nwmtrigger wrote:Good work!

Loving the use of remote logging and so on that shit is so cool!

Trigger

+1

Wicked cool!

Thank you, Themi and CO!!!
[i][b]Arkon: "[url=http://wiki.ysgard.org/index.php?title=Rali%27vinee_Ish%27tarestacia][color=#00BF00]Rali'vinee[/color][/url] is at the same time, the most lovable character I've ever come across, and the singularly most infuriating."[/b][/i]
Rudiki
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Post by Rudiki »

*breathless tone, with accompanying body language of hands clasped at chest height and adoring look* My HERO!
13thHour : [Tell] *your alignment has long since passed any possible further move to 'sexy' due to reinventing the scale*

[url=http://wiki.ysgard.org/index.php?title=PCs:Lexy]Lexy on the Wiki![/url]
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