The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

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CrackTheSky
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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by CrackTheSky » Thu May 21, 2015 3:55 pm

Hey so uh completely unrelated but can someone give me $1,000? It's for...research :uhoh:

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aesling
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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by aesling » Thu May 21, 2015 9:52 pm

So what happens if even the halfway mark isn't met? Would people be given their money back, or would you move forward with purchasing the server anyway? Like Koop said, I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but if I'm going to contribute I'd like to know what will happen to my money. :P
:ying:

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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by Niotex » Thu May 21, 2015 10:02 pm

Phade wrote:
Niotex wrote:I've stated this before, it's not hard to spec and price out a server. You can literally go to a website right now, add components to your cart and see how much it would cost including warranty. Additionally you can see how much rack space would cost, they have prices listed for this purpose. Telling the community what they're paying for and why that specific setup goes a long way.

And as asked before and promptly ignored, which is what Xophilarus could reffer to.
Niotex wrote:If you're wanting to do this and take the redesign on, I think it's only fair to be completely transparent. On both the hardware and the software platform side of things, as even a new low end server would be a huge leap in system resources. In short, what are you planning that would warrant a relatively speaking high end rack?
I am always open to suggestions on what people think should be done. Longevity is currently the goal with a physical server. We shouldn't buy for the now; we should buy for the future. I'd like to get something that we can put in place and not have to touch for many, many years no matter what we do with it. We have done this before (2009) and now doing it again now at half the cost seems extremely reasonable to me. I looked at several sites for servers including getting servers through business discounts at Dell and HP. Derobert suggested this server since he has purchased from there before and had a really good experience:

http://www.siliconmechanics.com/i57631/ ... server.php

If you would like to help coordinate server alternatives, I will really appreciate the help! One idea that has been tossed around is cloud-based servers and hosting. I know they are getting popular, but I am not familiar with how to plan for a cloud-based setup for the functions we need: web server, database server, search database server, video streaming server, bulk storage server. How much does that cost? How do we have a steady budget with no overages? How do we make sure the cloud host doesn't go poof? The last thing I want to happen is move to a cloud environment and then suddenly costs spike due to useage and we're skrewed or we have to get rid of site functionality because now we're paying for compute cycles instead of just plain power and bandwidth.

I've always liked the "you get this physical space, power, unlimited bandwidth," which is what we use now. We'll probably stick with this plan unless something solidly better comes along (I'm always up for something solidly better :-)).
See that's a lot more on track to what people expect from a physical space. However even then it's on the high end side of things considering it'll host a port of the current system and ultimately an optimized rewrite. Completely filled out your suggested rack with 5 year warranty and advance part replacement and what you're looking at is still only 9k. Where do the other 3 to 6000 that you're asking for factor in?

That being said, you're being a lot more forthcoming and open than the likes of GQ so that's refreshing for once.
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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by Phade » Thu May 21, 2015 10:04 pm

aesling wrote:So what happens if even the halfway mark isn't met? Would people be given their money back, or would you move forward with purchasing the server anyway? Like Koop said, I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but if I'm going to contribute I'd like to know what will happen to my money. :P
The servers must be replaced; there is no other option. Whatever funds are collected will go towards a new server. If we only get half our goal, we get a new but not quite as nice server (not as redundant, cheaper parts, might last only 3 years instead of 6 like our current ones). No matter what, the servers are getting replaced. All donations go to this effort. No exceptions.

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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by Farlo » Thu May 21, 2015 10:42 pm

i donated to the original golden donut long ago, so i should probably donate to this. can we call it the platinum donut or diamond donut?

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Niotex
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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by Niotex » Thu May 21, 2015 10:54 pm

Phade wrote:If we only get half our goal, we get a new but not quite as nice server (not as redundant, cheaper parts, might last only 3 years instead of 6 like our current ones). No matter what, the servers are getting replaced. All donations go to this effort. No exceptions.
Cheaper parts don't inherently mean less reliable. Much in the same way as getting a high end CPU and a mid tier CPU will last you about the same amount of cycles. One is just inherently slower, hence the lower price point. Nobody is advocating for shit tier off brand hardware here. :shrug:
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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by CrazyDreamer » Fri May 22, 2015 2:54 am

Okay, so we're currently running 4 main servers and 1 backup. Phade has offered to pay for a replacement backup out of his own pocket. He referred to the replacement main servers being "servers," plural. How many are we talking about purchasing here? A full 4 (which is my impression from the first post), or have advancements in computing allowed us to shrink that number to 2–3? I do like seeing things fully specced and priced, but $15,000 in donations won't quite cover three of those $5402 servers that were linked to. (Everyone debating costs HAS been multiplying by the number of units that need to be purchased, right?)

I'll probably donate after I've done my end-of-the-month bills. If the funds raised exceed costs, I assume that the leftovers will go to what donations always go to. Nothing new there.

As a side note, I'm against renting hardware, either bare-bones or as part of a storage service; it's too easy for the intermediary to get nervous about legal issues and pull the plug. I'm not saying they should; I'm saying that some of them would, and it's hard to know in advance which. This is a lot more disruption-proof. (Also, from a fundraising PoV, it's easier to get people to make a one-time donation than a recurring one, even if they average out to the same thing.)

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Niotex
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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by Niotex » Fri May 22, 2015 3:41 am

CrazyDreamer wrote:Okay, so we're currently running 4 main servers and 1 backup. Phade has offered to pay for a replacement backup out of his own pocket. He referred to the replacement main servers being "servers," plural. How many are we talking about purchasing here? A full 4 (which is my impression from the first post), or have advancements in computing allowed us to shrink that number to 2–3? I do like seeing things fully specced and priced, but $15,000 in donations won't quite cover three of those $5402 servers that were linked to. (Everyone debating costs HAS been multiplying by the number of units that need to be purchased, right?)
Uhh.. I'm bouncing off of the information that's given to me. :|
Phade wrote:We're still debating the exact configuration, but a single server with dual quad octo-core Xeon processors, 64GB ram, dual SSDs for system, and a big array of storage drives is in the $12-15k range. We could then segment the server for specific functions. That or we could go with different physical servers or something else.
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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by slimed » Fri May 22, 2015 8:54 am

i'll get around to donating the little i can later on. as suggested i agree a progress bar to gauge how far along this is coming would be helpful

i don't think picking apart every expense is useful at this point. Phade himself doesn't seem to know exactly what will be purchased and is still considering/open to options.
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Re: The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

Post by Phade » Fri May 22, 2015 1:27 pm

Well, that didn't take long...

imp made me do it! The first $1000 donation has arrived!! :-D

Their hard drive has been ordered, will arrive at my house on Monday, take a few days to fill, and then be sent off hopefully later next week! This means that in about a day, this fund raiser has already raised more than $2000 towards new servers.

This can still be you! I will be more than happy to repeat this process for 13 more people and we instantly reach our pledge drive goal. :-)

The challenge is still on for the backup server purchase and we are have an excellent start towards that goal. Keep going! You can do it!! ^_^

Phade.

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