The Big Bounce: New Server Fund Raiser

[SQ]

I am now ordering the SECOND hard drive for the full video dump! Yup, another $1000 donation has been made and received!! They did not say if I could release their name yet, so they will remain anonymous until I get an answer.

Keep going! You guys are awesome!! ^_^

Phade.

Never got an email asking. >_>
Anyway, I'm not sure how large this HDD is (dimensions/weight). Due to my location, you may have to put it in a flat rate box/envelope/whatever to avoid absolutely ridiculous postal rates.

I hope you reach your goal and have good a holiday weekend.

edit: I would advise shipping it priority. There's too much risk of damage otherwise. If you can't make it work, let me know and I'll reimburse you for shipping. Because depending what it ends up, I'd feel really guilty about you paying more than necessary for that, and my donation not being mostly a, well, donation lol.

Thank you for offering the harddrive!

[dragontamer5788]

Here's my idea: Why not go with something like DotBlock for the web server, DB, search, forums, etc. It would involve a monthly fee, but it would still be a lot cheaper overall than buying a bunch of new servers and worrying about hardware replacements if things go wrong. The savings could help make sure that enough hot-spares are on hand for the actual storage/streaming servers so that if things go tits-up, it's covered with no worries. Using a VPS for everything that isn't storage-intensive would save money and eliminate having to buy new hardware ever again.

You can't even compare the beast that Phade posted with even the best-of-the-best server on dotblock. The 2U Xeon blows the highest-end virtual server completely out of the water.

EDIT: Nothing to see here people

Can you give us a cost analysis and breakdown for the amount you hope to raise?

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. With prices continuously dropping like they do in the server world, we'll get the exact specs when we're done. The goal is to get a machine(s) beefy and reliable enough to last another 6 years of continuous 24/7 AMV-pumping.

Phade.

I had a big post about how Dual Socket Xeons didn't make sense for storage... but then I didn't realize you had a plan to replace _all_ the servers with one massive one. I would suggest actually getting a JBOD expansion and have it tag team with the wtfbbqsauce Dual-Socket E5 Xeon.

24-extra hard drives should be enough, amirite? 4TB Per and with 1/4th being used for spares / parity, that's still 72TB of extra space for ya. I don't exactly know how JBOD works (its probably iSCSI, right?)

In any case, consider saving some money for potential software upgrades as well. Software is surprisingly expensive. You can spend $1000 on just XenForo + some basic mods alone.

[Gene Starwind 21122]

I'll be donating for sure on Thursday. I'll try and donate $20 a week. I would love to donate more but I got bills and a mortgage.

[Phade]

He slimed me! Now I have to buy a THIRD hard drive!!

Drive #1 has arrived and the copy has started. Drive #2 is shipping to me now. Drive number #3 is now on order.

Who will be drive #4???

[Ileia]

That's awesome!

Can we get a progress bar or something of the sort going? We're already making good headway!

[Phade]

That's awesome!

Can we get a progress bar or something of the sort going? We're already making good headway!

Getting there. ^_^

The code repository has changed and I am being a dork about getting it re-established on my machine. Looks like we need a progress bar for the progress bar.

Phade.

[Radical_Yue]

That's awesome!

Can we get a progress bar or something of the sort going? We're already making good headway!

Getting there. ^_^

The code repository has changed and I am being a dork about getting it re-established on my machine. Looks like we need a progress bar for the progress bar.

Phade.

A simple image that is colored in every day (accompanied by a dollar amount) would be sufficient too lol

EDIT: Also, I approve of the use of Ghostbusters in this thread. Please continue.

[Phade]

It's quick. It's dirty. It's a chart.

[Shinzui IT]

Oooh!

[gundam1989]

Would it be possible to just have the on-going option of "Buy a HDD full of videos to support the site"? I'd love to buy one but you picked a terrible time for me to fork out $1000...