Hi all,
So, I’ve been working on a solar-powered server cluster, and so far, things are progressing well. Just today, I migrated the ADSL and its router across to run direct from the battery supply.
Soon, I won’t need 240V for any part of my server infrastructure, with good sun I will be able to run completely off solar, using 240V mains only as a back-up. The cluster already runs my blog, Brisbane WICEN’s OwnCloud site, and a few other things. Soon it’ll be doing my email too.
I’m in the process of decommissioning my old 240V powered server. This presents a problem though. The storage part of the cluster is a 3-node cluster running Ceph; each node having a 1TB Hitachi 2.5" HDD. Turns out, virtualising this old server will occupy a big chunk of this, and so I’m thinking about upgrade paths. There isn’t a lot of space to play with.
This photo shows just how tight space is getting.
The addition of that small embedded PC on the right meant making the rest shove over a bit. Anything I put in there will have to fit in the gaps that are left… which is going to make cooling everything down… fun!
So ideally, I need something that’s no more than about 30mm thick and can either be attached to the lid of my existing cases, or to the DIN rail that everything else is mounted on. Given how tight space is, maybe having a small fan at one end that can draw in and blow it past the drive might be a good idea too.
The cases in use are these ones:
http://mini-box.com.au/M350%20Universal%20Mini-ITX%20enclosure.html
The nodes themselves can get a bit hot and bothered as it is now, I had that problem when I was experimenting with Rancher a few weeks back, one node got very hot and bothered, with IPMI screaming at me about the issue. So anything I put there will need to force some air down to compensate for the crowding.
I’m open to ideas basically. I can see some metal-work being involved, and this was never my strong point.