Our VMware ESX server has been a Godsend, allowing my department to rapidly test things without having to obtain and prep hardware, but sometimes we really do need a physical box to work with. These 14 servers are Phase I of establishing a permanent Product Engineering lab consisting of at least one example of every motherboard and RAID controller we’ve ever offered to customers, along with a bunch of “surplus” machines that we can use for longer-term temporary purposes.
No more Internal Server Request Forms, yippee!
The goal is for our Engineers in Atlanta and Fremont to be able to do whatever they need to without local hands, and for us in Miami to never have to physically touch this stuff again. So when it’s all done this cabinet will have networked power switches, IP KVMs, and the ability to adjust VLANs on-the-fly.
Great stuff, but holy fuck that was a lot of work! I’ve never racked so many servers at one time, and I hope to never do so again…
Props to Provisioning Superstar “E.B.” for lending a hand.
