Cowhouse datacenter

From BovineNet

In my house, i have a small office downstairs that I use for my several computers.

[edit] Networking

One of the very first things I did after moving into this house was to install Ethernet cabling into all of the rooms by running the wires through the walls and attic areas. All of the upstairs rooms are connected to a central network switch, which then connects downstairs.

Because Decibel and I have quite a few computers, I've dedicated the downstairs office to being an informal datacenter for the computers and networking equipment. This has the advantage of keeping all of the noisy equipment separated far away from the upstairs bedrooms. It also reduces cooling costs by keeping the equipment downstairs, since it's naturally cooler due to the fact that heat rises.

I have also recently started converting to rack-mounted hardware in order to improve the organization and appearance of my hardware.

One of my computers downstairs uses a watercooling rig to keep its two Opteron processors cool instead of exclusively forced air circulation.

[edit] Network diagram

Here's a detailed diagram of my current network layout:

[edit] Datacenter computers

Pictures of my datacenter.

Jeff's rack-mounted chassis

• cowputer.bovine.net -- Opteron 240 (2 processor), Windows XP Pro x64 edition, remote desktop, watercooled
• cowpie.bovine.net -- Pentium III, FreeBSD 5.2, mail server and webserver.
• fedora.bovine.net -- AMD 64, Linux Fedora Core 6, temperature monitoring
• linksys -- Linksys WRT54G, OpenWRT, router, NAT, traffic shaper, public 802.11g wireless network
• cowprint.bovine.net -- Print server appliance for the laser printer
• unnamed -- DSL router
• unnamed -- Compaq rack-mounted 8-port KVM switch box
• offline:
  • unnamed -- Pentium III (2 processor)
  • unnamed -- Celeron (2 processor)

Decibel's desk

• flake
• noel

[edit] Other networked systems

Upstairs entertainment room

• Apple Airport, private 802.11g wireless network
• XBox, direct ethernet
• Sony PlayStation3, direct ethernet
• DirecTiVo, with TivoNet ethernet upgrade card and upgraded 20GB hard disk.
• Quantum Snap Server 1000, with upgraded 500 GB hard disk.

My bedroom

• minicow.bovine.net -- Apple Mac Mini, Core Duo, primary terminal

Decibel's upstairs office

• platter -- Apple Macbook Pro laptop
• phonebook -- Apple Powerbook G4 laptop

Upstairs wire closet (aka Decibel's closet)

• 16-port 100mbit ethernet switch -- connect all 5 upstairs ethernet drops, 2 downstairs ethernet drops

[edit] See also

• Computers -- a tabular summary of my hardware