Here I am back again. 😉 The last weeks I had lot’s of work, so there was only little time for my blog and private activities. But this was a big chance to turn off lot’s systems in my home lab and run only the necessary servers for my home network. I watched 2 months my power consumption and I was really scared. Currently I’m running a HP ProCurve 3500yl switch, a HP ProLiant DL185 G5 as a file server and a HP ProLiant DL385 G5p as a VMware ESXi host server with several virtual machines, e.g. a Windows Active Directory Server, and and and… The power consumption is too heavy for home use! My power bill for 2010 was a slap in the face. I consumed 11,500 kWh and had to pay lot’s of money. 🙁 That’s too much! It’s time to change this circumstance.
Currently I’m working on a replacement for the two servers and the switch above. The three systems takes 450 Watt power and running them all the time effects in 3,500 kWh per year. I have to pay 23 ct per kWh and about 800 Euros for 12 months. That’s not acceptable any more! Time to turn them off.
I decided to evaluate a HP ProLiant MicroServer! Next Tuesday the server arrives at work… Meanwhile I thought about which operating system, which kind of RAID redundancy and which kind of server virtualization software I like to run on the new HP ProLiant MicroServer and the results are my change No. 2.
Everybody knows that I love Solaris and OpenSolaris/Solaris Express. But I don’t like Oracle! Since Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, the Solaris operating system and the Sun servers are getting more and more unpopular. The last announcement that Oracle stops the Itanium support frightened me. Larry seems to going crazy… Now I’m not sure about the future of Solaris and Solaris Express, so I decided to change my file server to Linux. Windows is not an option for me. Of course Windows Home Server or the Small Business Server looks pretty cool and comfortable, but I prefer a console. 😉
My current thoughts are running CentOS 5.5 x86_64 with Ext4 support on the HP ProLiant MicroServer. I will install four 2 TB SATA disks and connect them to a HP Smart Array P212 controller with 256 MB BBWC cache and advanced license. The four disks should form a RAID-6 volume. As virtualization software I will try out the free VMware Server 2 on top of CentOS. I have lot’s of good experience with VirtualBox, but it’s an Oracle product and no more option for me.
My new home server will be connected to an 8-Port HP ProCurve E2520-8G switch and will replace the three systems mentioned above in my home lab. All these modifications will result in a power consumption less than 100 Watts and an important independence of Oracle. I can save 600 Euros per year and my system is supported for a long time, even if Larry is going entirely crazy. 😉
But there’s a change No. 3 ! The last two weeks I played with IPv6, the next generation Internet Protocol. It’s awesome!!! Currently I’m running a Linux server which is connect via an IPv6 tunnel to the Internet. I ordered my own IPv6 network prefix at www.sixxs.net and cannot wait until I can give all my systems a public IPv6 address. 🙂 I will change my entire network, this includes my private office and my home lab, to IPv6. 🙂
In summary I’m changing my home network to a Green-IT solution with long term support and with the implementation of IPv6 at home, I’m ready for the future. 🙂
Stay tuned !