Using a server

[cdldoug]

Hello,

I picked up a IBM 346 series server that I want run my show next year.

The specs are

2 2.8GHZ Xeon processors (Duo core each)

8 gigs of memory

OS Windows 7 pro

currently I am running 242 channels of LOR/DMX. Next year I am going to use 2 SanDevices E682 controllers

My question is this enough computer to run it. Last night I ran the show on it and it ran great.

Thanks

Cecil Lale

Edited December 23, 2014 by cdldoug

[Don]

You could run the show on something much (much) less powerful.

 

Programming the show with the Sequence Editor and other tools would require more horsepower, but the actual running of the show doesn't take anywhere near as much computing power.

 

As of now the software isn't multi-core capable, so it wouldn't matter if you had dual quad cores. Like others, I'm hoping it will be multi core capable in the near future.

[cdldoug]

That's good! I am going to build a rack to mount the server,a 24 port switch for E1.31 and my rack mounted stereo PA. Also a rack mount FM tuner.  I only had pay $6.00 for the server. I added a external usb sound card to it. That's another $10.00

[dgrant]

Must be nice to find a server for $6, wish I could find one like that...congrats!

[Crazydave]

Just get a norco rpc-430 case and put regular PC guts inside

Its much quieter

Edited December 24, 2014 by Crazydave

[cdldoug]

It's loud! with 16 plus fans all going at the same time.

[kiplorenzo]

I deal with Servers and workstations for a living, I have 3 servers in the basement...1 VMware Server, 1 Windows Hyperv Server. I have loaded Lightorama on WIN 2008R2 Server. I would recommend changing out the usb Audio and going with a real soundcard inside of the system. Audio and Video stuff always takes extra resources. I also use my servers to run the video surveillance software.

[TonyD]

It's loud! with 16 plus fans all going at the same time.

 

You might find that over the course of a year or so you will pay more in electricity to keep that thing going (probably has 3 or more internal disk drives?) that you would if you bought an inexpensive (or slightly used) desktop. Put your watt meter on it and check it out. 

[LOR Staff]

FYI:

 

You need to ensure that your WIndows Server installation has Windows Media Player installed and ready to go.  

[cdldoug]

I am only using the server to run my show, Nothing else. I am using Windows 7 pro. It has media player already on it. An off topic question I am mirroring the OS C: drive (raid 1) Is that right? I read somewhere that said not to mirror your OS drive. Is that correct?

[kiplorenzo]

HI Doug,

If the server has 2 drives, then always mirror, if one fails it is much easier to replace a hard drive. If it has 3 drives, then you would look at a raid 5 configuration which stripes the data across all 3 drives. Real easy on Raid 5 to replace a bad drive. You may want to look for a better Video Card as most servers do not have a good card if you are going to run the visualizer.

 

Kip

[TonyD]

I am only using the server to run my show, Nothing else. I am using Windows 7 pro. It has media player already on it. An off topic question I am mirroring the OS C: drive (raid 1) Is that right? I read somewhere that said not to mirror your OS drive. Is that correct?

 

If the raid array is created by hardware (usually an array controller in a server) you should be fine. It used to be more difficult to recover the OS (due to corruption or whatever) if the disks were "dynamic" (which is required when using software based raid) but for the life of me now i can't remember why. It's been awhile since i had to do heavy duty server administration but i wouldn't be surprised now if that limitation/difficulty is gone. Especially with the ability to create VHD (virtual hard disk) images of the entire drive and use that in the recovery.