Comments on: Google Server Design http://etbe.coker.com.au/2009/04/03/google-server-design/ Linux, politics, and other interesting things Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:09:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: etbe http://etbe.coker.com.au/2009/04/03/google-server-design/comment-page-1/#comment-18661 etbe Sat, 04 Apr 2009 02:12:53 +0000 http://etbe.coker.com.au/?p=1111#comment-18661 Bart: What makes you believe it's a joke? James: Based on my measurements from the pictures my best estimate of the width was about 15 inches. Notably smaller than the 19 inch standard rack size, but definitely too wide to allow two side by side in a single rack (half-width rack mount servers are not uncommon). I guess that they have their own rack style that supports ~15 inch wide servers. For the number of servers that they run it would not be difficult to get unique racks manufactured. Probably no-one manufactures racks that fit well in a shipping container anyway. Bart: What makes you believe it’s a joke?

James: Based on my measurements from the pictures my best estimate of the width was about 15 inches. Notably smaller than the 19 inch standard rack size, but definitely too wide to allow two side by side in a single rack (half-width rack mount servers are not uncommon).

I guess that they have their own rack style that supports ~15 inch wide servers. For the number of servers that they run it would not be difficult to get unique racks manufactured. Probably no-one manufactures racks that fit well in a shipping container anyway.

]]> By: James http://etbe.coker.com.au/2009/04/03/google-server-design/comment-page-1/#comment-18657 James Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:43:03 +0000 http://etbe.coker.com.au/?p=1111#comment-18657 They don't look 19" wide, so they can fit more in than a regular 2RU server. Probably a better measure is CPUs per container - they can apparently fit 1160 servers per container, vs say the Sun container which has 280RU available, which if you can get four CPUs per RU in is 1120 CPUs. So Google are achieving twice the density. They say in a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J139Aelaf0g" rel="nofollow">video</a> that they have some storage trays which have more disks. They don’t look 19″ wide, so they can fit more in than a regular 2RU server. Probably a better measure is CPUs per container – they can apparently fit 1160 servers per container, vs say the Sun container which has 280RU available, which if you can get four CPUs per RU in is 1120 CPUs. So Google are achieving twice the density. They say in a video that they have some storage trays which have more disks.

]]> By: Bart Trojanowski http://etbe.coker.com.au/2009/04/03/google-server-design/comment-page-1/#comment-18650 Bart Trojanowski Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:14:26 +0000 http://etbe.coker.com.au/?p=1111#comment-18650 I wished I had read the date of the article. Got me. I wished I had read the date of the article. Got me.

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