Help Slashdot Test Our New Data Center

After many years of living in California, Slashdot is preparing to move to a new data center in Chicago, and we need your help. We have our new site running a dump of our database from a few days ago. You can hit it at beta.slashdot.org. Please go there, post comments, submit stories, and do whatever you do normally. Or maybe abnormally — run crawlers, write poll spamming robots or something. If you find any crazy issues, please submit them to our sourceforge tracker. If you're curious, the new system features 18 2x quad-core 2.3 GHz webservers each with 8 gigs of RAM, and 4 quad-core 2.3 GHz databases with 16 gigs of RAM.

well done slashdot

[nih (411096)]

it's working gre

Obligitory

[BluffBlank (762913)]

But does it run linux?

Re:Obligitory

[krgallagher (743575)]

"But does it run linux?"

I know that was meant to be a joke, but that is my question. What is the OS? What is the Database engine? What is the web server? Are you using a load balancer? Details! I want details!

oh yeah

[stoolpigeon (454276)]

my cowboy neal bot has already gained complete control of all survey functionality.
 
A Natalie Portman statue and a 10 gallon tub of hot grits or I wont give control back. Oh - and I want the ponies theme back. Permanently.

Abnormally?

[FooAtWFU (699187)]

Run abnormally? So, throw a few of these out there?

ab -n 10000 -c 10 http://beta.slashdot.org/

Re:Abnormally?

[by Anonymous Coward]

So it was really a typo: Run ab normally.

Re:Abnormally?

[FooAtWFU (699187)]

Apache benchmarker. If you have the right packages installed (e.g. 'apache2-utils' on Debian) it certainly exists on any Linux distro worth its salt.

"dump"...

[MadFarmAnimalz (460972)]

I can't explain it (oh okay, maybe I can) when the database in question contains /. comments and old Jon Katz stories (quite apart from Taco's nicely spelled and eloquent posts), calling it a dump somehow seems appropriate in the more scatological sense of that word...

you're done

[amazon10x (737466)]

I have access to the storm botnet. Should I try to DDoS the new data center?

Re:you're done

[idiotwithastick (1036612)]

Alternatively, we could always just try the Slashdot effect.

new account

[altair1230 (1294672)]

I couldn't create a new account on beta.slashdot.org

Re:new account

[by Anonymous Coward]

Funny, *mine* still works...

Slashdot hardware specs...

[madskyllz (699304)]

"If you're curious, the new system features 18 2x quad-core 2.3 GHz webservers each with 8 gigs of RAM, and 4 quad-core 2.3 GHz databases with 16 gigs of RAM" What do you mean, "If" ?

Re:Slashdot hardware specs...

[Talen317 (1131949)]

Does this mean that "If I'm not curious" the system runs on some other hardware?
Perhaps an Apple IIe?

What if I'm curious one day but not curious the other day?
Will that dramatically affect my user experience?

Seems recursive

[linuxwrangler (582055)]

So let me get this straight. You want us to Slashdot....Slashdot?

Re:Seems recursive

[Dachannien (617929)]

Here's a Coral Cache link [nyud.net], just in case. ;)

Power consumption?

[Anne_Nonymous (313852)]

> If you're curious, the new system features 18 2x quad-core 2.3 GHz webservers each with 8 gigs of RAM, and 4 quad-core 2.3 GHz databases with 16 gigs of RAM.

What's the power consumption on this set up?

Re:Power consumption?

[AKAImBatman (238306)]

What's the power consumption on this set up?

Probably less than you'd expect. Intel's latest line of Quad-core Xeon processors use 45nm fab technology. If these are 2.33GHz "Harpertown" chips, then each chip (not core!) uses only ~50 watts. That means these machines could be running in as little as 150 watts for the dual processor machines, and 250 watts for the quad processor machines. (Though the quad core machines are most likely drawing a lot more power than that for a full RAID array.) Which really isn't too shabby.

I'm in downtown Chicago right now

[lpangelrob (714473)]

If you want me to try to walk out with your servers, just post the address. I'll let you know if I'm successful, but odds are you'll know long before then...

Best of luck,

[hwyengr (839340)]

Hopefully it's just downtown and not at 64th and Oakley. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=6436+S+Oakley+Ave,+Chicago,+IL+60636&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=28.611123,60.292969&ie=UTF8&ll=41.780049,-87.680275&spn=0.00656,0.01472&t=k&z=16&layer=c&cbll=41.776747,-87.681011&panoid=R4fqWJEJkVCRco2uu3GK9Q&cbp=1,248.03517600888696,,1,8.383780676689486 [google.com] Security's pretty tight down there.

More info about the hardware?

[Joe The Dragon (967727)]

AMD or INTEL?

What is the raid setup?

Hardware raid? raid 5? raid 6? raid 50? others?

SAS? scsi?

MB chipset?

How are they linked to each other Dual or more teamed gig-e

10 gig-e?

others?

Re:More info about the hardware?

[Precision (1410)]

On the Web servers, the specs are

Dual Quad Core Intel E5345 with RAID 1 of 2xSATA drives

On the Database boxes

Single Quad Core Intel E5345 with RAID 5 of 7xSAS drives w/ a hot spare

All machines are 2xGigE connected to cabinet switches which are 10G connected to our cores and our Dual 10G uplinks

Re:More info about the hardware?

[felipekk (1007591)]

Yeah, what version of IIS are they running?

And SQL 2008 I suppose?

*hides*

I'm sure I'm not alone...

[by Anonymous Coward]

"the new system features 18 2x quad-core 2.3 GHz webservers each with 8 gigs of RAM, and 4 quad-core 2.3 GHz databases with 16 gigs of RAM"
I just got an erection

Re:I'm sure I'm not alone...

[StarfishOne (756076)]

You just gave my mind a way to fast association with "uptime"... ;o

And to be ahead of obvious replies: has Netcraft confirmed it? :P