• Lockwood (unregistered)

    Who hasn't built a server like that?

  • jimboroni (unregistered)

    That first picture - I think that's the internet kill switch.

  • (cs)

    On the last one, I wonder what that breadboard in the lower left is all about.

    Oh, and he said "Woody". Uh huh-huh huh.

  • Bobbo (unregistered)

    Nice rack.

  • Mark (unregistered) in reply to frits
    frits:
    On the last one, I wonder what that breadboard in the lower left is all about.

    Looks like it is the power switch, reset switch and a couple of LEDs.

  • (cs)

    I made a worse than it was with the last picture. I got a computer by parts without case. So i used Carbon box and made a hole and put everything in. Whell at least it did work as it should

  • Sudo (unregistered) in reply to Lockwood
    Lockwood:
    Who hasn't built a server like that?
    Almost everyone.
  • Your Retarded (unregistered)

    I mean, he built a front panel array and actually mounted everything properly. And it fits in the rack... top marks old chap!

  • JSelf (unregistered)

    I thought it was the vein structure of the human body.

  • (cs)

    That fourth picture is beautiful! Just look at the Picasso like design of the cabling. The creator of that should be praised and this piece should hang in a gallery right beside that urinal that Marcel Duchamp signed.

  • Alex (unregistered)

    Found the problem in picture 4!

    [image]
  • Ray (unregistered)

    I don't think that last one is a WTF at all. Someone has worked hard there. People who bother to solder a little board for a proper power button and light (if that's what it is), and make a sturdy frame that fits the rack, are a long way above the kind of half-arsed incompetence that I come here to savour!

    IF it were running a service for a client that needed to be high availability, that would be a WTF. I don't see anything hot swappable there. But without that information, I'd say it increases my respect for that place's techs rather than decreasing it.

  • An alternate explanation (unregistered)

    The true wtf is the link "Zen and The Art of User Requirements" Which sound interesting, but instead of just providing a link to download the guide, you have to give your email, so they can email it. WTF??? (A shame it sounded interesting)

  • anon (unregistered)

    Picture 3: Are those switches being held up only by the network cables plugged into them?

    capcha: praesent: The fire code compliance team was not praesent when these were being set up.

  • Leifbk (unregistered) in reply to Ray
    Ray:
    I don't think that last one is a WTF at all. Someone has worked hard there. People who bother to solder a little board for a proper power button and light (if that's what it is), and make a sturdy frame that fits the rack, are a long way above the kind of half-arsed incompetence that I come here to savour!

    IF it were running a service for a client that needed to be high availability, that would be a WTF. I don't see anything hot swappable there. But without that information, I'd say it increases my respect for that place's techs rather than decreasing it.

    Agreed, it's awesome. I just wonder if it's running Debian 3.0 Woody ... that would be fitting somehow.

  • Seth (unregistered) in reply to amischiefr
    amischiefr:
    That fourth picture is beautiful! Just look at the Picasso like design of the cabling. The creator of that should be praised and [strike]this piece[/strike] should hang in a gallery right beside that urinal that Marcel Duchamp signed.
  • (cs) in reply to amischiefr
    amischiefr:
    That fourth picture is beautiful! Just look at the Picasso like design of the cabling. The creator of that should be praised and this piece should hang in a gallery right beside that urinal that Marcel Duchamp signed.

    I was thinking it was more like a Jackson Pollock.

  • Leifbk (unregistered)

    Picture 4: Lucky bastard. Back when I was a cable monkey, all the patch cables were grey.

    Captca: damnum - my thought exactly.

  • KeroHazel (unregistered)

    It's like they're trying to bring wire-wrapping back into style...

    Seriously, if it were a bit neater it would resemble a PDP-1 backplane.

  • Woody Carpenter (unregistered)

    I appreciate how the engineers responsible for the rack-mount rig in the fifth picture very thoughtfully incorporated the wooden table.

  • (cs)

    I like the last one: "Cases? we aint got no cases. We don't need no stinkin cases!"

  • (cs) in reply to Ray
    Ray:
    I don't think that last one is a WTF at all. Someone has worked hard there. People who bother to solder a little board for a proper power button and light (if that's what it is), and make a sturdy frame that fits the rack, are a long way above the kind of half-arsed incompetence that I come here to savour!

    My guess: it's a disassembled PC: you can clearly see the motherboard, power supply, HDD and CD-ROM drives.

    The small PCB (not a breadboard) is connected to the motherboard, and most likely contains the power switch.

    How did they obtain that board? I assume they cut open the case to retrieve it.

  • (cs)

    My comment got deleted. Mr Alex why did you delete it?

  • Chewie (unregistered) in reply to ggeens
    ggeens:
    Ray:
    I don't think that last one is a WTF at all. Someone has worked hard there. People who bother to solder a little board for a proper power button and light (if that's what it is), and make a sturdy frame that fits the rack, are a long way above the kind of half-arsed incompetence that I come here to savour!

    My guess: it's a disassembled PC: you can clearly see the motherboard, power supply, HDD and CD-ROM drives.

    The small PCB (not a breadboard) is connected to the motherboard, and most likely contains the power switch.

    How did they obtain that board? I assume they cut open the case to retrieve it.

    Yeah, I agree. It's not like you can just buy freestanding computer parts or anything.

    </sarcasm>

    Seriously, that looks to me like someone just wanted a quick and cheap something-something. Perhaps the second offsite backup of not-really-critical data?

    I was just impressed by the WoodServer! Lovelovelove!

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to ggeens
    ggeens:
    The small PCB (not a breadboard) is connected to the motherboard, and most likely contains the power switch.

    How did they obtain that board? I assume they cut open the case to retrieve it.

    I'm pretty sure that ain't a PCB either. If anything it's a piece of veroboard (aka stripboard) or similar that somebody rigged up. I don't think I've ever seen a computer with a power switch mounted on it's own PCB like that.

  • Leifbk (unregistered) in reply to Chewie
    Chewie:
    I was just impressed by the WoodServer! Lovelovelove!

    It's most definitely a Frankenbox - uh, Frankenboard.

  • Ray (unregistered) in reply to ggeens
    ggeens:
    My guess: it's a disassembled PC: you can clearly see the motherboard, power supply, HDD and CD-ROM drives.

    The small PCB (not a breadboard) is connected to the motherboard, and most likely contains the power switch.

    How did they obtain that board? I assume they cut open the case to retrieve it.

    It looks like stripboard/veroboard to me, from what I can see in the picture. That makes it at least a little homebrew. Also, the thing that looks like a LED - if it is indeed a LED - seems to be a nice, huge LED like a hobbyist's one and UNlike a cheap tiny one from your average PC case. If I'm interpreting the photo right, someone had fun there.

  • frits (unregistered)

    Who hasn't done something like this? [image]

  • Ray (unregistered)

    Edited to add - I would MUCH rather work in a company with an IT culture in which homebrew is acceptable, than one in which getting even the most rudimentary server is a months-long process culminating in a large dent in budgets. I think I'm jealous.

    (If it is like that but running something critical, because money to put in something more resilient has been refused, perhaps not so much.)

  • Cooler Heads (unregistered) in reply to frits
    frits:
    Who hasn't done something like this? [image]
    I don't know. That seems pretty dumb and unnecessary to me.
  • Jellineck (unregistered) in reply to Cooler Heads
    Cooler Heads:
    frits:
    Who hasn't done something like this? [image]
    I don't know. That seems pretty dumb and unnecessary to me.

    Unless the cable just wouldn't reach the extra couple of inches to actually plug it in.

  • Irish Girl (unregistered) in reply to Jellineck
    Jellineck:
    Unless the cable just wouldn't reach the extra couple of inches to actually plug it in.
    I think we could all use an extra couple of inches.
  • (cs) in reply to Cooler Heads
    Cooler Heads:
    frits:
    Who hasn't done something like this? [image]
    I don't know. That seems pretty dumb and unnecessary to me.
    You haven't priced those proprietary APC cables, have you?
  • (cs) in reply to Leifbk
    Leifbk:
    Picture 4: Lucky bastard. Back when I was a cable monkey, all the patch cables were grey.

    So you were thinking the color might have helped? Where I work, the color only indicates cable length. So you know which one to grab when you need to connect two ports 3 feet apart.

  • JJ (unregistered) in reply to Jellineck

    I don't care how long a cable you've got, female-to-female isn't going to cut it. (Much as I'd like to watch, though.... Giggity!)

  • halfSpinDoctor (unregistered) in reply to Alex

    WOW! Good catch there...

  • (cs) in reply to halfSpinDoctor
    halfSpinDoctor:
    WOW! Good catch there...
    How can you be sure? I can make out at least another 3 connectors that aren't plugged in too (two green, one blue).
  • (cs) in reply to Alex
    Alex:
    Found the problem in picture 4!

    [image]

    At least it's a self-terminating cable.

  • (cs) in reply to JJ
    JJ:
    I don't care how long a cable you've got, female-to-female isn't going to cut it. (Much as I'd like to watch, though.... Giggity!)
    We use that sound effect in all our enterprise software...
  • Neil (unregistered)
    Ray:
    I don't see anything hot swappable there.
    Hopefully the two SATA drives are mirrored. The motherboard might support hot swap, but you should still use a proper mount rather then plugging them into a live system the way I do.
    operagost:
    You haven't priced those proprietary APC cables, have you?
    No, they normally include one with the unit. And the modern ones all do USB anyway.
  • Jellineck (unregistered) in reply to JJ
    JJ:
    I don't care how long a cable you've got, female-to-female isn't going to cut it. (Much as I'd like to watch, though.... Giggity!)

    Yikes how did I miss the hardware girl-on-girl. My Friday morning attention-to-detail must be lacking. I think I'll just go home.

  • Ender (unregistered) in reply to Cooler Heads

    It's not wired straight through. The cable is probably some proprietary serial cable. The actual required cable is probably missing.

  • Capt. Obvious (unregistered) in reply to Alex
    Alex:
    Found the problem in picture 4!

    [image]

    Heaven protect me from having to acquire the skills to see the disconnected cable in that mass.

  • (cs)

    So one of the WTFs is that they put the server on top of the rack instead of in one.

    And the next WTF is that they weren't willing to put the switches on top of the rack, so they just kind of dangled them from the power cords.

    There has to be a happy medium! ("Own enough racks" would be my guess.)

  • justsomedude (unregistered) in reply to Jellineck
    Jellineck:
    Cooler Heads:
    frits:
    Who hasn't done something like this? [image]
    I don't know. That seems pretty dumb and unnecessary to me.

    Unless the cable just wouldn't reach the extra couple of inches to actually plug it in.

    Or if the pins weren't matched up, which it appears the case here.

  • danielpauldavis (unregistered)

    darkroastedblend.com has a whole series on over-wired server rooms.

  • Quarth (unregistered) in reply to Alex

    I count at least 4 dangling ends in this picture.

  • A. Cow Ard, the 3rd (unregistered) in reply to frits

    That's a lesbian serial connection... Gay Power!

  • (cs) in reply to frits
    frits:
    Who hasn't done something like this? [image]
    I truly appreciate and love my fans.

    Thanks for your continued support.

  • Power Troll (unregistered) in reply to frits
    frits:
    frits:
    Who hasn't done something like this? [image]
    I truly appreciate and love my fans.

    Thanks for your continued support.

    Something tells me that "frits, jr" was simply trying to point out the stupidity of the original post.

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