[compsoc-announce] Bits relating to the Compsoc network

[Michael Howe]

Hi all,
So, this network of which I keep speaking.  It is happening, and Real
Soon Now (or as soon as Worcester IT department has a day where backups
don't fail and servers don't blow up), we should be able to bring you
salami, the first of our servers to go up.  However, before this can
happen, there are a couple of bits of kit that are needed:
* Rails
    Salami is a 1U server, with rails that go back ~60cm.  However, we
    have no tracks for these rails, so we can't actually _mount_ the
    server.  Does anyone have any hiding anywhere, or know of somewhere
    that we could get them?  (People who now get paid to work with
    servers are the main people I'm looking at here...).  If not, we
    shall just have to buy them.  A couple of people may possibly be
    able to find some in a few weeks/months, but if anyone has any that
    might be available sooner, they would be much appreciated.
* Switch
    If we want more than one computer hosted in Worcester (and they're
    happy to...), we really need a switch (chaining everything together
    by using the second network card in the server isn't an option).
    Ideally, we want a rack-mountable one, so we can stick it above our
    servers.  Does anyone have such a beast they'd be willing to donate?
    It doesn't need to have many ports (8 would be more than we would
    use).  This isn't actually necessary to get this first server up,
    but I thought I'd mention now that we're looking for one, in case
    anyone sees one somewhere.  We've been offered a 10MB switch; if
    anyone has a 100MB one lurking in a cupboard somewhere, that would
    be most useful.

I'm afraid to inform you of the death of our AMD server 'chili' (or
'scooby', as it will be known to many of you).  Something between the
CPU, motherboard and power supply is broken, and despite trying with a
different motherboard, I couldn't get it to boot.  However, we are
considering approaching AMD to see if they would like to give us
another server, hopefully one which we will be able to run xen on.

That's all for now,

Michael

-- 
Michael Howe
Treasurer and Sysadmin, Oxford University Computer Society
http://www.ox.compsoc.net/