The Google Server - Facts and Photos

[GoWork]

Because of the high volume of servers deployed by Google, currently more
than 900,000, all the servers have been built to Google's own
specifications.

Low power consumption, low heat buildup, low unit cost and ease of maintenance are their primary concerns.

Here are pictures of a standard Google server consisting of an open
"pizza box" aluminum chassis containing a Gigabyte GA-9IVDP dual CPU
socket motherboard, 8 GB RAM,

two Hitachi Deskstar 1TB SATA drives (TLER enabled drives in a mirrored
RAID1 setup), a 12V sealed gel cell lead-acid battery for backup power
and a 12V only power supply.

The necessary 5V supplies are located on the motherboard, regulating down from the single voltage 12V supply.

By using an open server chassis, there is no "closed box" heat build up, and case fans are therefore not necessary.

Note that the motherboard connections are limited to the PS2 style
keyboard and mouse connectors, a single DB-9 serial port, an Ethernet
port and two USB ports.

There is a single PCI slot on the motherboard, which allows the
insertion of a video card for use when the unit is being serviced.

Gigabyte in Taiwan designed their model GA-9IVDP motherboard to Google's
specifications. The motherboard is not available to retail customers.












Here is a picture of a large scale data center deployment of their open chassis servers.

Each server rack has its own 24-port Ethernet switch, so that rack wiring is kept at a minimum.

There are just one power connection and one Ethernet connection to each equipment rack.

The racks have built-in AC power distribution and they are on wheels, so that they can easily be moved.

All the servers run a stripped down Linux kernel, customized by Google. It only includes the Ethernet and disk drivers.




Some more Google server room pictures:

[transzz]

nice pict and info.. thank you Warocks

[intrepid]

And do they have backups for these servers? Amazing anyway.

[jcbaxter]

Does anyone know where a person could find instructions to build a POWERFUL yet no frills pc for an individual? Maybe from old reclaimed PCs hooked up in series and under an affordable price point like $100.

I know just enough about hardware to get myself in trouble but I can follow instructions...

Any hardware genius' out there up to the challenge or has this already been done?