Benjamin Smith wrote: >What it comes down to is this: so far, all the servers I've been administering >have been 32-bit P3/P4/Athlon alikes, so if a server died and we needed it up >NOW we could go to a local computer store here in smalltown USA, buy some >desktop machine, swap harddrives, press enter a few times while kudzu does >its thing, and have a working machine. > >Now, we're moving to Opteron-based servers, and I just was wondering if it's >reasonable to expect that, in a worst-case scenario, we could get an >Athlon/64 system locally, and have it work, even if not optimally. > >Obviously, the Opteron is better and faster, but if the Athlon 64 will run >CentOS X86/64, then I can be pretty certain that in the worst case, I can run >to the local Performance Leet g4m3rz store, and get an Athlon/64 to get a >needed database server back online. > >Just checking the accuracy of the data behind my decisions. (I've turned down >Xeon servers for this reason) > > I'm sure you already know this, but.... if it's THAT critical of a machine then it would probably be in your best interest to have a spare or two. Whenever I stop using one brand of server and begin using another type (at least in rackmount datacenter situations), I always have at least one spare installed. On more than one occasion, I've had the power supply fail on a Compaq or HP rackmount machine or a motherboard failure. I just popped out the "hot plug" drive(s) on the stricken machine and plugged them into the spare system, flicked a power switch, and voila. At one of our datacenters, I actually have a Cisco 7513 that's been hollowed out and is a stealth storage bin for spare parts (the 7513's internals were immolated in a rather spectacular PS failure/fire). 8-) Cheers,