[Noisebridge-discuss] VA machines

[Matt Peterson]

It's unclear if they're offering just the machines or complete cabinets
(with the assoicated PDU's, switches, etc)?

Assuming we're going to get a large space soon, I'd say grab a whole
cabinet worth.  The patch panels and rackmount trays would also be
highly useful for space 2.0.  Worse case if they're not used soon, the
Archive or ACCRC can put us in touch with folks who'd find them more
useful.

> What I'm planning on doing in the short term is setting these up at
> the same place the DL380s went for the key cracking experiment.  I'll
> have to run them only at night so the power is cheaper and I can use
> outside air to cool them.  After that, I have a few ideas:

Where did these go?  It would seem equipment donated to NB should reside
at NB, right?

>  - Do mythbusters-style tests of popular datacenter myths ("on this
> episode, does spinning down your disks make them die faster?  stay
> tuned!")
>  - Kit them out to needy groups in the area.
>  - Start a commercial key-cracking service.
>  - Ask around if another hackerspace has free power somehow and see if
> they want it.

I agree the power requirement would be high, but the parts could be very
useful for certain projects.  For example, I borrowed a number of
switches and a 1U box for this past ToorCamp - would have been nice to
roll out the "NB network-in-a-box" instead ;)

--Matt