[Rack] possibility of tenants in the new rack

[Jonathan Lassoff]

On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 11:28 AM, jim <jim at systemateka.com> wrote:
>
>    i'm writing to the rack list to see if there's real
> interest or objections or contributions to the idea of
> setting up the new rack and getting some tenant computers
> in it.

I kind of agree with Rubin and Andy on this topic. I think it's not a
good idea to offer this as a service inside of 2169, however I think
it would be a most *excellent* idea to form a purchasing collective
for some colocation space and bandwidth in a facility that's geared
towards offering that.

On your point about having a place for people to practice: I think
this would be a most excellent use of space and power, provided that
the use of the equipment is temporary and transient while people are
using it. If a learner/student is interesting in setting up an entire
system or stack of hosts, the Noisecloud resource that Dr. J has would
be a much better place to test those things out.
By learning the basics of what systems need to be setup and applying
that knowledge through a provisioning script or configuration
management tool, it should be possible to spin up an entire stack of
hosts in a modest amount of time.

Rubin summed up a lot of what I think are the salient points, however
I'd also like to proffer that we'd get incredibly shafty prices on
electrical power and bandwidth as compared to a proper colocation
facility.


Along these same lines though, I've been wanting to get a proper
colocated 1U host setup for some time now. I'd be happy to help
administer, coordinate, and organize a cooperative to go in on a group
purchase of some space, power, and bandwidth.
Jim, Rubin -- It sounded like you were both interested in getting
something personal set up. Know anyone else? What kind of space could
we be looking for? Quarter rack? Half rack?

Cheers,
jof