Facebook announces next-generation Open Rack frame

Post by nuclear_eclipse » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 6:11 AM UTC

baybal2 wrote: post #13

electrum wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook does use it. They design their own hardware, but they are do not manufacture it themselves, they aren't in the hardware manufacturing business. They parter with companies like Quanta to do that. Here's an older article that explains the relationship: https://venturebeat.com/2014/01/29/facebook-quanta/

I'm well aware that. I'm saying that in a sense that they don't buy or use much of the original "ocp platform" they show off at their events. And much of it was said to have ended after limited deployment in their Prineville DC, after which they switched back to regular OEM quanta gear with just few things like blue-green handlebars added, and "barebone" motherboard trays. I've been whispered that the biggest buyers…

Post by vanderZwan » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 10:32 AM UTC

baybal2 wrote: post #22

walrus01 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC power wise, the original reason why they did this is that it's grossly inefficient to have a 42RU worth of 1U servers, each with its own individual 110-240VAC to 12/5VDC power supply in it. Or the equivalent of that with four-servers-in-2RU type setups, but also with AC to DC power supplies. They centralized the AC to DC conversion in a single unit in the rack, feeding either 277VAC or 480VAC to each rack, and ran…

There are 90%+ efficient reasonably cheap flex psus, but the mainstream is around 80%. So, you would not be saving much if you only have access to 110 or 220 mains. The economy changes though if you can get access to industrial 3 phase linkup at 400V, and can avoid additional low step down transformers.

Post by bigbangchina » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 10:53 AM UTC

baybal2 wrote: post #22

walrus01 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC power wise, the original reason why they did this is that it's grossly inefficient to have a 42RU worth of 1U servers, each with its own individual 110-240VAC to 12/5VDC power supply in it. Or the equivalent of that with four-servers-in-2RU type setups, but also with AC to DC power supplies. They centralized the AC to DC conversion in a single unit in the rack, feeding either 277VAC or 480VAC to each rack, and ran…

There are 90%+ efficient reasonably cheap flex psus, but the mainstream is around 80%. So, you would not be saving much if you only have access to 110 or 220 mains. The economy changes though if you can get access to industrial 3 phase linkup at 400V, and can avoid additional low step down transformers.

Post by Twirrim » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 4:07 PM UTC

akhilcacharya wrote: post #28

acd wrote: post #12

Could ocp make a rack that behaves like a blade server? Construct a server rack that works like a network Patch panel and server power bus? Thus one would just install the server in the rack slot, no more Cables to the server. Bonus award if a robot could slide in the server in the rack.

What’s the current industry practice for blades? Does AWS GCP, Azure use them?

Post by Twirrim » Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 4:13 PM UTC

vernie wrote: post #21

jauer wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

without actually manufacturing or using anything of it. As I know, facebook still buys very plain OEM servers from Quanta This is false, as you can see from publicly available pictures of FB datacenters. Facebook purchases OCP servers from ODMs.

ODMs or OEMs?