What does your closet server room look like?

[tinkergeek]

So, after seeing the thread "What does your desk look like?" and chatting with step49x about our personal servers, I thought I'd post a photo and a question.. What does your personal server room look like?

http://tinkergeek.com/server.jpg
Here's my little set up in my closet at the apartment.. It's an older Dell Optiplex with an internal three disk raid and the APC UPS next to it for when the power flickers (which it seems to do a lot). It connects directly to my iMac, and mostly spends its days running virtual machines and file hosting (via nfs to the mac).

[InaRut]

Does it do any tricks?
Sit computer, sit!

[JSG]

We have a nice one at work, I'll post it when i get back to work tho :p

[step49x]

I have to say, I laughed when I saw this thread...

Well, here's my current one, from before I shoved it in my closet (i'll post a new one when i get back to college).
http://www.echnaretspage.com/server_cp.jpg
It's a Compaq Deskpro EN, bought used and completely unmodified. I just use it for running my webpage, and whatever random projects I come up with.

Yeah, that monitor doesn't actually have a stand... I bought it used for around $50, stand-less and with a slightly cracked case. It works fine for what I need it for, and is very portable (whenever i'm home over long breaks, i bring the server home with me).

[Kimi]

Question, why do you need one??

:confused:

[tinkergeek]

My uncle once asked, "How do you use more than one computer at a time?" I tried explaining, but he just never got it.

Why would anyone want a personal server? Well, Microsoft seems to think it's a big deal. Being able to aggregate all your files in one place and have them accessible from anywhere. Their personal server edition of Windows tries to accomplish that..

For me, I like having a machine where I can store my files (always very important to have a backup of your files) and to have a machine that if I break it doesn't impact my normal computer usage. If I wanted to try a new operating system or some other wild change on my desktop machine, I need to know that it will work. (Things like homework wait for no disaster.)

[step49x]

I just use mine for my website. If I have my laptop for school work, and a server for the website, it allows me to go to the library with my laptop, and not have to worry about getting online for the website. Plus, I dual-boot Linux and Win XP on my laptop, so having the server lets me switch back and fourth, without worrying about my website being offline when I use Windows.

Yeah, I don't make backups nearly as often as I should...

[Paul_UK]

Not so much a closet server room as the server is in the home-office room.

http://emptyclosets.com/forum/picture.php?albumid=358&pictureid=2112

The top PC is for Markie's weather station, the middle one is the main office PC, and the bottom one is our file and test web server.

The server has two 500GB hard disks in RAID1 (mirrored) and runs Windows 2003 Server, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Backup is to tape with Backup Exec.

The two PCs both run Windows XP, though the office one really needs a full reinstall so it will probably get Vista Business then.

The box on the right corner of the desk with the lights is a KVM switch to switch any of the machines to the monitor, keyboard and mouse.

[step49x]

*looks at Paul's stuff*

Ooh... O_O

*looks at own server*
*is jealous*

[CelebrityHead]

Lol, tinkergeek, has your server forced you out of the closet?

[ilikecameras]

I don't really have a server in a closet... my old laptop (iBook G4) has a failing logic board that would cost more than it's worth to replace. It pretty much doesn't work if it's moved at all, and will not boot at all unless it has presure in a certain spot (a clamp or more recently a business card inside the case. But it runs OS X Tiger pretty well and I sue it to host webpages (nothing on it right now, though. i have server space with pair.com, which is infinitely more reliable and faster and i therefore use it more.) But anywho, my server works pretty well. It's not that reliable, though. I use a dynamic dns company because I don't have a static IP.... That works pretty well most of the time, but I also have to reconfigure port forwarding on the router every few days.
Don't have a pic right now, may take one in the future