Don’t worry … it’s really quit simple. If you can use FTP (File Transfer Protocol), you can handle this bit of server management. Depending on the exact problem, we might instruct you to free up space by removing files in one of the following directories:

• /var/log
• /usr/local/cpanel
• /usr/local/apache/logs
• /usr/local/apache/domlogs

The reason these directories are usually overlooked is because they are not accessible by normal FTP users — users who only upload website content. When you upload website content to the server via FTP, the FTP user is limited to the directory structure for that website. Directories starting with “/var” and “/usr” cannot be accessed by these non-root users (The “root” user can access anything). And while root is a powerful user, for the sake of security, it is not normally allowed to log in over FTP because FTP is not secure … That’s where SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) comes in.

Most FTP clients support SFTP, so you don’t have to learn a new environment to securely access any file on the server. Every FTP client is different, but I’ll illustrate with FileZilla because it’s free and available on Mac, Windows and Linux. If you don’t already have an FTP client, I highly recommend FileZilla. Because there are a few ways to use FileZilla to get an SFTP connection, I can share different options for you to try:

Quick Connect

The Quick Connect bar is the quickest way to connect to your server. Start FileZilla and look immediately under the toolbar for the Quick Connect bar:

Enter the hostname (IP address or domain name), “root” in the Username field, the root password in the Password field, and “22″ in the port field. Remember, port 22 is for SFTP, the same as SSH. Click the Quickconnect button to connect.

Using the Site Manager

The Site Manager lets you save your login details. Start FileZilla and you’ll see the following:

To open the Site Manager, click the left-most icon in tool bar or go to File >> Site Manager in the menu.

Enter an IP address or domain name for your server in the Host field, and select “SFTP” as your protocol. You’ll enter the root user’s login information, and you’re ready to connect by clicking the “Connect” button or you can click the “OK” button to save and close the dialog box.

If you just saved your settings and the Site Manager is not open, click the Site Manager icon again. From there, you can select the site under the “Select Entry” box, and you just have to click “Connect” to initiate the SFTP connection with your saved settings.

If you see a pop-up that warns of an “Unknown host key,” clicking the “Always trust this host, add this key to the cache” option will prevent this interruption from showing in the future. Once you click “OK” to complete the connection, your FileZilla screen should look like this:

Notice the “Remote site” section on the middle right of the FileZilla screen:

This area in FileZilla is the directory and file listing of the server. Navigate the server’s file structure here, and click “/” to access the top of the folder structure. You should see the “/usr” and “/var” directories, and you can explore the filesystem to delete the files technical support recommended to create space!

Message Log

If you have a problem connecting to your server by FTP or SFTP, the open area below the Quickconnect bar is the Message Log. If you can copy and paste this text into a ticket, you’ll help technical support troubleshoot your connection problems. Below is an example log of a successful FTP session:

Status: Connecting to server.example.com...
Response:   fzSftp started
Command:    open "root@server.example.com" 22
Command:    Trust new Hostkey: Once
Command:    Pass: **********
Status: Connected to server.example.com
Status: Retrieving directory listing...
Command:    pwd
Response:   Current directory is: "/root"
Command:    ls
Status: Listing directory /root
Status: Calculating timezone offset of server...
Command:    mtime ".lesshst"
Response:   1326387703
Status: Timezone offsets: Server: -21600 seconds. Local: -21600 seconds. Difference: 0 seconds.
Status: Directory listing successful

And here’s an example of a failed connection:

Status: Resolving address of example.com
Status: Connecting to 192.0.43.10:21...
Error:  Connection timed out
Error:  Could not connect to server
Status: Waiting to retry...
Status: Resolving address of example.com
Status: Connecting to 192.0.43.10:21...
Error:  Connection attempt interrupted by user

If you have any questions, leave them in a comment below. Enjoy your new-found SFTP powers!

-Lyndell

• It’s an Investment

  Just like purchasing a new home, deciding to purchase a server is a huge investment. As you start shopping around, the costs may seem staggering, and while most servers don’t cost as much as a small home, your new server will be your business’s new home online. When you consider the revenue your site will generate (and the potential cost of not being able to properly support demand), you won’t want to skimp on the details. The truth is that like any investment, you can reap great rewards with proper planning and execution.

• You Have to Know What You Need

  One of the best tips I’ve incorporated in my home-buying process is the need to differentiate what you want, what you need, and what you can live without. Unless you’re royalty, you’re likely living on a budget. As cool as it would be to live in a 10-bedroom mansion with an indoor Olympic size pool, there’s a lot there that I don’t need. That sort of home palace also falls way outside of my personal budget. The same could be said about a business.

  I’ve heard plenty of stories about companies who slash their IT budgets in order to cut costs, and even the greatest IT departments have to live within their budgets. As you’re determining what your next server will be, you need to understand the purpose (and needs) of your workload: Will it be database server? An application server? Will it be an additional web head? Are you using it for mass storage? You need to plan accordingly. I’m sure you’d want a new Xeon E5-2600 server with all of the bells and whistles, but if you don’t need that kind of performance, you’re likely just going to burn through your budget quicker than you have to. Know your budget, know your needs and purchase your server accordingly.

• You Should Get to Know the Neighborhood

  I don’t intend on purchasing a home in a high-crime area, nor do I plan on moving into a neighborhood with exorbitant HOA dues for services I don’t intend to use. Your new server is going to have a “neighborhood” as well when it comes to the network it’s connected to, so if you plan on outsourcing your IT infrastructure, you should do the same research.

  You want your critical environments in a safe place, and the easiest way to get them in the right “neighborhood” is to work with a well-established host who’s able to accommodate what you’re doing. A $20/mo shared hosting account is great for a personal blog site, but it probably wouldn’t be a good fit for a busy database server or front-end application servers for an application dependent on advertising for revenue. A mansion worth of furniture doesn’t fit very well in a studio apartment.

• You’re Responsible for Maintenance

  Ask any homeowner: Continuous improvements — as well as routine maintenance &mdashl are a requirement. Failure to take care of your property can result in fines and much more costly repairs down the road. Likewise with any server, you have to do your maintenance. Keep your software up to date, practice good security protocols, and continue to monitor for problems. If you don’t, you could find yourself at the mercy of malicious activity or worse — catastrophic failure. Which leads me to …

• You Need Insurance Against Disaster

  Homeowner’s insurance protects you from disaster, and it provides indemnity in the event someone is hurt on your property. Sometimes additional insurance may be required. Many professionals recommend flood insurance to protect from flood damage not covered under a typical homeowner’s insurance policy. Ask any systems administrator, and they’ll tell you all about server insurance: BACKUPS. ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA!!! The wrong time to figure out that your backups weren’t properly maintained is when you need them, more specifically in the event of a hardware failure. It’s a fact of life: Hardware can fail. Murphy’s Law would suggest it will fail at the worst possible time. Maintain your backups!

I can’t claim that this is the guide to buying a server, but seeing the parallels with buying a new home might be a catalyst for you to look at the server-buying process in a different light. You should consider your infrastructure an asset before you simply consider it a cost.

-Matthew

Configuring Your Server

1. Open Windows Services (Start -> Run -> Services.msc)
2. Change the properties of the Windows Audio Endpoint Service and Windows Audio Service to “Automatic”. If the services are not already started, you can manually start them at this time.
3. Open Terminal Services ( Start -> Run -> tsconfig.msc)
4. Right-click on the RDP-TCP connection and bring up its properties. Go to the “Client Settings” and make sure that on “Redirection Audio” is not disabled.
5. Fully log out and log back into the RDP connection to the server. You will see a balloon error on your speaker icon that states “No Audio Output Device is installed.”

Making Registry Changes

1. You will now need to back up your registry and some registry changes.
2. I want to reiterate the instruction to back up your registry … As with most technical guides/walkthroughs, SoftLayer will not be held liable for any corruptions that may result from you attempting these changes. The next two steps will show how to quickly back up your registry.
3. Log into your server on an account with Administrator rights, and open regedit (Start -> Run -> regedit)
4. Export the current registry (from the “File” menu) and copy it to a location off of your server so you have it backed up.
5. Locate the following key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AudioEngine\AudioProcessingObjects. This will contain several subkeys all each named with a GUID.
6. Click on each subkey, then right-click and select “Permissions.” You will then click on the “Advanced” button and the “Owner” tab. The current owner should be listed as “TrustedInstaller.”
7. Select the Administrative account and/or group from the list and click “OK” to change the ownership.
8. Select the account you just chose and give it “Full Control,” then click “OK.”
9. In the “Detail” box of each subkey, double-click on the DWORD value “MinOutputConnections” and change it from 1 to 0, then click “OK.”
10. Once you have done this for each subkey in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AudioEngine\AudioProcessingObjects, you can close regedit and restart the Windows Audio and Windows Audio Endpoint services.

Configuring Your RDP Client

Now that you have everything ready on the server, you just need to make sure your RDP client recognizes the audio. Log off of the server so you can configure your RDP client. Open RDP, go to the “Options” menu, and under “Local Resources,” select “Configure Remote Audio Settings.” Select “Play on this Computer,” and hit “OK.” Voila! You now should be able to hear sound from your Windows 2008 RDP connection.

-Bill

Reading about the server and seeing it at the bottom of the “Quad Processor Multi-core Servers” list on our dedicated servers page is pretty interesting, but the real geeks want to see the nuts and bolts that make up such an amazing machine. I took a stroll down to the inventory room in our DAL05 data center in hopes that they had one of our E7-4850s available for a quick photo shoot to share with customers, and I was in luck.

The only way to truly admire a server is to put it through its paces in production, but getting to see a few pictures of the server might be a distance second.

When you see the 2U face of the server in a rack, it’s a little unassuming. You can load it up with six of our 3TB SATA hard drives for a total of 18TB of storage if you’re looking for a ton of space, and if you’re focused on phenomenal disk IO to go along with your unbelievable compute power, you can opt for SSDs. If you still need more space,can order a 4U version fill ten drive bays!

The real stars of the show when it comes to the E7-4850 server are nestled right underneath these heatsinks. Each of the four processors has TEN cores @ 2.00GHz, so in this single box, you have a total of forty cores! I’m not sure how Moore’s Law is going to keep up if this is the next step to jump from.

With the abundance of CPU power, you’ll probably want an abundance of RAM. Not coincidentally, we can install up to 512GB of RAM in this baby. It’s pretty unbelievable to read the specs available in the decked-out version of this server, and it’s even crazier to think that our servers going to get more and more powerful.

With all of the processing power and RAM in this box, the case fans had to get a bit of an upgrade as well. To keep enough air circulating through the server, these three case fans pull air from the cold aisle in our data center, cool the running components and exhaust the air into the data center’s “hot aisle.”

Because this machine could be used to find the last digit of pi or crunch numbers to find the cure for cancer, it’s important to have redundancy … In the picture above, you see the redundant power supplies that safeguard against a single point of failure when it comes to server power. In each of our data centers, we have N+1 power redundancy, so adding N+1 power redundancy into the server isn’t very redundant at all … It’s almost expected!

If your next project requires a ton of processing power, a lot of room for RAM, and redundant power, this server is up for the challenge! Configure your own quad-proc ten-core beast of a machine in our shopping cart or contact our SLales team for a customized quote on one: sales@softlayer.com

When you get done benchmarking it against your old infrastructure, let us know what you think!

-Summer

This issue is all too common and it has nothing to do with the network, but in fact, the culprits are none other than TCP and the laws of physics.

In data transmission, TCP sends a certain amount of data then pauses. To ensure proper delivery of data, it doesn’t send more until it receives an acknowledgement from the remote host that all data was received. This is called the “TCP Window.” Data travels at the speed of light, and typically, most hosts are fairly close together. This “windowing” happens so fast we don’t even notice it. But as the distance between two hosts increases, the speed of light remains constant. Thus, the further away the two hosts, the longer it takes for the sender to receive the acknowledgement from the remote host, reducing overall throughput. This effect is called “Bandwidth Delay Product,” or BDP.

We can overcome BDP to some degree by sending more data at a time. We do this by adjusting the “TCP Window” – telling TCP to send more data per flow than the default parameters. Each OS is different and the default values will vary, but most all operating systems allow tweaking of the TCP stack and/or using parallel data streams. So what is iPerf and how does it fit into all of this?

What is iPerf?

iPerf is simple, open-source, command-line, network diagnostic tool that can run on Linux, BSD, or Windows platforms which you install on two endpoints. One side runs in a ‘server’ mode listening for requests; the other end runs ‘client’ mode that sends data. When activated, it tries to send as much data down your pipe as it can, spitting out transfer statistics as it does. What’s so cool about iPerf is you can test in real time any number of TCP window settings, even using parallel streams. There’s even a Java based GUI you can install that runs on top of it called, JPerf (JPerf is beyond the scope of this article, but I recommend looking into it). What’s even cooler is that because iPerf resides in memory, there are no files to clean up.

How do I use iPerf?

iPerf can be quickly downloaded from SourceForge to be installed. It uses port 5001 by default, and the bandwidth it displays is from the client to the server. Each test runs for 10 seconds by default, but virtually every setting is adjustable. Once installed, simply bring up the command line on both of the hosts and run these commands.

On the server side:
iperf -s

On the client side:
iperf -c [server_ip]

The output on the client side will look like this:

#iperf -c 10.10.10.5
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.10.10.5, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 0.0.0.0 port 46956 connected with 168.192.1.10 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0- 10.0 sec  10.0 MBytes  1.00 Mbits/sec

There are a lot of things we can do to make this output better with more meaningful data. For example, let’s say we want the test to run for 20 seconds instead of 10 (-t 20), and we want to display transfer data every 2 seconds instead of the default of 10 (-i 2), and we want to test on port 8000 instead of 5001 (-p 8000). For the purposes of this exercise, let’s use those customization as our baseline. This is what the command string would look like on both ends:

#iperf -c 10.10.10.5 -p 8000 -t 20 -i 2
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.10.10.5, TCP port 8000
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 10.10.10.10 port 46956 connected with 10.10.10.5 port 8000
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0- 2.0 sec  6.00 MBytes  25.2 Mbits/sec
[  3]  2.0- 4.0 sec  7.12 MBytes  29.9 Mbits/sec
[  3]  4.0- 6.0 sec  7.00 MBytes  29.4 Mbits/sec
[  3]  6.0- 8.0 sec  7.12 MBytes  29.9 Mbits/sec
[  3]  8.0-10.0 sec  7.25 MBytes  30.4 Mbits/sec
[  3] 10.0-12.0 sec  7.00 MBytes  29.4 Mbits/sec
[  3] 12.0-14.0 sec  7.12 MBytes  29.9 Mbits/sec
[  3] 14.0-16.0 sec  7.25 MBytes  30.4 Mbits/sec
[  3] 16.0-18.0 sec  6.88 MBytes  28.8 Mbits/sec
[  3] 18.0-20.0 sec  7.25 MBytes  30.4 Mbits/sec
[  3]  0.0-20.0 sec  70.1 MBytes  29.4 Mbits/sec

#iperf -s -p 8000 -i 2
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 8000
TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[852] local 10.10.10.5 port 8000 connected with 10.10.10.10 port 58316
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0- 2.0 sec  6.05 MBytes  25.4 Mbits/sec
[  4]  2.0- 4.0 sec  7.19 MBytes  30.1 Mbits/sec
[  4]  4.0- 6.0 sec  6.94 MBytes  29.1 Mbits/sec
[  4]  6.0- 8.0 sec  7.19 MBytes  30.2 Mbits/sec
[  4]  8.0-10.0 sec  7.19 MBytes  30.1 Mbits/sec
[  4] 10.0-12.0 sec  6.95 MBytes  29.1 Mbits/sec
[  4] 12.0-14.0 sec  7.19 MBytes  30.2 Mbits/sec
[  4] 14.0-16.0 sec  7.19 MBytes  30.2 Mbits/sec
[  4] 16.0-18.0 sec  6.95 MBytes  29.1 Mbits/sec
[  4] 18.0-20.0 sec  7.19 MBytes  30.1 Mbits/sec
[  4]  0.0-20.0 sec  70.1 MBytes  29.4 Mbits/sec

There are many, many other parameters you can set that are beyond the scope of this article, but for our purposes, the main use is to prove out our bandwidth. This is where we’ll use the TCP window options and parallel streams. To set a new TCP window you use the -w switch and you can set the parallel streams by using -P.

Increased TCP window commands:

Server side:
#iperf -s -w 1024k -i 2

Client side:
#iperf -i 2 -t 20 -c 10.10.10.5 -w 1024k

And here are the iperf results from two Softlayer file servers – one in Washington, D.C., acting as Client, the other in Seattle acting as Server:

# iperf -i 2 -t 20 -c 10.10.10.5 -p 8000 -w 1024k
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.10.10.5, TCP port 8000
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte (WARNING: requested 1.00 MByte)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 10.10.10.10 port 53903 connected with 10.10.10.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.9 MBytes   109 Mbits/sec
[  3]  2.0- 4.0 sec  28.5 MBytes   120 Mbits/sec
[  3]  4.0- 6.0 sec  28.4 MBytes   119 Mbits/sec
[  3]  6.0- 8.0 sec  28.9 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[  3]  8.0-10.0 sec  28.0 MBytes   117 Mbits/sec
[  3] 10.0-12.0 sec  29.0 MBytes   122 Mbits/sec
[  3] 12.0-14.0 sec  28.0 MBytes   117 Mbits/sec
[  3] 14.0-16.0 sec  29.0 MBytes   122 Mbits/sec
[  3] 16.0-18.0 sec  27.9 MBytes   117 Mbits/sec
[  3] 18.0-20.0 sec  29.0 MBytes   122 Mbits/sec
[  3]  0.0-20.0 sec   283 MBytes   118 Mbits/sec

#iperf -s -w 1024k -i 2 -p 8000
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 8000
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local 10.10.10.5 port 8000 connected with 10.10.10.10 port 53903
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.9 MBytes   109 Mbits/sec
[  4]  2.0- 4.0 sec  28.6 MBytes   120 Mbits/sec
[  4]  4.0- 6.0 sec  28.3 MBytes   119 Mbits/sec
[  4]  6.0- 8.0 sec  28.9 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[  4]  8.0-10.0 sec  28.0 MBytes   117 Mbits/sec
[  4] 10.0-12.0 sec  29.0 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[  4] 12.0-14.0 sec  28.0 MBytes   117 Mbits/sec
[  4] 14.0-16.0 sec  29.0 MBytes   122 Mbits/sec
[  4] 16.0-18.0 sec  28.0 MBytes   117 Mbits/sec
[  4] 18.0-20.0 sec  29.0 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[  4]  0.0-20.0 sec   283 MBytes   118 Mbits/sec

We can see here, that by increasing the TCP window from the default value to 1MB (1024k) we achieved around a 400% increase in throughput over our baseline. Unfortunately, this is the limit of this OS in terms of Window size. So what more can we do? Parallel streams! With multiple simultaneous streams we can fill the pipe close to its maximum usable amount.

Parallel Stream Command:
#iperf -i 2 -t 20 -c -p 8000 10.10.10.5 -w 1024k -P 7

#iperf -i 2 -t 20 -c -p 10.10.10.5 -w 1024k -P 7
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 10.10.10.5, TCP port 8000
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte (WARNING: requested 1.00 MByte)
------------------------------------------------------------
 [ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  9]  0.0- 2.0 sec  24.9 MBytes   104 Mbits/sec
[  4]  0.0- 2.0 sec  24.9 MBytes   104 Mbits/sec
[  7]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.6 MBytes   107 Mbits/sec
[  8]  0.0- 2.0 sec  24.9 MBytes   104 Mbits/sec
[  5]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.8 MBytes   108 Mbits/sec
[  3]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.9 MBytes   109 Mbits/sec
[  6]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.9 MBytes   109 Mbits/sec
[SUM]  0.0- 2.0 sec   178 MBytes   746 Mbits/sec
 
(output omitted for brevity on server & client)
 
[  7] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.2 MBytes   118 Mbits/sec
[  8] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.8 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[  5] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.0 MBytes   117 Mbits/sec
[  4] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.0 MBytes   117 Mbits/sec
[  3] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.9 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[  9] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.8 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[  6] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.9 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[SUM] 18.0-20.0 sec   200 MBytes   837 Mbits/sec
[SUM]  0.0-20.0 sec  1.93 GBytes   826 Mbits/sec

#iperf -s -w 1024k -i 2 -p 8000
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 8000
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[  4] local 10.10.10.10 port 8000 connected with 10.10.10.5 port 53903
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  5]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.7 MBytes   108 Mbits/sec
[  8]  0.0- 2.0 sec  24.9 MBytes   104 Mbits/sec
[  4]  0.0- 2.0 sec  24.9 MBytes   104 Mbits/sec
[  9]  0.0- 2.0 sec  24.9 MBytes   104 Mbits/sec
[ 10]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.9 MBytes   108 Mbits/sec
[  7]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.9 MBytes   109 Mbits/sec
[  6]  0.0- 2.0 sec  25.9 MBytes   109 Mbits/sec
[SUM]  0.0- 2.0 sec   178 MBytes   747 Mbits/sec
 
[  4] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.8 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[  5] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.3 MBytes   119 Mbits/sec
[  7] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.8 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[ 10] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.1 MBytes   118 Mbits/sec
[  9] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.0 MBytes   118 Mbits/sec
[  8] 18.0-20.0 sec  28.8 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[  6] 18.0-20.0 sec  29.0 MBytes   121 Mbits/sec
[SUM] 18.0-20.0 sec   200 MBytes   838 Mbits/sec
[SUM]  0.0-20.1 sec  1.93 GBytes   825 Mbits/sec

As you can see from the tests above, we were able to increase throughput from 29MB/s with a single stream and the default TCP Window to 824MB/s using a higher window and parallel streams. On a Gigabit link, this about the maximum throughput one could hope to achieve before saturating the link and causing packet loss. The bottom line is, I was able to prove out the network and verify bandwidth capacity was not an issue. From that conclusion, I could focus on tweaking TCP to get the most out of my network.

I’d like to point out that we will never get 100% out of any link. Typically, 90% utilization is about the real world maximum anyone will achieve. If you get any more, you’ll begin to saturate the link and incur packet loss. I should also point out that Softlayer doesn’t directly support iPerf, so it’s up to you install and play around with. It’s such a versatile and easy to use little piece of software that it’s become invaluable to me, and I think it will become invaluable to you as well!

-Andrew

Because the Internet has made content so much more accessible, it’s usually easy to log in remotely to your home PC using something like Remote Desktop, but what if your home computer is not powered on? You hope a family member is at home to turn on the computer when you call, but what if everyone is out of the house? Most people like me in the past would have just given up altogether since there would be no clear and immediate solution. Leaving your computer on all day could work, but what if you’re on an extended trip and you don’t want to run up your electricity bill? I’d probably start traveling with some portable storage device like a flash drive or portable hard drive to avoid the problem. This inelegant solution requires that I not forget the device, and the storage media would have to be large enough to contain all necessary files (and I’d also have to know ahead of time which ones I might need).

Given these alternatives, I usually found myself hoping for the best with the portable device, and as anticipated, there would still be some occasions where I didn’t happen to have the right files with me on that drive. When I started working for SoftLayer, I was introduced to a mind-blowing technology called IPMI, and my digital life has never been the same.

IPMI – Intelligent Platform Management Interface – is a standardized system interface that allows system administrators to manage and monitor a computer. Though this may be more than what the common person needs, I immediately found IPMI to be incredible because it allows a person to remotely power on any computer with that interface. I was ecstatic to realize that for my next computer build, I could pick a motherboard that has this feature to achieve total control over my home computer for whatever I needed. IPMI may be standard for all servers at SoftLayer, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a luxury feature.

If you’ve ever had the need to power on your computers and/or access the computer’s BIOS remotely, I highly suggest you look into IPMI. As I learned more and more about the IPMI technology, I’ve seen how it can be a critical feature for business purposes, so the fact that it’s a standard at SoftLayer would suggest that we’ve got our eye out for state-of-the art technologies that make life easier for our customers.

Now I don’t have to remember where I put that flash drive!

-Danny

Initial Ticket

Customer

I would like to cancel this server on August 20th, 2011, but not before that date. Anytime on this date will be okay.

We no longer have a need for this server and would like to cancel it before our next billing period. Thank you for your help in this matter. Please send me an email when this server has been canceled on August 20th, 2011.

She’s been with us for a long time, but things just aren’t working out … She’s become a gold digger. It’s her, not me. Please let her down easy. I don’t like punking out and having someone do my dirty work, but I’m afraid she might be violent. Diamond rings hurt when you get hit with them.

SoftLayer

I’m sorry to hear things did not work out for the two of you. While your safety is important to us, I must ask that you end this relationship via official channels.

Please submit an official cancellation request by going to Sales –> Cancel Server and proceeding through the cancellation steps. The server will be reclaimed at the end of your billing cycle on August 22nd.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Customer

She always tried to make it hard for me to break up with her. Done!
 

SoftLayer

Glad to hear things went smoothly. Things don’t always do, but we knew you could pull through it.
 

Official Cancellation Request

Let this be a lesson to all of you: Get out your seat and jump around.

-@khazard

While popular culture seems to think that the standard IT Guy fits the above criteria, allow me to be the first to dispel that rumor. For living proof, I submit to you, the SoftLayer NOC.

The technicians here are more exceptions to this seemingly universally accepted rule of what an IT Technician should be. While we possess a large wealth of knowledge, our technicians are all but condescending. To those who don’t know, we’re here to teach you. Being a server administrator has it’s challenges, but our technicians can be your eyes and ears in the datacenter, and instead of replying with “was that so hard?!”, we’ll provide as much information and assistance as we can to get you back on your feet. Our technicians are not just the geeky typecasts that one would expect. Our techs come from all walks of life. Some are self taught, some were taught in a university, while others learned their skills in the Military. Our hobbies run the gamut, including the piloting of aircraft, gaming, sports, outdoor activities, and music – Heck, we even have some former rock stars in our ranks.

Just remember, don’t be afraid to ping your IT Guy for information. A lot of us like to share some of the ninja tricks, war stories, and other anecdotes about our times in battle with hardware, software, and everything in between. Not only do we like to share our technical knowledge, but our individual stories, interests, and fun facts as well. Remember: IT guys are people too!

I’d like to start this tale of revenge by letting you know what a family affair Truck Day is around here. All month long, every month, SoftLayer’s lightning fast infrastructure team works to build our high density racks from the ground up. They put in some serious hours to meet our fast paced deadlines, and at the end of the month everyone pitches in to fill those racks up with servers. Early in the morning all of our team members will pile in, sleepy eyed and jonesing for coffee (with the exception of the overnight “SLombies,” who are jonesing for bed), to unload a semi truck full of servers.

Here’s some pics of the event from way back.

True, it’s not as fun as.. well, most things. But SoftLayer’s Truck Day is an institution. A bonafide tradition! And I’d hate for anyone to think that I forgot one.

After scrimping and saving (and accepting generous handouts from family members) I finally got to cut loose and fly to Hawaii for a few days in the sun. The Mrs. and I made the most of it and headed to the beach as often as we could. While I was there I took this harmless photo and uploaded it to Facebook, to let everyone know that I was thinking of them on truck day:

Apparently, it wasn’t taken in the light hearted manner in which it was meant.

It’s dangerous to go on vacation.

-Jeaves

Every so often Whataburger runs an ad that states there are over 34,000 different ways that you can order your Whataburger. Every time I see this ad it makes me wonder, how many possible ways can you order a server with SoftLayer? I’ve always said to myself “one day I will calculate this and write a blog about it”, but I never seemed to get around to it until now. My ultimate motivation to complete this calculation came while discussing our “perceived” limited configuration options with a customer due to having a set of “standard” solutions.

As I started to research the math involved in this calculation, I quickly realized that the total number of combinations for all servers and services we offer would be too much to comprehend or calculate. Therefore I limited the scope to just options for a Nehalem processor server. I also enlisted the help of Greg Kinman, one of our interns, to help me with the math to make sure we got it right. Those Kinmans are multiplying around here (almost as fast as the configuration options)…

Greg calculated that there are 96,631,664,476,185,600,000 different ways to order a Nehalem server. That’s 97 quintillion possibilities for just one server when you take into account the various hardware, software, and service options! Once you start to consider ALL the server options and cloud instances offered, it seems to me that unlimited would be a better description for the configurations SoftLayer offers.

Greg, I owe you lunch for helping me with the calculations today. How about Whataburger?