Recently I blogged about AMD Opteron^TM processors in the world’s largest supercomputers.  But what about the other end of the spectrum?

Like many of you, I have a second job as the network administrator for a small network – at home.  The pay is non-existent but the working conditions are flexible. We all come home from our jobs, and as the de facto technical person in the house, it is my responsibility to keep it all running.

Over time I have managed to assign 16 different IP addresses on my home network. Consolidating print services on to a NAS allowed me to retire one print server this weekend, simplicity reigns supreme. When everything runs fine, it is a well oiled machine; but it generally always chooses the day I have just left for Asia to come tumbling down.

Here is what I grapple with when I get home at night:

The complexity of the network has grown over the years.  The first server was NetWare 3.11, followed by Windows NT Server.  Eventually it simply became Windows Vista on the server, again, in the need for simplicity and commonality with the other OS’s (and not needing an enterprise-class OS at home.)

What I have noticed about the network is that everything is purpose-driven.  There isn’t anything that has just been added for the heck of it.  I scrutinize IT purchases just like you, because they add complexity to my life.

Commonality is really important.  The 2 NAS devices (one for data, one as a mirror backup) are identical models with the same drive models. Disaster recovery is simply changing the IP from the primary to the secondary.

I shoot for commonality on the motherboards so that when I have to update drivers, I can take care of all of those chores at one time.  It’s funny that I talk to customers all the time who talk about the importance of commonality in their data centers, and even on a personal level, on a home network, it makes sense. They love the commonality of the platforms based on AMD Opteron^TM processors and I can see why. Being able to count on the same driver to update different generations of AMD-based servers is a huge reduction in the amount of time spent managing the update process.

This past weekend I decided to build up another system and load Windows Home Server to see how the experience was.  Deploying a new server, especially one with a new technology is always a challenge.

I am adding this server because I want to be able to allow my wife to have a universal file storage – with remote file editing (without having to deal with “upload/download.”)  If I can figure out how to enable this functionality on the current system, then I would probably want to consolidate some of the functions with an HP MediaSmart Server because I really love that compact form factor.

Working with the WHS software presented an interesting challenge when it came to power consumption.  The software is based on Windows Server 2003 but it was not very clear which drivers you need for power savings.  I have the whole system around 45W in idle (where is sits most of the day), which is probably about $.10 a day in power (it consumes roughly a kilowatt hour and we pay ~$.10/KwH here in Austin). While that might not seem like a lot, consolidating down to the HP system would hopefully drop the consumption even more.

Walking around the house with a power meter, and doing some quick math, it looks like the network is drawing ~$10/month in power (based on that rough estimate of $.10/KwH).  Sleep mode helps cut that number down a bit, but don’t let it fool you, even when sleeping, devices are pulling power.

The lessons I learned this weekend probably sound very similar to what you deal with:

1. Commonality is good

2. Consolidation reduces your management tasks

3. Software is never as easy as it appears

4. Power efficiency is very critical

Hopefully, by spending some time with WHS I can build the application that I need and then can consolidate some of the functions down to 1 box. Ah, the life of a network administrator.

John Fruehe is the Director of Business Development for Server/Workstation products at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.