Wikiversity:Sandbox Server/Technical

Hardware specs

This will be up for a bit of discussion, but I think we should focus on "minimum" and "optimal" specs.

I'm going to assume we should be looking for an x86 type box.

Minimum specs

• 80GB disk space
• optical writer drive (CDR or DVDR)
• remote reboot capability
• ~1GHz processor (dual?)
• 1GB RAM

Optimal specs

• KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) over IP (for remote management)
• Hardware array (to allow for RAID, stripes or whatever)
• Multiple HD's - 36GB? x 4?
• 6GB RAM
• Tape drive

Some examples of previous WMF servers

• Resolution:Hardware Purchase Jul-06 - Rackform nServ A206 - 2.4 GHz CPU - 8GB RAM - 4 x 36GB HDs - $3072.00
• Resolution Hardware Purchase Feb-06 - Rackform nServ A210S - 2.2 GHz CPU - 16GB RAM 6 x 73GB HDs - $2,550.00
• Hardware ordered August 30, 2005 - $2376.00 - 2.2 GHz CPU - 2GB RAM - 250GB HD - CD-ROM - DVD-ROM - 1.44 Floppy - O/S: Fedora Linux Core 3
• Tool server - Sun V40z, Solaris 10, 2 x 2.2GHz Opteron, 8GB RAM, 6x 146GB SCSI

Administration Proposed

• It's clear that we need to approach this as a completely Lights out management service. This means there will be no onsite personel to assist us in any way, except in case of extreme hardware emergency (for instance, a disc fries or a CPU pops). Other then this, the administration and management of the box should be entirely Wikiversity contained.
• It will be set up in co-operation with the custodians. Initial setup will be done by the volunteers associated with the Computer Science school, after the operating system is installed by onsite personnel.
• The computer science school will nominate a few volunteers to help with the daily tasks associated with running a server. These nominees will have to pass muster of a community consensus, and it is proposed that it be done in the fashion of a meritocracy.

Other schools and projects will also nominate volunteers for the steering committee and even the drudgery so an IT cabal does evolve. The "meritocracy" at some Wikiversity projects and schools include computer illiterates who just want the operational servers to be reliable.

• The Computer science school will lead development of processes which allow other schools access and input into how the server farms are utilized for maximum aggregate efficacy.
• A server administration department has been initialized to handle content development for the topic in general. This group will be aware of the Sandbox Server's administrative aspects providing main namespace resources from a "learn by doing" approach.

Names

What would this server be called? Ideas:

• Comenius
• Gutenberg
• Enterprise
• Aristotle
• Dewey
• Alexandria
• Sandbox
• The Server
• Einstein
• da Vinci
• Serverversity (or Serversity)
• Sikiverserver
• Sandbox on Wheels
• MDCT Server (MDCT - making dreams come true)