[M] Server moved to new location: Behind the Scenes look
 

Tom from www.priorweb.be took me for a ride in his "nearly" new car, and showed me around the new server colocation Priorweb has invested in. It has quite the infrastructure, practically everything is present , in double, to give a fail-over protection when something goes wrong.

Arriving at 21:00, near a dimly lit building he hurried toward the keypad which is glued on the wall. After making sure nobody is looking over his shoulder, he punches in his code and opens the door to the [M] server lair.

A meters further he is again greeted by a closed door and a keypad. Using the code he found in the PDA which was lying the corner he opens this doors and enters the dark bowls of the Priorweb being.

Only 1 obstacle remains now, finding the code to open the door for the "server" rack.

While Tom is busy turning the dail on the lock I wonder around the property and take some snapshots. Pics by /me. All tech info provided by Tom (or that what I can remember :))

So here's Tom working the numberlock

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The yellow "tubes" running overhead contain fibre optic cables, they run throughout the building

at the backside of the server rack I notice that the door is open, probably somebody got the keypad number from the monitor sitting in the corner ;)

so while Tom is still working the lock at the front, I advance to the open door in the back

A rack filled with 2U servers, now which one is [M]'s ?

aha found it, the bottom one, of course, supporting the weight of all the servers on top without a problem :)

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All the servers are connected to an APC power unit which allows remote reboot of each servers, all the servers except [M]'s ;)

At the bottom of the rack is a second APC unit which provides a fail-over system in case one power source (those 380V blue connectors you see at large events) was to fail. It can switch from on power source to the next in less then 0.6 ms.. now that's fast!

Of course the [M] server is not alone in this large server park, next it you can see other racks and compartements where people can place their servers, everything you see in this picture is owned and operated by www.priorweb.be (the racks of course, the servers.. well that's another story)

Tom is still hacking the lock it seems, 3 numbers, 999 possibilities.. this can be a loooooong night

all the traffic to and from the racks is managed by these two devices, the small orange cables parting at the left are fibre optic cables

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in the other corner of the room we find an identical rackmount case with identical content, again fail-over protection.. impressive! (and costly)

Power is present everywhere and so is the airco, again it's like seeing double as the installation is mirrored and fail-over proct. is present here also.

aaaaaaaaaah finally, Tom's magic fingers and trained ears are able to crack the code and open the door to the [M] server closet.

Can ye spot dzé ONE?

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I'd like to thank www.priorweb.be for the continued support and excellent service, uptime and speed has been very high ever since we are hosted by our Belgian/Dutch friends!