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What does localizing server in one chassis means? Does it mean that moving all those servers into just using a chassis or blade? So say I have a few dell servers PE6950, PE2650, PE2950 and to localize them just means to replace those 3 servers into one?

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It is often highly desirable to sell or donate the old servers, due to any or all of the following:

  • Space: the server room, closet, or rack may not have enough physical space for both new and old equipment
  • Aesthetics: keeping old servers may contribute to a cluttered/hodgepodge appearance, particularly if a company has transitioned from tower to rackmount equipment
  • Power: if the server count is being increased, this may lead to an increase in power bills and potentially a need for additional electrical circuits and UPSs.
  • Cooling: increasing server count may require additional air conditioning or other cooling infrastructure, which can be very expensive to install and operate.
  • Accounting: donating old servers to charity may have tax benefits in some countries (but I am not an accountant), whereas selling old servers obviously generates at least a small amount of cash.
  • Security: in a Windows environment, where operating systems are not free to upgrade, a computer running an obsolete operating system like Windows 2000 may not be safe to leave on the network due to known and unpatched vulnerabilities; even if budget is available for an upgrade, drivers for the new versions of Windows may not be available.
  • Maintenance: old servers are typically both out of warranty and highly prone to common failures; in some IT budgets, maintenance and support may be even more costly than hardware, and decision-makers may not want the added maintenance cost of replacing failed disks, power supplies, etc. on obsolete servers.
  • Obsolescence: as companies move to new operating system and server software versions, old server hardware may no longer meet vendor system requirements.
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It sounds like that is what localizing may be referring to. Either that or in terms of the server physically being located at the same place as you are (local server).

Keep in mind that if you are consolidating systems make sure there is a replacement (redundancy) point somewhere in your system if the only existing server were to fail that might be a problem.

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so what do company usually do to the old server if I were to buy a chassis to replace all these? use it as a replacement point? redundancy? – EquinoX Nov 23 '10 at 23:54
Yes that would be the best use to have these servers as standby spares. If it's a database they can be transactional replicas or mirrors or if file servers have scheduled tasks to mirror the data. – Nick O'Neil Nov 24 '10 at 15:19
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@Equinox - depends on the age and reliability of the server being replaced of course. Some server hardware can go on to have a long productive life in another role, some can work as a "hot spare" for something and others are best given a retirement party before being sent on to an exciting new career as scrap metal. – DJ Pon3 Jan 20 '11 at 16:01
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