Cloudflare Teases Next-Gen Server Design, Benefits Going From 1U To 2U Servers

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Cloudflare Teases Next-Gen Server Design, Benefits Going From 1U To 2U Servers

Two years ago Cloudflare rolled out their "Gen 11" server fleet built around AMD EPYC Milan processors and on Friday the company began talking about their forthcoming "Gen 12" server designs that will soon be rolling out across their data centers for powering this widely-used web infrastructure...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Cloudflare-Gen12-Server

[Ironmask]

Cool? We reporting on their public restroom renovations next?
It's always cool to hear what companies are doing with software (even private in-house stuff), hardware is pretty much an implementation detail.

[jabl]

Bigger fans are more efficient, who would have thought..

Next step, a single huge fan at the bottom of the rack, with vertical air flow. Like the Cray XT series supercomputers had.

[microcode]

Cool? We reporting on their public restroom renovations next?
It's always cool to hear what companies are doing with software (even private in-house stuff), hardware is pretty much an implementation detail.

This is a blog about implementation details, like half the posts here are "this implementation detail changed and had this effect!".

[ehansin]

Cool? We reporting on their public restroom renovations next?
It's always cool to hear what companies are doing with software (even private in-house stuff), hardware is pretty much an implementation detail.

To be fair here, I was interested in this when I saw the headline, made sure to open up a new tab and have a read. Always learning new things around here, and that is the way I like it!

[Cmdr_Zod]

Cool? We reporting on their public restroom renovations next?
It's always cool to hear what companies are doing with software (even private in-house stuff), hardware is pretty much an implementation detail.

There are a lot of Benchmarks on Phoronix which also take a look into power consumption, or better performance (and most likely better efficiency) of new software releases. For me, it is interesting to see, that cloudflare is taking a step back from the ever emerging trend of more densely packed racks (blade servers or Supermicro twin systems come to mind as an examples) to save on costs and increase efficiency of its server environment.
Also, don't forget, that with 340W for one CPU, they have to deal with more heat than in many Dual-CPU-Servers in the past.

[twiked]

There are a lot of Benchmarks on Phoronix which also take a look into power consumption, or better performance (and most likely better efficiency) of new software releases. For me, it is interesting to see, that cloudflare is taking a step back from the ever emerging trend of more densely packed racks (blade servers or Supermicro twin systems come to mind as an examples) to save on costs and increase efficiency of its server environment.
Also, don't forget, that with 340W for one CPU, they have to deal with more heat than in many Dual-CPU-Servers in the past.

Exactly, 140W of savings per server is a lot, and can put into perspective some micro-optmisations. Don't understand where the hate is coming from, especially as it's a one-off article. Thanks for the broader reporting !

[frief]

Quoting from Cloudflares blog post (linked within the article)

A single fan running at full speed consumes about 40W, and a typical server configuration of 7–8 dual rotor fans per server can hit 280–320 W to power the fans alone. At peak loads, the total system power consumed, including the cooling fans, processor, and other components, can eclipse 750 Watt per server

Using up to 320 Watt for cooling to deal with 430 Watt ( = 750 W - 320 W) of heat for gen 11 servers really is excessive.

(Looking at the image for gen 11 servers I don't understand the cooling concept. But then I don't understand it for gen 12 either)

[billyswong]

Quoting from Cloudflares blog post (linked within the article)


Using up to 320 Watt for cooling to deal with 430 Watt ( = 750 W - 320 W) of heat for gen 11 servers really is excessive.

(Looking at the image for gen 11 servers I don't understand the cooling concept. But then I don't understand it for gen 12 either)

1U height is really inefficient in cooling. They need 40mm fans for conventional design. The motor area takes too huge a portion of the fan area. 1U should only be used for devices that don't need active cooling or just a tiny bit of active cooling.

[NotMine999]

The Cloudflare blog article linked in this story really is a good read. It's not crazy technical on an engineering level, but the clearly thought out engineering logic is definitely on display.

Articles like this one make Phoronix worth reading.