i'd say you're close.. but even if you are running individual machines,
you can still use one UPS.. we have a single 15kva UPS for our server
room, running aprox 20 systems on it.  and every outlet box is it's own
circut, so you can do electrical work without shuting down the whole
thing.

Thank You,
        Ben Kochie (ben at nerp.net)

 "Unix is user friendly, Its just picky about its friends."

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Bob Tanner wrote:

> Ok, I guess I'll do some quick numbers....
>
> Quoting Nick.T.Reinking at supervalu.com (Nick.T.Reinking at supervalu.com):
> > I've never understood why people are so damned fascinated with
> > Linux on the S/390.  I get to work on SuSE/390, and it really isn't that
> > impressive.  The box isn't any more responsive than the Linux PC on
> > my desk.  Sure, you can put lots of them on one box - but if you're wanting
> > to actually save money, you're better off buying small boxes.  Or, buying
> > a higher end Sun box and just intelligently administrating it.
>
> I have to disagree. Let's say you can runn 4,000 instance of linux on 1
> Z-Series. That is 1 electrical run. 1 large UPS. 1 port on a switch. 1 rack.
> 10 sq feet of space to house it. Put what you think it cost here to just get the
> hardware.
>
> Lets go 4,000 PCs. I'll make some round numbers. $1000 for each PC. Using 24
> port manageable switches you'll need 167 switches. You'll need 4,167 power runs.
> Let's live on the wild side and go with 1 ups for every 2 devices, so you'd need
> 2084 UPSs. I don't know how many racks. And the space will be several hundred sq
> feet.
>
> 4000 PC * 1000       = 4,000,000
> 167 switches * 3000  =   501,000
> 2084 UPS * 600       = 1,250,400
> ==================     =========
> TOTAL		       5,751,400
>
> Plus whatever the racks will cost.
>
> PLUS the re-occurring and the monthly fee for the space.
>
> Throw in that you'd have to buy a new box, new port on a switch half a UPS for
> each new user. You have a start up cost of a min of $1425/per user ($1000 for
> pc, $125 for switch port, $300 for UPS).
>
> Again, not counting the rack space, cost of physical space or utilities.
>
> Let's say everyone is willing to pay $100/month, it will takes 15 months just to
> re-coup your hard investement (and you still have all your other operating
> expenses).
>
> Add to all of this the admin chores. Think about trying to backup 4000 PCs.
> Think about how you'll monitor all of this. Most of us are admins here and we
> can fill in the blanks.
>
> YES, there is probably cheaper PCs and there a cheaper switches and you can
> spread the UPS even further. Half the cost of everything. IT'S STILL ~2.5
> million.
>
> Ok, I left out the Z-series costs. Why? Because I don't really know what it will
> cost. I don't want to yank IBMs chain on getting a quote until after the poll
> and I see if there is an opportunity and interest out there for this.
>
> More on this later...
>
>
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