Breaking the Rules

I am an unabashedly big fan of Jeff over at Craft Computing. His last video is so good I want to share it here because my summary isn’t going to do it justice.

Basically it goes like this: there are a ton of “rules” as what qualifies for a server and what hardware and software combos you should use for those things. Most of those rules are garbage; you have the freedom to do what works for you.

Jeff covers many of the common misconceptions of “what is a server/client?” to the infamous “do I need ECC memory?”. I love his take on it and its one I have been espousing for quite some time, having servers composed entirely of used desktop hardware with minimal stock cooling and standard RAM.

The point is, watch this video to get an understanding of how easy it is to get away with basic home server hardware and don’t listen to those people who tell you unless you are running decommissioned Dell R or HP Proliant hardware, your server isn’t “real”. Break some rules.

Also a quick shout-out to Jeff for the opening monologue, which is pure perfection.