Useful life of a server?


cowger

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Hi - I have a somewhat random question concerning the longevity I should expect from the motherboard within my UnRAID NAS box.  I powered it up in early 2013 and it's been running 24/7 for over 6 years now.  I have the system loaded with 7 HDDs plus an SSD cache, and recently upgraded the parity drive to 8TB.  The rest are a mix of 2 and 4TB.  Running 6.6.7 since 2/22 of this year with no problems until I swapped out the parity drive with the bigger one very recently.

 

During the rebuild, the server started hanging, sometimes after just a few minutes.  There were no useful logs nor screen outputs; it would just stop responding to anything, including the console.  I pulled everything out, reset the SATA adapter card in its slot, ensured that all cables were fully seated, and ran a memtest (no issues).  It still crashed twice after that but then mysteriously ran fine after the 3rd try.  Now the system has been running for three days with no hang, and thankfully the rebuild finished, but after a half dozen or more hangs within the last week, I'm no longer confident that a problem isn't still lurking.

 

So, to the title question:  Am I running on borrowed time with a 6 year old server?  Or should a server run for 10 or more years without issue?  I'm not dissatisfied with the performance; only the uptime and reliability of the box at this point.  Thanks for your thoughts.

 

Bryan

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I don't necessarily agree with the 5 - 6 year life span. My unraid equipment was pushing 10 years of continuous use when I upgraded (with the last 6 years being 24/7).  A couple of my original 1TB drives were over 6 years of continuous use when I pulled them last year.

I think it is more likely that software makes consumer equipment seem obsolete in about that time frame, so "we" buy new pc's. Like TV's, mine main (actually a projector) that is now 8 years old. I'm ready to upgrade, but it's just because I want some newer features not because it no longer works.

With regard to the OP, I don't think you are running on borrowed time. However, you've already exceeded the average "useful" life of the equipment (as far as the general public is concerned) even if the equipment is still perfectly good. Once you isolate issues (connections, cards seated correctly, checking dimms, checking the power supply) it may simply be time to upgrade or replace parts as you decide.

Edited by whipdancer
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Computers can be funny, I don't like disturbing stuff unless there is a compelling reason to do so, I've seen it too many times when stuff is running fine for ages and you do something little and it blows up or starts behaving strangely, as in this case with the random hangs. That being said, sometimes it's a sign of a failing component or something else, it's never necessarily easy to diagnose. As for longevity, sure consumer drives don't have the lifespan of more expensive enterprise drives, but they should still last 5-6 years and other components like fans and power supplies may fail before that.

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Thanks, guys, this all helps.  Regarding not touching a working system, I agree, but occasionally the reality of the situation is that you need more capacity, hence the new drive.

 

I'll continue trying to figure out why the sudden instability, but with this advice, I'm now not in a rush to replace the server hardware.

 

Cheers,

Bryan

 

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