Buy a "server"

As agreed in our NACSOS meeting on Feb 14, we should move to a server with fast SSD storage and discontinue the Hetzner server.

Some considerations:

  • Only meant for running the database(s) for now
  • Choose configuration that allows future upgrades w/o replacement:
    • RAM (leave empty slot(s), ensure CPU/mainboard support up to 128GB)
    • SSD (leave empty M2 or SATA slot)
    • GPU (big enough case, mainboard that supports common "good" cards)
    • ... in case we want/need local on-demand GPU support, we can have it, but this is not meant to be a compute server at this point!
  • RAM
    • Should be at least 32GB, ideally 64GB
    • If possible, have 4 slots available, fill 2-3 with 32GB sticks (leaving room for up to 128GB)
    • Additional notes on RAM requirements: #10 (closed)
  • Storage
    • NVMe SSD for storing the most accessed parts of the database
      • currently, our OpenAlex tables take up 2.5TB, we can get below 2TB (see comment below)
      • 2TB M2 SSD ~170€ on CSL, ~140€ on Amazon
      • 4TB M2 SSD >550€ on CSL, ~450€ on Amazon
      • We can also host some tables via tablespaces on different physical device(s)
      • The lower/cheaper we go, the more we always have to keep an eye on storage; the cost of us messing about reducing tables sizes or having parts of the data somewhere else is probably more expensive than just paying 200-300€ extra now.
    • Additional larger storage needed for raw data
      • no redundancy / speed tuning via RAID needed, so just one disk is fine
      • as big as possible (within reason, at the very least 4TB)
      • normal SSD here would be nice, but prices per byte increase massively with capacity past 2TB
      • reasonable choice seems to be a 8TB HDD with large cache and 7,200rpm (~5k rpm also somewhat acceptable if budget is maxed out)
  • CPU
    • not much needed for DB itself
    • multi-threading performance is priority
    • preferable something from the AMD Ryzen 7 series

Proposal 1

Based on the notes above, this seems to be a good balance of reasonable specs (not too restrictive, but certainly not over-the-top):
https://www.csl-computer.com/k/4W8ZcHLD

This leaves 2 RAM slots and allows for up to 128GB (e.g. by adding another 2x32GB) and (based on CSL compatibility checks, can host a range of good mid-range GPUs)

image

Proposal 2

Walk the line to up to 2k€ and include GPU. This proposal is the basis for requests for offers sent to suppliers. Configs see below.

Edited by Tim Repke