Reddit user PoisonWaffle3 detailed how he managed to get his hands on one of Netflix’s caching servers for free. Although the server is already ten years old, it has impressive performance characteristics even by today’s standards and is equipped with a whopping 262 TB memory. Currently original post deletedbut the comments remain.
The author of the message claims to have obtained the Netflix server in his workplace, from the Internet Service Provider. The server appears to have been in use for many years, but has been replaced with newer hardware, allowing PoisonWaffle3 to get it for free.
The caching server was used in Netflix’s open content delivery network (CDN), which accelerates content downloads by providing caching hardware to providers. This allows you to play popular content from local providers’ servers, rather than streaming content directly from Netflix’s servers.
The device is painted bright red and is designed as a 4U rack server. A small LCD for monitoring server status is located on the front panel next to the ports. On the left are slim power supplies that are likely hot swappable.
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Specs include a Supermicro motherboard with a 10-core Intel Xeon E5 2650L v2 chip with Hyper-Threading technology, 64GB of DDR3 memory, and a 10GbE network card. The system uses six 500GB Micron SSDs and 36 7.2TB 7200-rpm drives for storage. The server originally ran on FreeBSD, but the system was removed after decommissioning – the new owner installed the TrueNAS open source NAS system on it.
According to PoisonWaffle3, the server needed a small overhaul, which included replacing several noisy fans and a failed drive. She says the device will get a second life by working as a home NAS.
Source: Tom’s hardware
