Supermicro X9SCL/X9SCM: update the BIOS for IPMI

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had not much trouble getting my server to work in the Serverius datacenter with the exception of IPMI. This feature is built-in on the motherboard I used: a Supermicro X9SCL-F (the “F” part apparently indicates IPMI support). IPMI allows a number things for which you’d normally have […]

Finally entered the world of Colocation

I’m not entirely sure how long ago I started using dedicated servers (only one for the first few years though) for my sites, but it must be around 10 years or more. My account on WHT.com is over 10 years old, and in the oldest posts there suggest I had a Cobalt RAQ at the […]

Multiple DNS servers with PowerDNS and MySQL replication

With DNS it is essential to have at least two and preferably more DNS servers for your domains in geographically separated locations. Putting all your DNS servers on the same server is asking for trouble: even if your server goes down for only a little while (like a reboot) some visitors may perceive your sites […]

Free image hosting: lessons learned (Part 1)

This is probably going to be a series of posts, hence the “Part 1” in the title. I have now ran the same free image hosting site (ImageHost.org) twice: the first time was in the fall/winter of 2004 (only a few months indeed) and the second time was while a lot longer: from fall 2007 […]

How to calculate kWh (kilowatt-hour)

A colocation provider I am interested in quotes €0.15 per “kWh” for power usage. They also mentioned “1 ampere equals about 166 kWh”. I wondered how they calculated these numbers and how I can calculate power usage in kWh myself. The first thing you might want (or need) to calculate is how much Watt (W) […]