Maltair is one of our most powerful servers to date, yet was left undocumented for several years following its initial purchase.

Currently it takes the form of a 2RU HP DL380p G8 server (purchased online from Ross' Auctions for just over $1274.50) with two Intel(R) Xeon(R) E5-2690 0 @ 2.90GHz CPUs and 192GB DDR3-1600 ECC RAM (12x16GB).

It is used as a VM host as part of the atlantic Proxmox cluster.

History

It was originally purchased by the club in an auction for approximately $600 in 2017.

Maltair was then a 1RU IBM System x3550 M4 server with dual 8-core Xeon E5-2680 CPUs and 192GB DDR3 ECC RAM (1600 MHz). Originally labelled maltair, this became maltair (dead) and later old maltair (dead).

Following RCD testing one day in August 2018, it very suddenly became completely dead. As it turns out, an IMM2 firmware bug affecting that particular model of server caused a current surge through the built-in voltage regulators every time it was powered on, which could vastly decrease the lifetime of the components and eventually would result in a system board failure requiring a replacement of the entire motherboard. ([BOB] attempted to locate and replace the failed component itself, however in the end it was unsuccessful)

A new server of the same model but vastly inferior specifications was then purchased from eBay for $400 to provide a replacement motherboard which was compatible with the components from the original server. This was nicknamed New Maltair for some time, until it died and then became New Dead Maltair. Components were transferred and the firmware was upgraded, which left a functional system almost identical to the original M4.

Curiously enough, in February 2019, the replacement x3550 M4 hardware for Maltair died in the exact same fashion as its predecessor, apparently without regard for the firmware upgrade that was intended to fix the issue. Instead, the current HP DL380p G8 hardware was purchased as a replacement. This latest revision is often referred to as New Undead Maltair.