Re: to swap or not?

["Hunter Heinlen" <user=209@nabble.blu.org>]

 Stephen Adler wrote: 

> I realized that the fan on the power supply of 
> one of my servers is not working. 
... 
> or do I spend the time 
> and money to replace the power supply? I'd rather just leave it alone, 
> but then, this server runs my business web site and the last thing I 
> need is for it to go down while I'm out of town, (which is about 50% of 
> my time...) 

Swap it.  It is cheap enough that the protection against the power 
supply burning out is worth it for a system that your business should 
view as critical.  Remember, one dead component implies that another 
component was damaged when it died and might burn out soon.  And, yes, 
that often does not happen, and is less likely to happen with a fan than 
with other components.  But with power supplies being so cheap, why risk 
it?  The only good reason that I can think of to not swap it is if the 
fan is temperature controlled by a heat sensor in the power supply. 
Check the manual that came with the system. 

Aside from the business view, however, whether you need it or not is 
very dependent upon load.  So if you felt the temp at a low load point 
in time (with some cooling time, etc), a one time check does not tell 
you anything.  You either need a long term study of temp and load vs 
time, or a temp measure of the system at max load over enough time for 
the temp to stop rising and stabilize.  Aside for blanket statements 
about business concerns and peace of mind, you do not have enough info 
to make a good decision based on real world data.  You can judge for 
yourself if gathering that data is going to cost more then just 
replacing the fan or the power supply. 

Hunter 

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