Replacing Server RAM regularly.

Have you ever thought about the electronic "wear and tear" on RAM? We know that the thousands of transactions a second passing through these memory modules (being written and read) causes heat. What many people didn't realise until recently was the electronic damage done over time.

A copy of the full article (and all the techo speak) is here. To summarise, the 50nm DRAM chips were monitored in massive Google server farms (thousands of servers providing internet search facilities).  Scientists found that error rates steadily grew on the DIMM chips, eventually bringing the server down with critical errors.  Some preventative measures (like Error Correction Control) are being put in place, but even these may not be sufficient.

The final outcome seems to be that servers need to have RAM replaced after periods of time, some suggest every 2 years depending upon the critical nature of the machine (and the services it provides).

Worthy of note, and a point to make when planning hardware maintenance.

Groupsupport offer hardware maintenance plans to assist you in your operations - call or email us (contact page).