What’s the oldest server you’re still running?

mikho

Not necessarily your oldest hardware, but the one that has somehow managed to survive years of upgrades, replacements, and “I’ll shut this down eventually”.

What is it, what are you running on it, and how long has it been in service?

cmeerw

The only physical hardware that might count as a server (i.e., not a laptop) is my Orange Pi PC (from late 2015), which does pretty much everything:
* WiFi
* Internet connection
* radio (either DVB or Internet streaming to USB speakers and bluetooth speakers)
* temperature logging/display and motion sensor logging
* VoIP phone

Interestingly, even the Micro-SD card still seems to be fine (although I have swapped it a few years ago, just to give it a bit of a rest, not because it was faulty). Running Ubuntu 26.04 now and a recent mainline Linux kernel.

eliphas

my nuc6cayh if it counts as a server (proxmox latest chugging) may have 8 years I think. beautifully silent and runs on an alarm battery for maybe half an hour with his external usb hdd.

edit: sorry forgot the upgrades, it was 8gb first with 60 ssd, having upgraded the ssd two times now 250. dont know why, mostly lxc and docker, neither uses any storage. but since using it as a garage node had a usb 1TB hdd then 2 then 4 now.

I regret not trying to upgrade its ram to 32GB to see if it would work, it was not cheap, but looking at current prices...

rcy026

I have a customer that have a FreeBSD machine running that they claim has been running on the same original install for over 15 years.
It started on FreeBSD 8 and was updated and moved to new hardware several times until being virtualized a few years ago. Today it runs FreeBSD 13 something and is due a major upgrade again.

mikho

My oldest one (not child) is about 6 years now.
The version upgrades are the worst, every time something stops working and needs a couple of hours work before everything is back to normal again.

angstrom

Not sure whether this counts, but I've been running a Nextcloud server for a small group of users on a Devuan VPS since September 2020, updating it to newer stable versions when necessary

The only qualification is that I've had to migrate the Nextcloud server to a few different VPSes over time (but the OS has always been Devuan)

Scioner

Windows Server 2003 with a public IP.

It is a nightmare. It does run service for taxphones, no one really cares about it, but template of some docs should be updated from time to time.

I am making new temporary VM every time I have to connect to that abomination. Does it have viruses? Well... There's probably less actual software than viruses. Way less.

It is forbidden by security department to make some changes, and I don't have administrative rights. Every time I've raised the question - it's simply discarded by a "it still works, and we are not making money with it anyway".

I don't connect to that abomination often, but the last time I did (with RDP from 2003 btw), I had to close about 50 porn ads.

I think it's somehow alive only for a reason no one in their right mind can believe someone runs win2003 with a public IP today, so no one runs exploits for it.

DrNutella

Intel something something. Rest are ryzen and epic. Raspberry pi doesn’t count. Leave my 2012 Mac mini alone.

mikho

@angstrom said:
Not sure whether this counts, but I've been running a Nextcloud server for a small group of users on a Devuan VPS since September 2020, updating it to newer stable versions when necessary

The only qualification is that I've had to migrate the Nextcloud server to a few different VPSes over time (but the OS has always been Devuan)

Grey area, I would say.
I know I said "not necessarily your oldest hardware"....

In some way they meaning was ment to be " what hardware have you kept the longest?"

Moving a service around hardware.... still kudos.
Not a hill to die on, but if we met, I might arguee with you for a minute or two on that.

mikho

@Scioner said:
Windows Server 2003 with a public IP.

It is a nightmare. It does run service for taxphones, no one really cares about it, but template of some docs should be updated from time to time.

I am making new temporary VM every time I have to connect to that abomination. Does it have viruses? Well... There's probably less actual software than viruses. Way less.

It is forbidden by security department to make some changes, and I don't have administrative rights. Every time I've raised the question - it's simply discarded by a "it still works, and we are not making money with it anyway".

I don't connect to that abomination often, but the last time I did (with RDP from 2003 btw), I had to close about 50 porn ads.

I think it's somehow alive only for a reason no one in their right mind can believe someone runs win2003 with a public IP today, so no one runs exploits for it.

I once had to visit a university professor, whole department was on public IPs.

Imagine the joy of a prankster to find an open printer. Just sitting there... you have no idea where or whom it belongs to, but it is printing p0rn.

forest

Does it count if "years of upgrades" includes no upgrades?

mikho

@forest said:
Does it count if "years of upgrades" includes no upgrades?

Of course, unless you installed it yesterday

WSS

Not a server, per-se, but I've been rocking a Dell E6520 laptop since 2011. It's survived everything. The stint with OpenSUSE, Debian squeeze through 12. Void. FreeBSD. Still alive. Intel HD 3000 video is really the downfall. It's starting to choke trying to render complex websites.

InfraCharm

Oldest as of now is a Dell R440.
Specs:
x2 Xeon Gold 6230
512GB DDR4 2666
x1 4TB SAS SSD
x3 12TB SAS HDD

Has survived everything, onboard NIC threw some errors a few months ago regarding a PCIe downgrade but a quick BIOS disable fixed that issue as it wasn't in use.

Currently used for our business line of VPS hosting, has been online and kicking since 2022 other than required maintenance.

Jord

I have an E5-2630 v2 still in use, in my under stairs DC, and an E5-2630L v2 colo'd

Then newer stuff elsewhere.

poei

@WSS said:
Not a server, per-se, but I've been rocking a Dell E6520 laptop since 2011. It's survived everything. The stint with OpenSUSE, Debian squeeze through 12. Void. FreeBSD. Still alive. Intel HD 3000 video is really the downfall. It's starting to choke trying to render complex websites.

This is the "Mad Mech: The Road Warrior".

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Latitude-E7240-Notebook.102324.0.html

Beefed up the RAM to 16GB and added a 1TB mSATA drive. Currently running MX 25.3 XFCE. Cosmetically it's a bit beaten up, but it's served me so damn well, and it's ultra portable, so I feel guilty parting with it. Exactly like @WSS said, the Intel HD (4400) Graphics is a bit of a choke point for some things, but not a deal breaker (yet).

Also, it has a cool ass SDF.org sticker on it, perfectly aligned on the lid. It's the only sticker on it, and I normally don't do stickers.

I also have a 13" Mid 2012 MBP with 16GB RAM and 1TB Samsung Evo SSD which doesn't really travel with me, that I use mainly for hacking around with older legacy audio and video software and hardware.

mod edit: resized image and hosted locally as it was taking 50+ seconds to load

teamacc

Got some intel i5 4th gen running as a NAS. Probably bought in 2013-2015, still going strong. Upgraded the disks in it a few times.

Dwayne

A 2-bay Synology NAS I bought in early 2011, I upgraded the disks to 18 TB three or four years ago. It's running 24/7 and I am using it every day.

mikho

@Dwayne said:
A 2-bay Synology NAS I bought in early 2011, I upgraded the disks to 18 TB three or four years ago. It's running 24/7 and I am using it every day.

My old Synology died this year, bought a new chassi and moved the disk. Everything working as expected again.

Love that simplicity.

PacketraOliver

My oldest server I am hosting some of my personal project on is a DELL PE R210II since 2012, obviously it's been reloaded several times and hardened and it's locked down tight haha, but it's a personal project that makes no money it's purely "for me". It has a single Intel Xeon E3-1230v2 it's enough for what I need it for, sure I could move it to a new server but why mess with a good thing when it's not broken

dbadude

AMD Opteron 6168 from 2010 still going strong.

davide

@dbadude said:
AMD Opteron 6168 from 2010 still going strong.

The notebook I'm typing from is from 2007, Intel Pentium T2390, its keyboard begun to type characters at random last week without me being even at the computer, had to unplug the keyboard cable from the motherboard and attach a spare USB one. Now I cannot find a replacement at a decent price.

This is the Logitech keyboard, got it for 4+3 €, the keys surface is so slippery I'm mistyping every other word.

david3

Not a server, but my desktop is an i7-2600k circa 2012. I've replaced everything except the cpu itself and the mini-itx case, though.

I also still have the original Intel 320 80GB ssd I got with it, but its just a spare drive now. New motherboard (that has nvme slot), nvme drive, new 16GB ddr3 RAM. The new motherboard only has usb2 and 100mbit ethernet, so my one pcie slot has a combined usb3 gigabit ethernet card. My old motherbaord had both usb3 and gigabit ethernet, but the usb3 was too buggy to really use so I used a pcie card with it, too.

dbadude

nice thing of old hardware is that new virusses don't perform or run on them.

Jord

I still have my RPi 2B running now serves as my flightradar probe.

Basic System Information:
---------------------------------
Uptime     : 57 days, 21 hours, 44 minutes
Processor  : ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7l)
CPU cores  : 4 @ 900.0000 MHz
AES-NI     : ❌ Disabled
VM-x/AMD-V : ❌ Disabled
RAM        : 920.0 MiB
Swap       : 512.0 MiB
Disk       : 117.2 GiB
Distro     : Raspbian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
Kernel     : 6.18.34+rpt-rpi-v7
VM Type    : NONE