Hey guys I am just curious to know what a network switch does? and how does it effect servers? I am just interested to see how data centers operate and what do they use in order to function the way they do. Also the load balancer.....?


-Arma4

Hey guys I am just curious to know what does this device do? and how does it effect servers? I am just interested to see how data centers operate and what do they use in order to function the way they do. Also the load balancer.....?

-Arma4

A switch can do various types of things.


Not sure why you'd need to ask here, there are many excellent descriptions out there: http://en.wikipedia..../Network_switch

A load balancing switch is one of the many types of network switches and is described on the Wikipedia article above.

As for how data centers operate, that is a huge question. On the most simple terms, they are a bunch of computers that process data. A data center can range from a server small room with a few dozen rack-mounted machines, or it can be a multi-building technical complex relying on millions of devices with multiple independent dual-powered infrastructures. Obviously the general operations between those data centers will be very different.

[quote name='goku21060' timestamp='1310964053' post='4836638']
Hey guys I am just curious to know what does this device do? and how does it effect servers? I am just interested to see how data centers operate and what do they use in order to function the way they do. Also the load balancer.....?

-Arma4

A switch can do various types of things.


Not sure why you'd need to ask here, there are many excellent descriptions out there: http://en.wikipedia..../Network_switch

A load balancing switch is one of the many types of network switches and is described on the Wikipedia article above.

As for how data centers operate, that is a huge question. On the most simple terms, they are a bunch of computers that process data. A data center can range from a server small room with a few dozen rack-mounted machines, or it can be a multi-building technical complex relying on millions of devices with multiple independent dual-powered infrastructures. Obviously the general operations between those data centers will be very different.
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Thanks Frob for reply back so quickly I really do appreciate it. I will also check out the wikipedia link that you provided. For the data center, when I ask the question I was more implying about how they have it set up. As in what equipment they use besides servers and why they use it. I am also more interest in how small business operate than big ones. Sorry for not saying all of this in the first post but I appreciate that you took you time to reply back

-Arma4

A "data center" is not a specific setup - it's a very, very general family of ideas. Sort of like a "vehicle." Some vehicles are cars, some are trucks, others are bicycles, and still others are moon rockets.

Is there a particular application or system you're curious about?

Well since we are on gamedev lol I am interest as how servers are sent up for online connectivity with games, I mean I understand how server /client and so on works but I am curious to know the hardware behind the operations of it. Thanks to Frob's comment I read up a bit of it on wikipedia and understand I think hopefully how it some of the equipment works. if I am right it would something like this Modem--->network switch--> required servers or am I wrong. I am also interested in how it works for websites as well. A thought just came to mind as I was checking wikipedia they were talking about the different types of servers database, application, web based and so on. But then isn't the server for a game a database? Not only that but what are the differences between them?

Well since we are on gamedev lol I am interest as how servers are sent up for online connectivity with games, I mean I understand how server /client and so on works but I am curious to know the hardware behind the operations of it. Thanks to Frob's comment I read up a bit of it on wikipedia and understand I think hopefully how it some of the equipment works. if I am right it would something like this Modem--->network switch--> required servers or am I wrong. I am also interested in how it works for websites as well. A thought just came to mind as I was checking wikipedia they were talking about the different types of servers database, application, web based and so on. But then isn't the server for a game a database? Not only that but what are the differences between them?

Again, a few seconds on Google.

IGN article "The Inner Workings of an MMO Server Farm" where they discuss a few games that have 2, 20, or even 80+ computers involved for each "server" that the home user sees.

Another one, WoW's Back End, 10 data centers 75,000 cores where they have over 20,000 "machines" holding 1.3 petabytes of data, and of those about 13,250 are server blades (the main work machines) that have a combined 75,000 processor cores.

Of course, those data centers are going to be very different from Minecraft's servers. Even they had quite an interesting story (there's a long video documentary out there) of growth from when he started out with a single server machine that quickly grew into their own high-capacity systems.

And again, those will be different from Microsoft's and Sony's centers that handle XBL and PSN, respectively.


If you really are interested in the topic, you can study it for several years at the university level; that's enough to give you a working knowledge of the inner details. You'll still need several years of work experience beyond that before you really become and expert at the topic.