A Reddit user nicknamed PoisonWaffe3 purchased a decommissioned 2013 model of Netflix cache server. It has 262 TB of internal storage as well as 64 GB of RAM. This is the rare occasion when people are able to inspect “mysterious” hardware, Vice reports.The decommissioned cache server, called the Open Connect Appliance (or OCA), was running as part of Netflix’s Open Connect content delivery network. Open Connect is a network of servers around the world connected to local ISPs that keep local copies of Netflix video content and speed its distribution by placing that content as close to the audience as possible.
Of course I could not refuse this device
When the PoisonWaffle3 looks inside the case after loosening the screws, it features a “pretty standard” SuperMicro motherboard, an Intel Xeon processor (E5 2650L v2), 64GB DDR3 RAM, 36 x 7.2TB Western Digital hard drives, six 500GB Micron SSDs, a pair of 750W power supplies and found a 10-gigabit four-port Ethernet card. According to PoisonWaffle3, the server contains a total of “262TB of raw memory”.
PoisonWaffle3 bought the Netflix cache server because it was working for an ISP that took the devices out of service, and said: “We are deprecating/replacing a few of the 2013 Netflix OCA cache servers and I was offered one of them. Of course, I couldn’t refuse.”
OCA originally ran on FreeBSD, but was completely removed during the server decommissioning process. PoisonWaffle3 instead installed TrueNAS, an open-source operating system designed specifically for network file storage, on the server.
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