Sweet Baby

I would say shutting it down each night would not cause any problems but I have never heard of anyone buying a server and turning it off each night. I know MAC servers, you can schedule on and off times for each day/week/month

someone tell:

To liken it to a car analogy: A taxi can do over 500,000 kilometers before it needs an engine rebuild. The reason for this is because they are always running, 24/7, and after a car’s engine is up to temperature, the amount of wear it receives while it is running is greatly reduced.

A computer is kinda the same. The majority of the “wear" on parts can happen when the server is booting up. Just attach an amp meter to your computer, and turn it on. When it starts up, the power it draws climbs very high, and then it settles down once all the disks have spun up and the processor is initalised. Also, think about how much disk activity the server undergoes during boot up vs when it’s working. Chances are the disk access from booting the OS is fairly solid activity, whereas when the OS is running, unless it’s a very heavy database server (I’m guessing not), the disks will most likely stay fairly idle. If there’s any time it’s going to fail, chances are it will be on boot up.

someone tell:

All users are told to turn off their machines at night when they leave. This, is both to save on electric and for security more than anything else – to be honest.

Turning your systems on and off all the time – may be necessary due to your climate (btw don’t dismiss humidity either – its actually more dangerous to a system than heat is. If you believe what’s printed in books – optimal temp for servers is 70-80 degrees F, believe it or not. The rule of thumb being yourself…if you are comfortable and not sweating, then its good for the server as well).

For one, when you turn your servers off – how can any sales staff get figures from your databases after hours? I guess you don’t have sales staff that work after hours..so that may be a bad example. How many extra minutes does it take each morning to re-boot all the servers (domains) and get them up and running? How does this effect your backup strategy?

Since we our a sales driven company (like who isn’t?) we need 24/7 access to our data – no matter what. We also have a powervault system that automatically backs up all our systems, so if we shut down ourservers – we lose our automated back up ability.

My point is, there’s more to consider with shutting off a server than just wearing down the hardware…

someone tell:

Dear Lifehacker, I’ve heard it’s bad to shut down your computer every night. Is it really better to leave it on all the time? I have a high-end machine and want to take care of it, but I don’t know the best way to do that. Sincerely, Puzzled by Power

Dear PbP,

We’re not sure how it all started, but the idea that it’s harmful to shut your computer down every night is a myth. Unless you shut it down incorrectly (ripping out the power cable and laughing maniacally), there’s really nothing to worry about.

In fact, shutting down your computer every night offers a few advantages: it won’t draw as much power when it’s off, and it won’t wake you in the middle of the night with an unexpected alert. On the other hand, an always-running computer has the advantage of being able to handle tasks while you’re sleeping.

Whether you shut down regularly or keep your computer running indefinitely really depends on your needs. Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of both options, and how you can deal with the downsides.