Video: Facebook's New Windmill Server Design

Facebook Windmill Server

A close up of Facebook's new server design, known as Windmill, which is part of Facebook's effort to update its custom hardware designs for its new Open Rack enclosure standard. (Photo: Colleen Miller)

At its Open Compute Summit last month, Facebook introduced an updated design for its custom servers, adapting them to fit the new Open  Rack standard for data center enclosures. At the time, only diagrams were available for v2 of its "Windmill" server design. Data Center Knowledge recently had a look at the new server, which is now taller (2 rack units, up from 1.5U) and narrower to allow more motherboards to fit on a single equipment tray. In this video, Facebook Manager of Hardware Design Matt Corddry provides on overview of the updated Windmill server and a tour of the design features. The server has no on-board power supply, but plugs into a 12V busbar at the rear of the rack. The server's hard drive has been moved to the front for easy removal, and can be swapped out without the use of tools. This video runs about 4 minutes.

For more background on Facebook's data center operations, see our Facebook Channel and the Facebook Data Center FAQ. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.