Redditor acquires decommissioned Netflix cache server with 262TB of storage

In a rare occurrence, the public has been able to view a cache server that had been wiped from service and was recently acquired by a user named Poison Waffe3.

The decommissioned cache server—called an "Open Connect Appliance" (or OCA)—operated as part of Netflix's Open Connect content delivery network. Open Connect is a network of servers around the world embedded with local ISPs that contain local copies of Netflix video content, accelerating the delivery of that content to Netflix viewers by putting it as close to the viewers as possible (both geographically and from a perspective of network hops).

What isn't known is what specific components make the Open Connect server tick, even though it is almost a decade old. After removing three screws, PoisonWaffle3 found a " pretty standard" Super Micro board, an Intel XeonCPU (E5 2650L v2), 64GB ofDDR3 RAM, 36 7.2TB Western Digital hard disks, and six500rpmrpmrpmrpmrpmrpmrpmrpmrpm According to PoisonWaffle3 the server contains over two hundred billion dollars worth of storage.

The bright red cache server was acquired by PoisonWaffle3 because they work for an internet service provider that pulled the devices out of service. They wrote that they were retiring and replacing a few 2013 era Netflix OCA cache. I could not say no.

The user asked for advice on what to do with the OCA, which ranged from mining the chia coin to running a Plex media streaming server. The OCA's server was wiped out as part of the process of decentralizing. The TrueNAS operating system was installed by PoisonWaffle3. Even with the hardware PoisonWaffle3 still has a lot of storage for a single person.

The local caching system used by Prodigy was similar to the one used by Open Connect in the 1980's and 90's. The service only served text data and graphics. We still want fast data even though times have changed.