Redditor buys decommissioned Netflix cache server with 262TB storage

Reddit user PoisonWaffe3 recently purchased a 2013 Netflix cache server that was decommissioned and erased for recycling, marking a rare occasion where the public has been able to get a glimpse of the mysterious hardware, according to Vice.

The decommissioned cache server, called the “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 built into local ISPs that host local copies of Netflix video content, speeding up delivery of that content to Netflix viewers by placing it as close to viewers as possible (both geographically and in terms of network transitions).

Netflix provides a lot of high-level documentation about Open Connect on its website, but few people know what specific components make the Open Connect servers work, especially one that is almost ten years old. After removing three screws, PoisonWaffle3 looked inside his device and found a “pretty standard”SuperMicro motherboard, Intel Xeon processor (E5 2650L v2), 64 GB DDR3 RAM, 36 Western Digital 7.2 TB hard drives (7200 rpm), six 500GB Micron SSDs, a pair of 750W power supplies, and one quad-port 10Gb Ethernet NIC. In total, the server contains “262 TB of raw storage,”according to PoisonWaffle3.

PoisonWaffle3 purchased Netflix’s bright red cache server because they work for an ISP that was decommissioning devices. “We are removing/replacing quite a few 2013 era Netflix OCA caches and I was offered one,” they wrote. Of course, I couldn’t say no.

Initially, the user was looking for advice on what to do with OCA, and suggestions ranged from mining the Chia cryptocurrency (which benefits from a large amount of memory) to running a Plex media streaming server . The OCA originally ran FreeBSD, but the server was completely wiped out during the decommissioning process. Instead, PoisonWaffle3 installed TrueNAS, an open source operating system designed specifically for network file storage applications. Whichever path PoisonWaffle3 takes with the hardware, 262TB is still a lot for one person – even in 2022.

Interestingly, the now defunct Prodigy online remote access service used a local caching system to distribute data more efficiently, using the same basic principle that Open Connect did in the 1980s and 90s. Instead of streaming video, this service simply served NAPLPS text data and vector graphics files. Times have changed, but we still need fast data.