How old is the oldest production server you manage?

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PoolMotosBowling@reddit

our vm hosts are prob 8 years old, maybe 9. got half our new ones in. the other half should be on the way.

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bushman4@reddit

35 years old at least. Runs Vax/VMS 7.2.

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DavidGilmour73@reddit

Nice. I have a VMS 7.1 server. It used to run on Alpha hardware but we virtualized it a long time ago and now it runs on an Alpha emulator in a Windows 7 VMware VM. lol.

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FatSistersBrother@reddit

Mind me for asking, but how do you virtualize something so old??

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It has been a long time so I can't remember all of the details but the gist of it was install the emulator in Windows, then use the VMS install media to install OpenVMS in that emulator. Once that was done, do a backup and restore from the original server to the virtualized one.

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ShermansWorld@reddit

Ha! I just turned off our Dec Alpha! Anyone want it?

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Acrobatic_Idea_3358@reddit

I might know a collector are you anywhere near central/upstate NY?

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ShermansWorld@reddit

no; Toronto.

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R1s1ngDaWN@reddit

I'm actually in Ontario. I'm getting into collecting some older systems and would love to take it off your hands. How much do you reckon it would be to ship it to Thunder Bay?

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ShermansWorld@reddit

Sorry... Been onsite and off Reddit! I'll DM when the weekend starts...

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

me me pick me !

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junkytrunks@reddit

Reach out on a Vintage Computer Show forum for takers. Someone will take it. Don’t e-waste it if you can avoid it. Someone out there REALLY wants it. https://vcfed.org/events/otherevents/vintage-computer-festival-midwest/

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TwoDeuces@reddit

I know I'd take it in a heart beat.

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ShermansWorld@reddit

Thanks! I'll look at this.

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AbsolutelyLudicrous@reddit

What model of Alpha is it?

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mriswithe@reddit

It always surprised me when someone mentions like a whole hardware platform, something I have legitimately never heard of before.

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IceCubicle99@reddit

I thought you were my coworker until you got to the Windows 7 VM. We run ours using an emulator, but running on a Windows 2019 Server.

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sexybobo@reddit

At a previous job we had a bunch of old VAX servers no one saw the need to touch. Then one of them had a hardware failure and the critical system was down for a month and the replacement parts the finally got cost more then my house did. Over the next month it was decided that virtualization them would be a good idea.

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hex00110@reddit

Technical debt, it’s not a problem.. until it is.

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popegonzo@reddit

C'mon, it's run fine all these years, why would it suddenly break? It's fine.

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

CEO dude is that you? I can hear you!

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PartTimeZombie@reddit

I had that conversation last about a "vital" Windows XP workstation.

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Budget-Consequence17@reddit

at that point its a museum exhibit

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MonkeyMan18975@reddit

Man... I haven't been on a Vax/VMS since the college days a little more than 35 years ago.

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markth_wi@reddit

DLC forever baby - what's truly wild is/was my first hot-take on Powershell for MS was that it seemed to borrow some concepts from DLC.

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Lenarik42@reddit

Another Vax/VMS system! Ours runs Vax/VMS 5.5-2.

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pdp10@reddit

5.5 was a golden age release; right before the Alpha hardware, if I recall correctly.

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SpiritualAd8998@reddit

Just the Vax ma’am.

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i_am_voldemort@reddit

Just found a switch that's old enough to buy alcohol

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ToastedChief@reddit

Got 25 cisco catalyst 2900xl/3500xl switches for distribution, finally getting replaced in 2026

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RestartRebootRetire@reddit

We have a PowerEdge 2900 from 2006 running Server 2012 we fire up once and a while, but I suppose it's technically not in production. We use it to read old backup tapes and it runs an ancient software we occasionally need to access.

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ToastedChief@reddit

We have a poweredge 2600 with server 2003 in prod

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ShelterMan21@reddit

Holy crap. Why not just virtualize it at that point? I guess passing a tape reader through to a VM would be a bitch.

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RestartRebootRetire@reddit

Yeah, it's teetering. When I first got here and fired it up, I installed a Windows update and it broke the ancient backup software, so I had to uninstall the update. It took quite an effort just to get the tape drive and software working, so it's definitely something we just keep in a corner almost like a shrine.

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harley247@reddit

I have an old Gateway server that runs Windows 2000 Server. It runs some very old software that was written by a developer that worked here in the 90's that has since passed away. We turn it on maybe once a year. Luckily, I think we've finally gotten what we wanted from it so it will probably have it's last start up in a month or two.

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ToastedChief@reddit

3 NT4 servers in prod

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Fantastic-You-9144@reddit

AS400 over 25 years old

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Square-Lettuce5704@reddit

We have AIX servers from 2007 i think

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Ansphett@reddit

Still have one 2003 servers running on a HP (compaq) DL360 G4... creakimg abiy, try noy to look at it funny.

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Duck_Diddler@reddit

I thought my company was slow to adapt tech but holy shit, ya’ll are crazy

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retrogamer-999@reddit

IBM AS400. Used to be bare metal but now it's virtualized and hosted with our colo partner. No idea on the age of the system but it's been around since my customer started trading. Gonna be at least 25 to 30 years old.

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CardiologistTime7008@reddit

Still have both a 2008R2 and 2012 VM kicking around, my last job was managing law enforcement networks, there was actually still an old school DOS PBX that had to be serviced every once in a while, and various XP machines, this was like 6 years ago lol

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FastFredNL@reddit

A 2u Dell server running 2008R2, has a SQL database on it for a automated wood warehouse which is set to be replaced entirely in a few months. Before that it used to be a ESX host up untill 2014

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Papfox@reddit

Our company is really strict about stuff like this. We have an IT Risk Management department. Running anything that hasn't been patched for over 60 days or any EOL OS requires an entry in the risk register. Anything really old that can't be replaced immediately has to have a risk register entry and ITRM will likely get networks to carve it out an enclave VLAN with firewall rules to stop anything that shouldn't get to it doing so

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No-Listen1206@reddit

How big is the company you work at?

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Papfox@reddit

It's a multi-national, name-you-probably-know company with head count in the mid twenty thousands

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dave-y0@reddit

Yeah im wondering this also, are these not at risk ? We just just got rid of our last 2012r2 server. Everything else is 2016 or above.

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Papfox@reddit

Our department only has 8 Windows servers left and those will be gone in the next few months. We changed to Linux and O365 in the server space when we moved our workload to AWS. All I have to do is terminate (delete) every instance (virtual machine) once a month and auto-scaling automatically spins up a replacement with the latest, fully patched OS and application stack to replace it. All the instances have mandatory endpoint protection installed as part of the image. It squeals to ITRM if it's more than 30 days out of patching and we get a PowerBI report and have a security and patching meeting with ITRM every week to discuss the compliance of our platform

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clf28264@reddit

lol if people here saw my data center and how old some of our election hardware is. We average about 10 years old, your IT risk set up is brilliant.

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vass0922@reddit

This is the way to go. Make sure to have a risk register that the upper echelons of MGMT see and have to approve. IT says this shit has to go, you approve the risk them you approve it's imminent failure.

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Guilty-Contract3611@reddit

Last year we stopped supporting a company that had tons and I mean tons of Server 2003 in production it was because it was the only thing that would communicate with 16-bit plcs

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BitRunner64@reddit

ProLiant DL360 G4 from around 2006 or so running Server 2008 R2

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NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

impressive

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Severe-Lake1379@reddit

We have a Dell powerEdge 2600, Windows Server 2000 OS, running a legacy scheduling application that was unsupported when I started in 2007. We have no supported antivirus or backup solution. We built a virtual terminal server running Server 2003 just so end users can access the app. It is planned to be replaced sometime next year when we migrate to a new EMR (Healthcare industry).

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_Insightful@reddit

A 2008 R2 box running TFS. It's only powered on when needed for an old deployment that the data team has been kicking the can on migrating.

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Primary File Server is Windows 2012. When I started here a couple years back we had several 2008 servers that I disappeared as soon as possible. I wanted to use Server 2022 in 2023 and the IT staff here was freaking out that it's too new and will not be reliable. So I settled on 2019 for most of the upgrades, then started using 2022 as soon as the Director left and I took over. The amount of "we can't do it like that" and "this isn't a big deal" I got from them was insane. This entire place was falling apart infrastructure wise.

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Viharabiliben@reddit

Always amazes me how some of the grey beards are so afraid of implementing current technology. I’m not even asking to run a beta version, just the current version. And I myself am a grey beard.

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archon286@reddit

Check out this year's news on Server 2025 and Active Directory. This caution on new servers is not unwarranted. We typically didn't wait more than a year after new releases, but 2025 is making my point for me.

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GoodEnoughThen@reddit

Briefly, what's the issue with Windows Server 2025?

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archon286@reddit

It is having some serious incompatibility issues with active directory.

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Like I said, I always wait 6 months to a year. Caution is a very good thing.

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Viharabiliben@reddit

The issue with Server 2025 and AD is really the exception, and not the rule. I can’t remember the last time any similar issue came up. In a properly architected environment, you would test any new version of software, including AD in a non-prod test environment. And you also would have a fallback / recovery process in case the shit hit the fan.

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archon286@reddit

Agreed. Though we were often *worried* about interactions like this, or a badly planned domain/forest level upgrade. <Tinfoil hat> They are purposefully driving people away from on premise AD by breaking things. </Tinfoil hat>

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Viharabiliben@reddit

I think it’s that Microsoft is putting more of its resources into their cloud products, and less into their on prem. Of course they want to move most of their remaining customers to the cloud, where they get a steady subscription revenue stream.

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

I don't even mind letting a new version settle for 6-12 months - I got other things to do besides upgrade servers. But what was their excuse to avoid upgrading to 2012? 2016? or to start using 2019/22 on new builds? I just can't handle the lazy asses, lol.

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Viharabiliben@reddit

Replacing a Windows file server is a lot of work, but not technically complex. The better way to set up file server is using DFS, that way the file shares are abstracted and easy to move. Another way I’ve migrated file servers is via the backup and restore method. It moves the entire directory structure along with all the permissions.

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WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Exactly. But guess what? They stopped using DFS years ago when they had some VPN / DNS issues and users could not connect to the DFS namespace over VPN. Crap on top of crap. Nothing ever actually fixed.

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GoodEnoughThen@reddit

Running a few Windows 2003 and 2008 servers.

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Accomplished-Wall375@reddit

We’ve got a few 2012 servers still humming along amazing how stable they are but definitely living on borrowed time at this point.

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Positive_Dark3571@reddit

This was in 2021 - company I used to work for was running a physical Windows 2003 server, so that’s 6 years after Microsoft stopped sending security updates for it. It was also running FTP to a vendor. Not SFTP….good old insecure FTP. Department Director didn’t want to retire it because “It might break something running that we don’t know about.” Ahhhh…the good old fear of shadow IT…

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HotdogFromIKEA@reddit

Reading the comments is stressing me out lol

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rire0001@reddit

LMAO Dinosaurs at ten years You slay me When I left (retired) last fall, my teams managed a pair of servers that were originally installed in 2005. We couldn't upgrade because the software package (an old Sperry/UNISYS thing) wasn't supported. We 'rationized' that by reminding folks that there was no direct or public access, but... Jeez Now, if you want to talk applications, the IRS has databases running now - the ones that process tax refunds - that were designed and deployed IN THE 60's That's fun

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matt95110@reddit

I have a Windows 98 SE box running a CnC machine that has been there since 1999.

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Maleficent-Rush407@reddit

Do you need floppy disks to transfer the job to it?

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QuiteFatty@reddit

Until maybe 5 years ago we had a machine that was functionally a CnC machine. Ran on DOS. Still have the USB floppy drive I'd need to use to transfer over updates to the software.

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matt95110@reddit

Years ago they were doing that. Someone installed the drivers to support USB drives so they do it that way.

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dave-y0@reddit

It has a usb port ? Or do they need some serial > usb adaptor ?

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matt95110@reddit

You could buy computers in 1999 that had USB ports.

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Einaiden@reddit

Look at the whipper snapper here with Windows on their CnC, you don't even have to do anything to get networking going and you probably even have a *gasp* fixed disk. MS-DOS on DD floppies and don't you dare try HD floppies without gimping them first. Technically there are some older systems but they have had a "fancy" microcontroller retrofitted in about 20 years ago or so so they can fetch files from an ftp server.

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matt95110@reddit

In a previous job I had a machine running MS-DOS 6.22. The autoexec.bat comments were awesome.

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No-Percentage6474@reddit

Netware 3.12 running 40ish years now.

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QuiteFatty@reddit

We have more than two 2003 servers in production. I don't even care anymore.

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knowsomeofit@reddit

I have long believed that Netware was the perfect server OS. Completely user hostile. No snappy welcome message, just a blinking colon.

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knxdude1@reddit

We had a SAMBA server that was here when I started. I was able to get it replaced in my first year, it was 21 years old when I turned it off.

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scor_butus@reddit

If 10 years old is a dinosaur you're in for an eye opener at some point. I've had sco open server (pre-caldera) in production in a county planning office as recently as 2020.

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Cacafuego@reddit

I consulted for a large insurance company that was embarking on a huge IT modernization project. They had glossy posters showing how major applications and infrastructure were all going to be included. The poster did not show the 3 murky levels of infrastructure below what the project touched. I'm pretty sure it was AS/400s from the late 80s running the core software that everything else depended on. Never met anybody who worked on them; I imagine it's one guy down in the basement who no longer shows up in any org chart but can give himself a raise any time since he controls the payroll.

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DROP_TABLE_users_all@reddit

True64 :D

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nater1217@reddit

Wow! Tru64 is such an interesting OS to me. Emulated, or physical? What does it run?

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DROP_TABLE_users_all@reddit

phy. some very old apps no one except customer knows what's doing

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skiitifyoucan@reddit

Our F5s are up to date, but they have been upgraded-on-top by myself since 2005, back in the day when we'd upgrade reboot bare metal them remotely and pray they come back up, it often took like 25 minutes before they came back up.

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

2003R1 with SQL2000. Virtualized in 2017 still running (workgroup mode) Yes, prod.

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Champlusplus@reddit

High five to 2003r1. Ours run Oracle 10g.

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Mafia_Rebourn@reddit

I have the sneaking feeling I work with you.

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Champlusplus@reddit

Only if your company ordered server parts from eBay and had to shut down a production node when there were shipping delays with those parts.

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

Kevin get your ass back to work then! :)

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chandleya@reddit

Oh that’s just insane

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k_marts@reddit

Jfc... SQL Server 2000?! ![gif](giphy|UQsfnTdASKUpuucEZg|downsized)

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NoPhilosopher9763@reddit

Query Analyzer all day

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

Simmer down it’s been running quietly for 25 years can you say they same for yourself 😃

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touristh8r@reddit

Are you me? Same here.

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LimeyRat@reddit

Just deleted the VM today, been out of prod for 4 months. Ours was set up in 2010 after the 2000 VM had a terminal failure, this was a P2V using VirtualIron probably around 2008. Still have a couple of 2008 idling, waiting for the final audit and then sayonara!

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Gummyrabbit@reddit

I guess I’m in this club…except it’s not virtual…it runs some “security” software for some ancient door access fob readers.

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JBD_IT@reddit

20+ year old HP DL380 g2

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NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

Funny, a HP DL380 GEN9 with outrageously loud fans and a temp sensor reporting 190f was the inspiration for this post. If anyone has tips to fix would be appreciated. Its the back corner sensor.

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JBD_IT@reddit

I have one of those too. And thanks to a somewhat local surplus server store keeping the fans alive it still going 12 years now.

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ConstructionSafe2814@reddit

The silence of the fans hack? I did it on multiple gen9 machines, works fine.

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NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

Elaborate?

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ConstructionSafe2814@reddit

Install a custom ILO4 firmware which includes more commands. You can simply set the max percentage of a fan and it won't go over that no matter what. Works like a charm (even on a c7000). I use it all the time in my home lab.

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criggie_@reddit

Probably involves side-cutters and an in-line resistor to fool each sensor, not admitting to anything here.

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Jayteezer@reddit

Can be done via firmware - set max speeds to quiet etc

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Jayteezer@reddit

Google it. Gen9 ur well within it can be done territory... shame about the g7 screaming 1 meter behind me but thats getting replaced soon.

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bbbbbthatsfivebees@reddit

The DL380 has always had loud fans. I have a Gen 6 that is also outrageously loud.

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Geek_Wandering@reddit

Ok since you are in very inspected l unsupported territory.... I presume you have what the firmware calls the fan. Go find the latest firmware update that includes the SDR (sensor data record). If you look at the files involved you should be able to find a file with SDR extension. It is a text file. You should be able to set higher warn and crit temps. Then reflash the SDR package. You may need to cycle the AC but I doubt it.

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I_Am_Become_Air@reddit

Hey! I used 20 of those when I was doing install testing for Oracle... 20 years ago! I have been retired for over 3 years.

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GlitteringAd9289@reddit

When I first started at my current company all prod was running on a couple of Dell Poweredge servers from 2008 - 2009 using Windows Server 2008.

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Emiroda@reddit

16 years, runs some API service that our devs have no idea how to recreate on modern software.

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carcaliguy@reddit

I can't tell you how many fax servers in the medical industry are running windows older than 2012.

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s1c1l1anm0bst3r@reddit

Not the craziest here, but an isolated Windows 95 box to runs a database (blanking on the name) for a Catholic High School

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GloxxyDnB@reddit

Less than 12 months. We’ve just gone through a huge digital transformation project to migrate most of our infrastructure and services to IaaS, PaaS and SaaS with a small 2 host Hyper-V cluster on prem, which was installed less than 12 months ago.

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Budget-Consequence17@reddit

not a direct server admin myself but i’ve seen people still running decade old ubuntu boxes quietly doing small tasks because if something is stable and untouched for years nobody wants to risk breaking it

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Arseypoowank@reddit

Few Server 2003 still chugging along heavily isolated

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Gh0styD0g@reddit

About a year old

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crashhelmet@reddit

Until last January, i had an HP Proliant DL380G3 (Circa 2003) running Server 2003 and SharePoint 2007. I thankfully retired it rather than make any attempt to upgrade it. Now everything is less than 3 years old

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Accurate-Ad6361@reddit

Older I had to deal with: Windows 2012 R2 on a 15 years old server, oldest I have touched was A/S 400

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MathematicianKind565@reddit

7 years old. But the OS on it is much newer... :)

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dafuzzbudd@reddit

Vcenter running on Win 2003 holding up an env. It's barely holding on and locks if you look at it too long. My MSP company, we did our job and this responsibility has been ultimately on the client for a while now. Legal - paperwork signed, etc.

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gerkyy@reddit

29 year old HP9000 A3576A still running our ERP system :))

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460nanometers@reddit

HP9000! I inherited two of those in the mid '90s. Hostnames Aruba and Antigua because the director was a sailor. I asked who was the UNIX admin: "you are, now". I was a freshly minted Novell 1.x certificate holder.

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grvlrdr@reddit

We refresh our environment every 5 years. Old systems become our lab.

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d3adc3II@reddit

just put it simply, the server's monitor has a key on it, come with IBM model M keyboard.

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p4cman911@reddit

Has some switches in my last job with 10 years uptime!

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doubleUsee@reddit

Sounds like the core switches I inherited. Fuckers were configured, rebooted, and never rebooted again. few more months and they'll power off for the first and last time in their lives.

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theinfotechguy@reddit

Give them a good burial

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Viharabiliben@reddit

Some homelaber will pick them up to keep the house warm.

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aModernSage@reddit

"I did not look after them, nor did we look AT them funny."

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Jayteezer@reddit

AT&F - if u know this your as old as I am :)

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TriccepsBrachiali@reddit

Cute, I took a og PIX out of commision 2 years ago. Ran like a charm tho.

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Viharabiliben@reddit

I worked at a major defense contractor. We built parts for submarines. We had 10+ year old switches that were long out of support, but refused to die. We are supposed to only run supported hardware and software. We finally got a new network lead, who pushed to get those replaced. I suspect that these new switches will also stay in production for another 10+ years.

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Jayteezer@reddit

I had the argument recently for all flash versus spinning disk... given we retain our hardware for well beyond the warranty period (and generally dont buy contracts), yes i amortised the difference over 9 years and not 5 like we do our clients :p

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Ssakaa@reddit

> Edit: I did not look after them thank god Sounds lokike the network team could say the same.

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Annh1234@reddit

Had a Pentium 3 server running in 2019, had like 20y uptime.

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porksandwich9113@reddit

We have a 7606 that is 24 years old and has 16+ years of uptime, and one of our original webservers is running red hat 9 (shrike). It doesn't have a net connection though.

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Nailtrail@reddit

16 years uptime? Congrats on your electricity grid

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porksandwich9113@reddit

We're a Telco, so our primary COs with core routers have 2 grid feeds, 500,000$ of batteries in the basement, and 3 very large generators.

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rcp9ty@reddit

I'm not an admin at this company any more but one company I worked at had an as400 in production and there were files on it that were made in 1986... The director of IT joked that the system was older than I was... I was older than it... But just barely.

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stableos@reddit

Eniac JR.

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forgottenmy@reddit

Had a MS-DOS beast hooked up to a dot matrix printer up until about 3 years ago. It was running a physical robotic arm. When I started here nearly 20 years ago, they were quoted 5k to get the newest version and the department director said nope. About 8 years after that, he retired and the new person wanted it gone, but the quote was up to 25k and he said nope. 3-5 years ago yet another new director and the robot company was out of business. New arm and new server was over 100k so they pulled it all out and just do it by hand now. 🤷‍♂️

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NocturnaLearner@reddit

2003 server on original hardware. They refuse to let us even move it to a virtual environment. Software was proprietary made by someone who retired 15 years ago and has since passed. If it goes the company goes.

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FormerLaugh3780@reddit

13 year old HP Proliant running Windows Server 2008 R2.

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Sharkwagon@reddit

In previous life’s I have seen VAX machines that seemed to predate time itself. Thankfully nothing that old at my current job but I do have a 10 year old 3PAR they won’t let me either retire or put 3rd party support that chaps my ass…

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ImBlindBatman@reddit

We have a 20 year old physical server, couldn’t tell you what it is off hand.

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slowreezay@reddit

A few industrial SBCs on windows NT embedded and some newer(!) ones on XP embedded. Replacement would be very costly so have been refurbishing the boards with new capacitors and migrating OS to newer drives

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mr_data_lore@reddit

The oldest physical server? A Dell from 2022 running esxi. It'll get replaced when the warranty expires, as all production servers do. The oldest virtual server? A Windows server 2016 VM on the above physical server.

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NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

Must be nice having your sh*t together

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enigmatic407@reddit

We have one that's running CentOS 5.11, which was ancient when I first got here in 2013 lol

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hooch@reddit

Just shut down 6 UNIX servers last week that were originally provisioned in 2012. They were EOL in 2020 but kept alive to support Win7 clients. Huge security risk on both ends.

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thesysadm@reddit

It can legally purchase alcohol. It also refuses to die. Has multiple failed components yet still chugs along. It’s honestly impressive and when it finally does kick the bucket we are giving it a Viking funeral.

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timbotheny26@reddit

If you do actually give it a legit viking funeral (as in lighting it on fire as it drifts out to sea), you need to record it.

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Jayteezer@reddit

Dont - someone will send it to the wrong people and nek minnit you've got a clean up bill of 8x what the unit cost over its prod lifetime...

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AbsentThatDay2@reddit

About 10 years ago one of our clients had a Netware server that had 10 years of straight uptime with no reboots. Can you imagine?

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VivienM7@reddit

That must be a very good UPS they had...

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AbsentThatDay2@reddit

The funny thing was it wasn't some enterprise, it was a tiny law firm, it just kept going.

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thereisaplace_@reddit

Back in my CNE days we had multiple servers with multi-year uptimes. Netware was rock solid back in the day.

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Linuxmonger@reddit

Sun Solaris on Sun hardware, Irix on SGI.

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astonishing1@reddit

Where's all my IBM RS/6000 peeps?

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x3n044@reddit

AIX 5.3 that runs Oracle database 10g.

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criggie_@reddit

I still have a win2008 server VM at home as my only windows device, because the COA was on the hardware \~3 generations earlier and it just keeps working. I use it for administrating the Dell SAN at home, and from work for "testing from the outside" so yes I do RDP out then VPN back into computer sitting right beside me.

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sleepmaster91@reddit

Back at my old job we still had a production ERP server running on window 2000 and SQL probably around the same era. It used to be a physical server but it was virtualized before I started working there. When I left we were in the process of migrating to a cloud ERP but that 2000 server is probably still running for archiving purposes We have a customer that runs a PC connected to a machine that's on Windows 95 and some legacy application that no one has the copy of. About a year ago someone modified the date and corrupted the database and we were on the verge of telling the customer that they needed to buy a whole new machine but somehow someone had replaced the hard drive and still had a copy of the system. It's barely used but it's still in "production" We have another customer that still uses windows 2003 r2 servers for their production POS and another one that used a windows 2008 standard server (yes standard not r2) as their file server We used to have a customer that was still running their DC on a window 2003 server. They're no longer a customer because their CEO was an el cheapo

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joegreen592@reddit

Not a server, but an ancient Ms-dos 2.1 pneumatic CNC stamping machine. Actually still runs great surprisingly

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eld101@reddit

2 days 🤘🤘

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Rouxls__Kaard@reddit

oldest one is just 5 years older than me

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Longjumping_Law133@reddit

29 years

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NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

1. what does it run? 2. what maintenance have you done recently?

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Longjumping_Law133@reddit

1. Windows NT 4.0 with CAQ software 2. No :D its still running on original HP Netserver.

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LimeyRat@reddit

I have our NetServers in storage just in case, they were here when I took over IT before the turn of the century.

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

2007 we had Metaframe 1.7 on NT 3.51. For all I know it could still be running

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spittlbm@reddit

1895 is the perfect typo

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NecessaryEvil-BMC@reddit

We have a VM Server 2003 server still in production. It's serving like 4 people, and is slated to go away when the new business system gets rolled out to HQ (it got rolled out to the branch locations first). It's firewalled off and everything, and our support goes no further than "it looks like it's up and running" and making sure it backs up, but if anything ever happens, too bad, so sad. It's been in that state since before Covid.

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Stonewalled9999@reddit

There is still a lot of money to be made in the XP world where 50 million dollar machine runs on a crap PC. Some asphalt plants in NJ run on a 486 single board computer (sbc) on ide CF40 MB cards.

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Zealotyl@reddit

Sco Unix 5 server from 1992. Not switched on much but very occasionally fired up to look up very old records.

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fuzzusmaximus@reddit

I know I have a couple of VMs running 2012 still

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Popular_Hat_4304@reddit

I win. Win95. Some bullshit business app runs on it and no one will let me take it down. We spend more money trying to secure around that piece of garbage than what it’s worth

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Msgt51902@reddit

No longer there, but my old job had a cheap client still running a 2003 sbc server as their DC. This was right before the pandemic. Hope they finally ponied up for a solution since then.

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MissionGround1193@reddit

I had one fileserver (samba) from 2006. It transformed from physical to virtual. Upgraded the OS (debian) every 4-5 years. I no longer maintain it since I resigned 2 years ago.

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chandleya@reddit

Couple thousand VMs, mostly windows Couple hundred 2016s left. That’s it though. Else are 19/22/25 or RHEL 9

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Icy-Maintenance7041@reddit

AS400 system that has been in production since the 90's. It has had some upgrades and migrations to newer hardware and some programming has been done for new menu options and added files and such but the software has basicly remained the same since before i started there 25 years ago

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silentstorm2008@reddit

Lol 10 years. Those are rookie numbers.

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u35828@reddit

Not a server, but we just retired a Cisco 6509E last month. It was installed new sometime in 2005.

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xXGray_WolfXx@reddit

I was about to say like 15 until I did the math 2025-2003 is 22 and I hate that.

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ZaitsXL@reddit

In 2012 one of the servers in my barn was Celeron 300 MHz running Windows NT4

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CeldonShooper@reddit

You should update to 2000. I've heard good things about this new feature called group policies.

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icasadosar@reddit

In my last job we had a Windows NT server with Oracle 7 since 1997.

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MFKDGAF@reddit

sFTP server running 2012 R2 on a 730xd.

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InvisibleTextArea@reddit

I think we still have an SGI Origin 2000 kicking around somewhere for `reasons`.

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strobe_jams@reddit

I know an outfit that runs a 45 yo TRIPOS system (Motorola 68000 processor). In prod. Multi million revenue.

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AccomplishedEar6357@reddit

Wooow ♥️

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illicITparameters@reddit

3.5yrs. Our single physical DC. It’s getting retired in Q2.

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Current_Anybody8325@reddit

Chat - don't come for me please - we still have a couple Server 08 and 12 VMs in production. Just too complex to upgrade them at the moment.

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AccomplishedEar6357@reddit

You asked nicely, so... Bois will give it a pass.

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PoolMotosBowling@reddit

we just got rid of our last 2k3 this year... haha

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InterrogativeMixtape@reddit

Former client of mine has their primary prod host running server 2003, connected to the internet. Last I saw it was running in 2023. Id expect it's still going. Server is running proprietary software that won't run on anything newer. Dependant software needs an Internet connection. Parent software company is out of business, no new version will be published. It would bankrupt the client to migrate the parent software to something currently supported.

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Valdaraak@reddit

>It would bankrupt the client to migrate the parent software to something currently supported. Well, if they don't start planning to move, I have a feeling that software's gonna bankrupt them one way or another.

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fishedin@reddit

Just retired a Power Edge T410 running 2008 Exchange But that doesn't seem too impressive considering the other entries in the dinostakes

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critical_d@reddit

Windows Server 2000

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GamerLymx@reddit

CentOS 4 or Windows Server 2003 some legacy issues., but i should be able to solve the centos 4 if i had time.

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MacMemo81@reddit

I have an NT4 server running. No clue how old it is.

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spittlbm@reddit

We just finished a migration off of a Server 2012R2 with SQL 2012. That pairing is miserable to get to a fresh OS. One more 2012R2 left to go.

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Hungry_Egg_3525@reddit

2012R2 HVAC Server

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HetElfdeGebod@reddit

Back in 2012, when I was working for a big Australian bank, I came across a DEC Alpha at one of our data centres

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silasmousehold@reddit

10 years old is what we call brand spanking new in industrial controls.

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electromichi3@reddit

Openvms itanium 5 Bodencluster running since 2009 without downtime Always and fully patched of course

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Jawshee_pdx@reddit

10 years is old? Wow.

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hunterburger@reddit

Recently decommissioned an 18 year old box. Wild to think it was somehow still running, the cost of the extended hardware care was nuts!

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alter3d@reddit

Generally 24 hours or less. Fully containerized on k8s. Our nodes are cycled every night to pick up patches -- bleeding-edge patch level in dev, 1-day delay with automated test gating in prod.

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rumski@reddit

I took on a migration project for a hospital last year who was running a virtualized Server 2000 box.

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Apprehensive-Leg806@reddit

15 years, R710

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khantroll1@reddit

Hardware wise? The oldest thing we have is this old Windows 2000 box. It’s not 25 years old, but it IS between 15-20 years old. Software wise…I had an NT server that had been P2Vd still kicking around until a couple of months ago…

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Final_Tune3512@reddit

We have some servers out in the field with server 2008 R2 still on them

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NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

Actually impressive lol

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KofOaks@reddit

When I left my previous job, one of our critical linux servers had a 3 900 days uptime...

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Plenty-Hold4311@reddit

Some of IBM servers are meant to be rock solid, haven’t come across them personally though

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mxpx77@reddit

![gif](giphy|K0AnEB2t2EM|downsized)

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qkdsm7@reddit

11-12.... San it's on is under support, two identical servers on the same san, one of the three could easily run the critical vm's from all three combined. Sleep better with that than if it was a blade chassis of the same age....

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fort_bosaus@reddit

20ish years old, ibm iSeries power5 9406-520 🙃

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Strict_Bee_7096@reddit

HP c7000 with gen 7 blades. In prod. Hosts company wide software that users rdp into to use. Our users hate us.

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GullibleDetective@reddit

2k3 sadly

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intoned@reddit

Windows XP machine that runs the 'paging' system. Yes those little boxes that people wear on their hips from last century that beep and play a 3 second voicemail to the people around you. Doesn't even have text display for the calling party. The culture here is not big on change. I managed to get mine forwarded to my mobile, but I was warned I could not put it on DnD then. I didn't have the heart to explain how smart phones work.

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ryanmj26@reddit

Our DCs were bought is 2011. Which is an educated guess based on AD Creation Date.

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Better_Dimension2064@reddit

I left my prior job in 2022, and I had two Dell PowerEdge servers from 2010, running 2012 R2. The official docs said they did not support 2016 (OK; I'm sure they *could*), and I wasn't too hot on these things eating capacity a smallish 8 kVA UPS. I had reminded the owner of these servers repeatedly about the 2012 R2 EOL on 2023-10-10, and on that day, I *will* disconnect his servers from the network, at which point I'd be happy to drag them up to his lab and let them use the servers as large and loud desktops with no network. He ignored every single e-mail I sent him. I wound up leaving that job for a job at another department at the same university. The guy who wound up replacing me said they were still there after 2012 R2 cutoff, and he pulled them from the UPS and plugged them straight into the wall. Enjoy losing them in power failures.

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labratnc@reddit

last place I worked, we had a Sun Ultra 1 that was running as a licensing server for some engineering test equipment that was still being used. The vendor was long ago not producing/supporting it. We had 3 extra ultra1s in the store room to cannibalize as necessary to keep it going

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paqmann@reddit

I support a couple of 24-year-old Sun SPARC machines that are still used for processing data on the original hardware. We're still using them mostly because whoever wrote the original code is long gone and no one can reproduce it on modern hardware in a way that works properly. We were looking into virtualizing them when money dried up, so now they're in limbo. I have a stack of SCSI drives just waiting to be swapped in when one fails.

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MavZA@reddit

Oldest I ever had was an old IBM rig that was about 25 years old back in 2016 that ran OS/2 and controlled a capsule assembler. Ran like a beast and didn’t blink until we had a lightning bolt strike out sub through guttering. I still have the old installation media. Such an underrated system for the time.

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ohyeahwell@reddit

I have two Dell R610 VMware cluster that exist even though we’re saas. Everyone is entra but they still host AD and DHCP failover.

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DestinyForNone@reddit

AS400.

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theknyte@reddit

When I left my last job in 2020, they still had one physical server running Server 2000! It apparently had some proprietary software that was written in house, by a guy long since retired and dead. Nobody knew how to modernize it, so they just kept it running for 20+ years!

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goatsinhats@reddit

15 years old, doesn’t seem that impressive all of a sudden. They are trying to get contractors to work on them and don’t understand why no one is interested in rhel 5.0

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Stosstrupphase@reddit

Production? Oldest is my proxmox host at roughly 3 years. Counting staging/testing systems, the hardware would be 8yo (ye olde optiplex 7020), it went online last year.

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QuesoMeHungry@reddit

About 10 years ago I pulled a Compaq Pentium II server out running NT4.0.

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Sea_Promotion_9136@reddit

I’m in pharma so we have a good few legacy apps on server 2003. Mostly apps that can read/export old instruments data as you generally have to keep study/trial data for 25 years, thus you need to old keep apps around that can read that data. Hopefully in a few years i’ll be able to say win2008 is our oldest server OS! Yay…

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evolooshun@reddit

12 year old IBM x3550 m4, just recently moved VMs off it. Its been super reliable till we started having harddrives drop.

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TheGingerDog@reddit

a ES504 Xeon, probably from around 2009/2010. Current uptime is 3158 days. CentOS 5.11 FTW :)

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Gecko23@reddit

I still have an i7 with one low volume production support job running on it. Last replaced in 2018. The windows and linux servers are all between 2-5 years old with a few slated for replacement in Q1 next year so they'll be even younger on average shortly.

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Donisto@reddit

3 Core 2 duo hp desktops, 1 running out pbx (Isabel), 1 running the firewall/router (Arista), 1 running dog project for the tech department.

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FalsePhoenix@reddit

Good old server 03, meaning I was 1 year old when it was first introduced....

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Kreuzi4@reddit

Last week i put my last windows server 2008 to rest, now i only have 2022 and 2025 ones

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Historical-Bug-7536@reddit

10 years? Young pups. We have some 20-year old hardware running ESXi for random shit. They're like keystone data converters that people can't remember what points to it or how it's configured. Nobody wants to figure out how to fix it, so they stay running.

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Bagel-luigi@reddit

After reading some of these comments I think I'm lucky. My oldest currently is from 2013

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The_NorthernLight@reddit

Luckily ive been able to get us down to 2 server 2012r2 builds remaining, and we are weeks away from getting rid of one of them, and the other will be replaced in the next 2-3 months. Once they are gone, i can get rid of my local AD, and go pure Azure, no more hybrid garbage.

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TerrificVixen5693@reddit

Around 15 years old and running a mixture of Vista, 7 32-bit, and Server 2008 (OG, non R2).

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ahfuq@reddit

When I worked at {major telecomm here} we had switches that were over 40 years old. They ran those things until even refurbishing shops refused to touch them anymore. Just in case anyone ever wondered what they were connected to when a phone used to switch to 1x, there ya go.

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DisastrousAd2335@reddit

I have a few hosts that were purchased in May of 2010 running WS 2008 (NOT R2) 32-Bit for production! The reset were bought in August 2012 and are running WS 2012, 2016 and 2019.

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countsachot@reddit

About 6 years atm, not too bad.

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False-Ad-1437@reddit

Nice try, Lockbit team!

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Roland_Bodel_the_2nd@reddit

Our company is fairly new so the oldest hw is from mid-2016 or so. Some network gear and a few servers.

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jcwrks@reddit

Dell PE 1950 w/ Server 2003 - legacy sw that we occasionally need to reference.

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Latter-Ad7199@reddit

Found some shit at a client with over 5000 days uptime, which is amazing, and brilliant and utterly insane too. (It was riddled with vulnerabilities and had over been patched) for clients with network kit that’s 15+ years old. They replace as it fails. Different kettle of fish to actual servers though.

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