TheaterFire

How old is the oldest production server you manage?

Posted by NSFW_IT_Account@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 258 comments

Asking because we have some dinosaurs out there... talking about 10 years or so. What are some of the oldest you have out there that you manage, and what are they running?

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258 Comments

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.
View on Reddit #70455687

JustSomeone783@reddit

Xeon v4?
View on Reddit #72603537

bushman4@reddit

35 years old at least. Runs Vax/VMS 7.2.
View on Reddit #70454325

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.
View on Reddit #70454700

FatSistersBrother@reddit

Mind me for asking, but how do you virtualize something so old??
View on Reddit #70512631

DavidGilmour73@reddit

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.
View on Reddit #70921968

ShermansWorld@reddit

Ha! I just turned off our Dec Alpha! Anyone want it?
View on Reddit #70460059

Acrobatic_Idea_3358@reddit

I might know a collector are you anywhere near central/upstate NY?
View on Reddit #70460388

ShermansWorld@reddit

no; Toronto.
View on Reddit #70470460

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?
View on Reddit #70487492

ShermansWorld@reddit

Sorry... Been onsite and off Reddit! I'll DM when the weekend starts...
View on Reddit #70664254

Stonewalled9999@reddit

me me pick me !
View on Reddit #70509943

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/
View on Reddit #70469389

TwoDeuces@reddit

I know I'd take it in a heart beat.
View on Reddit #70484183

ShermansWorld@reddit

Thanks! I'll look at this.
View on Reddit #70470497

AbsolutelyLudicrous@reddit

What model of Alpha is it?
View on Reddit #70474481

mriswithe@reddit

It always surprised me when someone mentions like a whole hardware platform, something I have legitimately never heard of before. 
View on Reddit #70459007

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.
View on Reddit #70456754

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.
View on Reddit #70455066

hex00110@reddit

Technical debt, it’s not a problem.. until it is.
View on Reddit #70456702

popegonzo@reddit

C'mon, it's run fine all these years, why would it suddenly break? It's fine.
View on Reddit #70461932

Stonewalled9999@reddit

CEO dude is that you? I can hear you!
View on Reddit #70510117

PartTimeZombie@reddit

I had that conversation last about a "vital" Windows XP workstation.
View on Reddit #70486633

Budget-Consequence17@reddit

at that point its a museum exhibit
View on Reddit #70493822

MonkeyMan18975@reddit

Man... I haven't been on a Vax/VMS since the college days a little more than 35 years ago.
View on Reddit #70457803

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.
View on Reddit #70481449

Lenarik42@reddit

Another Vax/VMS system! Ours runs Vax/VMS 5.5-2.
View on Reddit #70462787

pdp10@reddit

5.5 was a golden age release; right before the Alpha hardware, if I recall correctly.
View on Reddit #70470364

SpiritualAd8998@reddit

Just the Vax ma’am.
View on Reddit #70460646

i_am_voldemort@reddit

Just found a switch that's old enough to buy alcohol
View on Reddit #70462927

ToastedChief@reddit

Got 25 cisco catalyst 2900xl/3500xl switches for distribution, finally getting replaced in 2026
View on Reddit #70803766

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.
View on Reddit #70454658

ToastedChief@reddit

We have a poweredge 2600 with server 2003 in prod
View on Reddit #70803593

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.
View on Reddit #70459859

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.
View on Reddit #70462776

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.
View on Reddit #70468142

ToastedChief@reddit

3 NT4 servers in prod
View on Reddit #70803396

Fantastic-You-9144@reddit

AS400 over 25 years old
View on Reddit #70796572

Square-Lettuce5704@reddit

We have AIX servers from 2007 i think
View on Reddit #70790107

Ansphett@reddit

Still have one 2003 servers running on a HP (compaq) DL360 G4... creakimg abiy, try noy to look at it funny.
View on Reddit #70751699

Duck_Diddler@reddit

I thought my company was slow to adapt tech but holy shit, ya’ll are crazy
View on Reddit #70724750

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.
View on Reddit #70693485

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
View on Reddit #70681881

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
View on Reddit #70673936

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
View on Reddit #70454834

No-Listen1206@reddit

How big is the company you work at?
View on Reddit #70654466

Papfox@reddit

It's a multi-national, name-you-probably-know company with head count in the mid twenty thousands
View on Reddit #70658687

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.
View on Reddit #70497335

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
View on Reddit #70541755

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.
View on Reddit #70473800

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.
View on Reddit #70456784

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
View on Reddit #70640060

BitRunner64@reddit

ProLiant DL360 G4 from around 2006 or so running Server 2008 R2
View on Reddit #70588357

NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

impressive
View on Reddit #70599970

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).
View on Reddit #70594299

_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.
View on Reddit #70591837

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.
View on Reddit #70454523

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.
View on Reddit #70460810

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.
View on Reddit #70467782

GoodEnoughThen@reddit

Briefly, what's the issue with Windows Server 2025?
View on Reddit #70577228

archon286@reddit

It is having some serious incompatibility issues with active directory.
View on Reddit #70582853

WWGHIAFTC@reddit

Like I said, I always wait 6 months to a year. Caution is a very good thing.
View on Reddit #70534165

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.
View on Reddit #70481886

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>
View on Reddit #70486511

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.
View on Reddit #70492156

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.
View on Reddit #70461218

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.
View on Reddit #70464438

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.
View on Reddit #70465256

GoodEnoughThen@reddit

Running a few Windows 2003 and 2008 servers.
View on Reddit #70577270

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.
View on Reddit #70576799

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…
View on Reddit #70563041

HotdogFromIKEA@reddit

Reading the comments is stressing me out lol
View on Reddit #70558549

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
View on Reddit #70543617

matt95110@reddit

I have a Windows 98 SE box running a CnC machine that has been there since 1999.
View on Reddit #70455416

Maleficent-Rush407@reddit

Do you need floppy disks to transfer the job to it?
View on Reddit #70457441

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.
View on Reddit #70542949

matt95110@reddit

Years ago they were doing that. Someone installed the drivers to support USB drives so they do it that way.
View on Reddit #70457639

dave-y0@reddit

It has a usb port ? Or do they need some serial > usb adaptor ?
View on Reddit #70497254

matt95110@reddit

You could buy computers in 1999 that had USB ports.
View on Reddit #70497331

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.
View on Reddit #70463215

matt95110@reddit

In a previous job I had a machine running MS-DOS 6.22. The autoexec.bat comments were awesome.
View on Reddit #70464970

No-Percentage6474@reddit

Netware 3.12 running 40ish years now.
View on Reddit #70521984

QuiteFatty@reddit

We have more than two 2003 servers in production. I don't even care anymore.
View on Reddit #70456075

knowsomeofit@reddit

I have long believed that Netware was the perfect server OS. Completely user hostile. No snappy welcome message, just a blinking colon.
View on Reddit #70521592

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.
View on Reddit #70521589

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.
View on Reddit #70454983

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.
View on Reddit #70518945

DROP_TABLE_users_all@reddit

True64 :D
View on Reddit #70456568

nater1217@reddit

Wow! Tru64 is such an interesting OS to me. Emulated, or physical? What does it run?
View on Reddit #70474407

DROP_TABLE_users_all@reddit

phy. some very old apps no one except customer knows what's doing
View on Reddit #70518339

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.
View on Reddit #70518306

Stonewalled9999@reddit

2003R1 with SQL2000. Virtualized in 2017 still running (workgroup mode) Yes, prod.
View on Reddit #70454589

Champlusplus@reddit

High five to 2003r1. Ours run Oracle 10g.
View on Reddit #70457911

Mafia_Rebourn@reddit

I have the sneaking feeling I work with you.
View on Reddit #70471958

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.
View on Reddit #70518035

Stonewalled9999@reddit

Kevin get your ass back to work then! :)
View on Reddit #70509883

chandleya@reddit

Oh that’s just insane
View on Reddit #70466199

k_marts@reddit

Jfc... SQL Server 2000?! ![gif](giphy|UQsfnTdASKUpuucEZg|downsized)
View on Reddit #70471333

NoPhilosopher9763@reddit

Query Analyzer all day
View on Reddit #70492566

Stonewalled9999@reddit

Simmer down it’s been running quietly for 25 years can you say they same for yourself 😃
View on Reddit #70475820

touristh8r@reddit

Are you me? Same here.
View on Reddit #70482116

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!
View on Reddit #70467537

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.
View on Reddit #70458093

JBD_IT@reddit

20+ year old HP DL380 g2
View on Reddit #70455820

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.
View on Reddit #70456049

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.
View on Reddit #70509940

ConstructionSafe2814@reddit

The silence of the fans hack? I did it on multiple gen9 machines, works fine.
View on Reddit #70460607

NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

Elaborate?
View on Reddit #70460654

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.
View on Reddit #70479947

criggie_@reddit

Probably involves side-cutters and an in-line resistor to fool each sensor, not admitting to anything here.
View on Reddit #70470298

Jayteezer@reddit

Can be done via firmware - set max speeds to quiet etc
View on Reddit #70472295

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.
View on Reddit #70472259

bbbbbthatsfivebees@reddit

The DL380 has always had loud fans. I have a Gen 6 that is also outrageously loud.
View on Reddit #70474748

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.
View on Reddit #70459969

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.
View on Reddit #70456446

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.
View on Reddit #70509739

Emiroda@reddit

16 years, runs some API service that our devs have no idea how to recreate on modern software. 
View on Reddit #70508141

carcaliguy@reddit

I can't tell you how many fax servers in the medical industry are running windows older than 2012.
View on Reddit #70506013

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
View on Reddit #70499821

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.
View on Reddit #70494344

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
View on Reddit #70493783

Arseypoowank@reddit

Few Server 2003 still chugging along heavily isolated
View on Reddit #70493208

Gh0styD0g@reddit

About a year old
View on Reddit #70491528

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
View on Reddit #70490198

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
View on Reddit #70488788

MathematicianKind565@reddit

7 years old. But the OS on it is much newer... :)
View on Reddit #70488485

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.
View on Reddit #70486940

gerkyy@reddit

29 year old HP9000 A3576A still running our ERP system :))
View on Reddit #70467977

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.
View on Reddit #70483969

grvlrdr@reddit

We refresh our environment every 5 years. Old systems become our lab.
View on Reddit #70483833

d3adc3II@reddit

just put it simply, the server's monitor has a key on it, come with IBM model M keyboard.
View on Reddit #70483557

p4cman911@reddit

Has some switches in my last job with 10 years uptime!
View on Reddit #70454279

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.
View on Reddit #70465225

theinfotechguy@reddit

Give them a good burial
View on Reddit #70467019

Viharabiliben@reddit

Some homelaber will pick them up to keep the house warm.
View on Reddit #70482060

aModernSage@reddit

"I did not look after them, nor did we look AT them funny."
View on Reddit #70464221

Jayteezer@reddit

AT&F - if u know this your as old as I am :)
View on Reddit #70472468

TriccepsBrachiali@reddit

Cute, I took a og PIX out of commision 2 years ago. Ran like a charm tho.
View on Reddit #70457375

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.
View on Reddit #70461162

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
View on Reddit #70472405

Ssakaa@reddit

> Edit: I did not look after them thank god Sounds lokike the network team could say the same.
View on Reddit #70457254

Annh1234@reddit

Had a Pentium 3 server running in 2019, had like 20y uptime. 
View on Reddit #70481141

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.
View on Reddit #70473709

Nailtrail@reddit

16 years uptime? Congrats on your electricity grid
View on Reddit #70474086

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.
View on Reddit #70480939

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.
View on Reddit #70480836

stableos@reddit

Eniac JR.
View on Reddit #70480014

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. 🤷‍♂️
View on Reddit #70479706

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.
View on Reddit #70479549

FormerLaugh3780@reddit

13 year old HP Proliant running Windows Server 2008 R2.
View on Reddit #70479486

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…
View on Reddit #70479020

ImBlindBatman@reddit

We have a 20 year old physical server, couldn’t tell you what it is off hand.
View on Reddit #70478692

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
View on Reddit #70476983

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.
View on Reddit #70473588

NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

Must be nice having your sh*t together
View on Reddit #70476825

enigmatic407@reddit

We have one that's running CentOS 5.11, which was ancient when I first got here in 2013 lol
View on Reddit #70473685

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.
View on Reddit #70473073

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.
View on Reddit #70454768

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.
View on Reddit #70469234

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...
View on Reddit #70472076

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?
View on Reddit #70468488

VivienM7@reddit

That must be a very good UPS they had...
View on Reddit #70471217

AbsentThatDay2@reddit

The funny thing was it wasn't some enterprise, it was a tiny law firm, it just kept going.
View on Reddit #70471890

thereisaplace_@reddit

Back in my CNE days we had multiple servers with multi-year uptimes. Netware was rock solid back in the day.
View on Reddit #70471829

Linuxmonger@reddit

Sun Solaris on Sun hardware, Irix on SGI.
View on Reddit #70471468

astonishing1@reddit

Where's all my IBM RS/6000 peeps?
View on Reddit #70471201

x3n044@reddit

AIX 5.3 that runs Oracle database 10g.
View on Reddit #70470986

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.
View on Reddit #70470499

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
View on Reddit #70470322

joegreen592@reddit

Not a server, but an ancient Ms-dos 2.1 pneumatic CNC stamping machine. Actually still runs great surprisingly
View on Reddit #70469510

eld101@reddit

2 days 🤘🤘
View on Reddit #70469505

Rouxls__Kaard@reddit

oldest one is just 5 years older than me
View on Reddit #70468891

Longjumping_Law133@reddit

29 years
View on Reddit #70457433

NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

1. what does it run? 2. what maintenance have you done recently?
View on Reddit #70457488

Longjumping_Law133@reddit

1. Windows NT 4.0 with CAQ software 2. No :D its still running on original HP Netserver.
View on Reddit #70458388

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.
View on Reddit #70468138

Stonewalled9999@reddit

2007 we had Metaframe 1.7 on NT 3.51.   For all I know it could still be running 
View on Reddit #70468620

spittlbm@reddit

1895 is the perfect typo
View on Reddit #70461891

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.
View on Reddit #70455507

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.   
View on Reddit #70468523

Zealotyl@reddit

Sco Unix 5 server from 1992. Not switched on much but very occasionally fired up to look up very old records.
View on Reddit #70468522

fuzzusmaximus@reddit

I know I have a couple of VMs running 2012 still
View on Reddit #70467989

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
View on Reddit #70467910

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. 
View on Reddit #70466760

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.
View on Reddit #70466440

chandleya@reddit

Couple thousand VMs, mostly windows Couple hundred 2016s left. That’s it though. Else are 19/22/25 or RHEL 9
View on Reddit #70466313

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
View on Reddit #70465219

silentstorm2008@reddit

Lol 10 years. Those are rookie numbers.
View on Reddit #70465201

u35828@reddit

Not a server, but we just retired a Cisco 6509E last month. It was installed new sometime in 2005.
View on Reddit #70465124

xXGray_WolfXx@reddit

I was about to say like 15 until I did the math 2025-2003 is 22 and I hate that.
View on Reddit #70464980

ZaitsXL@reddit

In 2012 one of the servers in my barn was Celeron 300 MHz running Windows NT4
View on Reddit #70455977

CeldonShooper@reddit

You should update to 2000. I've heard good things about this new feature called group policies.
View on Reddit #70464853

icasadosar@reddit

In my last job we had a Windows NT server with Oracle 7 since 1997.
View on Reddit #70464378

MFKDGAF@reddit

sFTP server running 2012 R2 on a 730xd.
View on Reddit #70464329

InvisibleTextArea@reddit

I think we still have an SGI Origin 2000 kicking around somewhere for `reasons`.
View on Reddit #70464292

strobe_jams@reddit

I know an outfit that runs a 45 yo TRIPOS system (Motorola 68000 processor). In prod. Multi million revenue. 
View on Reddit #70460020

AccomplishedEar6357@reddit

Wooow ♥️
View on Reddit #70464265

illicITparameters@reddit

3.5yrs. Our single physical DC. It’s getting retired in Q2.
View on Reddit #70464111

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.
View on Reddit #70454330

AccomplishedEar6357@reddit

You asked nicely, so... Bois will give it a pass.
View on Reddit #70463884

PoolMotosBowling@reddit

we just got rid of our last 2k3 this year... haha
View on Reddit #70455777

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.
View on Reddit #70454855

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.
View on Reddit #70455242

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
View on Reddit #70463863

critical_d@reddit

Windows Server 2000
View on Reddit #70463679

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.
View on Reddit #70463636

MacMemo81@reddit

I have an NT4 server running. No clue how old it is.
View on Reddit #70462685

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.
View on Reddit #70462028

Hungry_Egg_3525@reddit

2012R2 HVAC Server
View on Reddit #70461960

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
View on Reddit #70461760

silasmousehold@reddit

10 years old is what we call brand spanking new in industrial controls.
View on Reddit #70461757

electromichi3@reddit

Openvms itanium 5 Bodencluster running since 2009 without downtime Always and fully patched of course
View on Reddit #70461140

Jawshee_pdx@reddit

10 years is old? Wow.
View on Reddit #70460562

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!
View on Reddit #70460454

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.
View on Reddit #70460356

rumski@reddit

I took on a migration project for a hospital last year who was running a virtualized Server 2000 box.
View on Reddit #70460037

Apprehensive-Leg806@reddit

15 years, R710
View on Reddit #70459866

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…
View on Reddit #70459733

Final_Tune3512@reddit

We have some servers out in the field with server 2008 R2 still on them
View on Reddit #70459421

NSFW_IT_Account@reddit (OP)

Actually impressive lol
View on Reddit #70459701

KofOaks@reddit

When I left my previous job, one of our critical linux servers had a 3 900 days uptime...
View on Reddit #70459055

Plenty-Hold4311@reddit

Some of IBM servers are meant to be rock solid, haven’t come across them personally though
View on Reddit #70458978

mxpx77@reddit

![gif](giphy|K0AnEB2t2EM|downsized)
View on Reddit #70458929

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....
View on Reddit #70458590

fort_bosaus@reddit

20ish years old, ibm iSeries power5 9406-520 🙃
View on Reddit #70458550

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.
View on Reddit #70458462

GullibleDetective@reddit

2k3 sadly
View on Reddit #70458336

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.
View on Reddit #70458333

ryanmj26@reddit

Our DCs were bought is 2011. Which is an educated guess based on AD Creation Date.
View on Reddit #70458188

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.
View on Reddit #70458005

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
View on Reddit #70457972

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.
View on Reddit #70457957

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.
View on Reddit #70457851

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.
View on Reddit #70457647

DestinyForNone@reddit

AS400.
View on Reddit #70457485

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!
View on Reddit #70457435

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
View on Reddit #70457176

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.
View on Reddit #70456860

QuesoMeHungry@reddit

About 10 years ago I pulled a Compaq Pentium II server out running NT4.0.
View on Reddit #70456833

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…
View on Reddit #70456534

evolooshun@reddit

12 year old IBM x3550 m4, just recently moved VMs off it. Its been super reliable till we started having harddrives drop.
View on Reddit #70456182

TheGingerDog@reddit

a ES504 Xeon, probably from around 2009/2010. Current uptime is 3158 days. CentOS 5.11 FTW :)
View on Reddit #70456087

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.
View on Reddit #70455959

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.
View on Reddit #70455932

FalsePhoenix@reddit

Good old server 03, meaning I was 1 year old when it was first introduced....
View on Reddit #70455749

Kreuzi4@reddit

Last week i put my last windows server 2008 to rest, now i only have 2022 and 2025 ones
View on Reddit #70455649

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.
View on Reddit #70455634

Bagel-luigi@reddit

After reading some of these comments I think I'm lucky. My oldest currently is from 2013
View on Reddit #70455561

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.
View on Reddit #70455431

TerrificVixen5693@reddit

Around 15 years old and running a mixture of Vista, 7 32-bit, and Server 2008 (OG, non R2).
View on Reddit #70455224

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.
View on Reddit #70455133

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.
View on Reddit #70455040

countsachot@reddit

About 6 years atm, not too bad.
View on Reddit #70455001

False-Ad-1437@reddit

Nice try, Lockbit team!
View on Reddit #70454900

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.
View on Reddit #70454854

jcwrks@reddit

Dell PE 1950 w/ Server 2003 - legacy sw that we occasionally need to reference.
View on Reddit #70454459

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.
View on Reddit #70454453

Flying-T@reddit

6 days <3
View on Reddit #70454397