I, Yan Jiefang, will live to 2025 in this courtyard house.

In less than ten minutes, he typed out the system unique to the server.

Normally, due to system incompatibility, it is impossible to run an AIX system suitable for minicomputers on a 386.

However, Yan Jiefang directly converted the system at the system level, turning it into a Chinese system suitable for minicomputers.

Once connected, it will automatically install and replace the original system.

He stored the system on four external tape drives and then took the tape drives to the computer room.

"Is all the preliminary work done?"

Yan Jiefang confirmed this beforehand.

"Everything's ready, boss!"

All the members wearing white coats answered at the same time.

In 1991, after the hardware factory renovation was completed, the following still had to be done for the minicomputer running the AIX system:

The entire process—from data center environment acceptance to hardware power-on self-test, system installation and configuration, network debugging, business software deployment, and stress testing—is required before services can be launched.

His system was also built on this basis, and the same process had to be followed, otherwise the data processing center would not be able to operate at all.

The first step, the data center environment acceptance test, has been completed, and we can now move on to the next step.

Yan Jiefang nodded in satisfaction:

"Turn on the UPS and provide power."

"yes!"

A technician specializing in power supply was immediately dispatched to begin operations.

Just to clarify: UPS stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply.

When the mains power is normal, it performs voltage stabilization and purification while charging the lead-acid battery.

Once the external power supply is cut off, it will immediately switch to battery power, but only for eight to twelve minutes.

It doesn't allow us to continue providing services after a power outage; it allows the system to completely flush the data in memory to the hard drive and perform a safe shutdown.

Without this system, a sudden power outage could easily damage SCSI hard drives and file systems, potentially resulting in the complete loss of accounts and offline message databases.

This item became very common in later generations, but in this era, it was mainly dependent on imports.

It's not that we can't produce it domestically, but rather that our current technology is relatively backward, and there are clear upper limits to its power and capacity.

Next, turn on the power to the disk expansion cabinet.

You need to wait about a minute for the internal motor of the disk to start spinning.

After this step is completed, the next step is to start up the RS-6000 host one by one.

The machine performs a POST (Power-On Self-Test) to check the memory, hard drive, and SCSI controller in sequence (see bottom for instructions).

Once all the above steps are completed, the host computer will automatically begin installing the system from the pre-connected external tape drive.

Yan Jiefang had prepared four external tape drives in advance, so they started installing the system on the four minicomputers at the same time.

Although the file isn't very large, the computing power of these computers is generally limited, so each installation still takes nearly an hour.

Fortunately, Yan Jiefang didn't care about the cost and installed all four machines at the same time, which greatly saved time.

Although each external tape drive cost $1600 (HK$12500), it was nothing to him.

We bought a lot more than we should have done previously.

In those days, there were no high-capacity hard drives or USB flash drives; magnetic tape drives with several gigabytes of capacity were the best data storage devices.

It can easily store the entire operating system and can also be used for database backup.

When people chat online, a lot of data will inevitably be generated, and they will use a tape recorder to store this data.

For users to check in the future.

While waiting for the system to install, Yan Jiefang began to personally inspect the various devices in the computer room.

This matter cannot be taken lightly; these imported equipment are all very valuable.

If something is damaged and there's no replacement available, you'll have to go to Hong Kong to get a replacement, and waiting two or three months would be considered a lot of hard work by those foreigners.

Otherwise, it could take up to six months.

Under his divine sense, all the equipment was working properly, which was fine.

Seeing this, Yan Jiefang was very satisfied with the work attitude of the engineers and technicians managing the computer room.

We've decided to give out bonuses once the data exchange center is up and running.

The amount ranges from 10,000 to 20,000 yuan per person.

After about an hour, the system was finally installed.

Next, everyone got busy and followed the steps in the instruction manual.

Manually configure data volumes, disk images, and network parameters.

Yan Jiefang, on the other hand, configured both the IP address and the gateway.

Then, the message service program and account database were deployed to complete network communication between multiple nodes in the cluster.

...

By the time everyone finished the stress test, several days had passed.

When the comrades were tired, they could rest in the rest room specially prepared in the science and technology building, and when they were hungry, they could go directly to the canteen to eat.

When there's nothing to do, I immediately go back to the server room and continue working.

After all the verifications were completed, Yan Jiefang calmly said to one of the engineers:

"Old Liu, let's officially launch it to the public."

"Okay, boss!"

Following Lao Liu's actions, all users in China who had installed the chat software received a message that the chat and dating software (ICQ) had begun testing.

Anyone can use this software to find familiar or unfamiliar users on the internet, add them as friends, and chat remotely.

ICQ (I Seek You) officially announced the cessation of its services on June 26, 2024.

After waiting for a while, everyone realized that there seemed to be no response from the backend.

Old Liu glanced at Yan Jiefang, somewhat dejected:

"Boss, this..."

Yan Jiefang remained calm:

"Old Liu, there are only a few hundred thousand 386 microcomputers in the whole country right now, isn't it normal that there's no movement?"

We need to be prepared for a long period of time when not many people use this.

As he said these words, he couldn't help but recall the rumors about the big boss from his previous life who initially pretended to be a girl to chat with people.

That was around 2000, and computer penetration was many times higher than it is now.

He's just securing this position now so that he'll have a solid foundation of support for future development, making it easier for him than for others.

Anyway, he's not short of money, so let's just keep the server room running. It won't cost much.

Yan Jiefang clapped his hands:

"Alright, everyone's worked hard lately. Except for those on duty, everyone else, get back to sleep!"

...

After finishing up here, Yan Jiefang took out a printed copy of "Chinese Programming from Beginner to Expert" and placed it in Lao Liu's hands:

"Old Liu, after you go downstairs, make a copy of this book, give each of you a copy, and study this kind of programming carefully. It will be useful in the future."

Note: POST (Power-On Self-Test) is a core hardware detection process automatically executed by the BIOS/UEFI after the computer is powered on. It is used to confirm whether key components such as the CPU, memory, motherboard, and graphics card are working properly before the operating system starts, and is a prerequisite for the normal startup of the whole machine.

The SCSI controller, short for Small Computer System Interface Controller, is the core hardware for managing the connection between a computer and peripheral devices such as hard drives, optical drives, and scanners. As the control center of the SCSI bus, it is responsible for coordinating command sending, data exchange, and device addressing.