[olug] Tiny rack-mount chassis

[Neal Rauhauser]

The BIOS for the Soekris was competent last time I did a serial install.
When I was using them with spinning media it was CF IDE drives, so I'd just
install using a USB reader on a standard laptop, edit /etc/fstab so it
reflected device names for the Soekris, then pop the card in and go.


On Tue, Jan 14, 2014 at 5:36 AM, Obi-Wan <obiwan at jedi.com> wrote:

> On 01/10/2014 07:37 PM, Cheyenne Deal wrote:
>
>> I have a few IBM X330 servers laying around, Single ~2.4Ghz 1gb of ram and
>> two 36gb scsi drives.
>> I have four or five spares, if you need one let me know
>>
>
> How much would you want for an X330 with a few drives?  How old is that
> hardware?
>
> Those Soekris 6501's look pretty sweet, especially if I decide to get my
> firewall out of my cabinet and mount it directly to my wiring panel.  With
> a couple drives, that's pushing my budget, though.  The 5501's are cheaper,
> but barely adequate.  I'd really prefer to buy current technology for the
> stuff that's likely to fail (ie, drives) so that I can quickly find
> replacements years from now.
>
> Do current linux installs work well over a serial port to a headless
> device, or would I have to find a video card for the PCIe slot on those
> Soekris boxes just so I could install my OS?  I haven't done a
> non-graphical install in over a decade.
>
> If there's a significant enough price difference, I may have to go ahead
> and get a traditional 1U server like several of you have mentioned.
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: olug-bounces at olug.org [mailto:olug-bounces at olug.org] On Behalf
>>>>> Of Obi-Wan
>>>>> Sent: Friday, January 10, 2014 3:32 PM
>>>>> To: Omaha Linux Users Group
>>>>> Subject: [olug] Tiny rack-mount chassis
>>>>>
>>>>> My 1st-gen HP DL360 server (Sam knows about this) that I'm using for
>>>>> my home firewall is starting to get a little long in the tooth.  It
>>>>> still runs perfectly, but it lost one of the mirrored drives this
>>>>> morning, and I plugged in my last spare.  The build date on that
>>>>> drive was 2001.
>>>>> Replacement drives are cost prohibitive, so I'll be replacing the
>>>>> entire chassis before I lose my last drives.
>>>>>
>>>>> This server runs PPPoE to terminate my DSL connection, iptables
>>>>> firewall, mail server, incoming web/SSL proxy, DNS, and DHCP
>>>>> servers.
>>>>> It's a pretty light load, and even for that ancient box. I certainly
>>>>> don't need much horsepower for this box.  I do want extreme
>>>>> reliability.
>>>>>   Mirrored drives are a must, and dual power supplies might be nice.
>>>>> Dual
>>>>> cooling fans are probably wise.  None of that needs to be hot-swap,
>>>>> though.
>>>>>   I need two ethernet ports (preferably GigE, and 3 would be nice
>>>>> just in case).  I'd also like the chassis to be quite small so that
>>>>> it can hang in a telco rack when I move next year.  I'd like it to
>>>>> be really low power so that it'll run forever off my UPS when
>>>>> necessary.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any suggestions on the hardware and/or case I should use for this?
>>>>> I'm usually shopping at the other end of the horsepower spectrum.
>>>>> There's got to be chassis out there that are way smaller than the
>>>>> standard rack-mount server, but can still run a standard linux
>>>>> distro with some redundancy.
>>>>>
>>>>
>
> --
> *Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth* obiwan at jedi.com <mailto:obiwan at jedi.com>
> www.Jedi.com <http://www.jedi.com>
> The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the
> Giver of all good things, so if I stand, let me stand on the
> promise that You will pull me through. /-- Rich Mullins/
>
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