On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 7:46 AM, Dewey Hylton <dewey.hyl...@gmail.com> wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "corey clingo" <clinge...@gmail.com> >> To: misc@openbsd.org >> Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2012 7:05:17 PM >> Subject: Re: looking for hardware recommendations, x86 or otherwise. >> >> On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 4:06 PM, Dewey Hylton >> <dewey.hyl...@gmail.com> wrote: >> > if you feel this is a tired and worn-out question, then please just >> > move >> along. >> > >> > two systems on which i'm happily running openbsd on are: >> > alix and mac mini. alix for firewalls/thin clients, and the mac >> > mini can >> handle pretty much anything i throw at it. both are relatively cheap >> (new alix >> and used minis) and function well. in addition to firewalls/thin >> clients, my >> needs do not include anything high-performance or high-bandwidth - >> mostly >> infrastructure services such as dns/dhcp/web for small companies. >> > >> > so what i'm looking for is something small like (or smaller than) >> > these two >> systems, and just as stable, while being cheaper. and i'm looking for >> recommendations, not just suggestions - if you haven't tried it and >> loved it, >> don't bother mentioning it. >> > >> > i'm hoping the raspberrypi will eventually be supported on openbsd >> > (if the >> hardware proves to be stable, $35 sounds GREAT) but i don't have the >> skills to >> go there myself. >> > >> >> Alixes are pretty cheap. Not Sheevaplug or RasberryPi cheap, but >> cheap >> for the capabilities they have. I mean, at the end of the day, your >> clients are relying on these devices for potentially >> business-critical >> services. How much do they really want to skimp? >> >> Personally I've lately been moving upmarket with this kind of device. >> You get better performance (e.g., faster CPUs, Intel GbE rather than >> Via, etc.), a more solid build, and I've never had to solder my own >> surface mount caps on >> one to fix a clock oscillator issue as I did with my home Soekris >> once >> :) >> >> All that said, one day when I retire and want to stretch my brain to >> keep from getting senile, I'll probably try to port OpenBSD to a >> couple of embedded-ish devices I currently use. The hardware is >> generally decent from the outside, but I can't help but believe >> they'd >> be better, faster, and more secure with OpenBSD than the iffy >> Linux+vendor "enhancements" that they typically come with. >> >> Corey > > is it safe to assume your upmarket devices meet the first two criteria, but are more expensive? i'm still interested in hearing your recommendation; most of my servers are much larger and more expensive than the alix solutions - having something in the middle could certainly be useful. thanks for your input.
Yes, more expensive. I use mine in an industrial environment, so I was looking for something fanless and (preferably) totally enclosed. To be honest, I'm still investigating, but I bought a couple of Netgate Hamakuas (which appear to be rebadged Lanner FW7520s) and, after some futzing with them to get the BIOS serial console working, I like them. 5 Intel Ethernet (4 are Gb I think), Celeron CPU, SSD for about $600 US. Logic Supply has a pretty good selection of this sort of hardware as well. If you don't need the environmental exclusion case, I recall reading some good reviews of reasonably-priced Supermicro Atom-based systems on this list - low power but they seem to look and feel like real servers (even have IPMI and such). Still probably more expensive than Alix, though.
