Thanks a lot for all the great advice, that is very useful. It all makes sense.
> On 27 Nov 2022, at 21:10, Tomasz Rola <rto...@ceti.pl> wrote: > > On Sun, Nov 27, 2022 at 09:37:19AM +0000, James Johnson wrote: >> Hi all, >> >> OpenBSD is amazing. But I need help in configuring it correctly as a >> remote server, rarely used. >> >> >> The main thing I am trying to do is to make it sleep every now and >> then to protect resources. I am very flexible on how to do this, but >> have been unable to do so. >> Here's what I tried : > [...] > > So to sum up your requirements, you want a self driving box which > waits, and once every month or six wakes up, does something, then goes > idle again. > > I would avoid power down/up completely - boot takes time, and fsck > takes some more time. Also, AFAIK electronics wears down every time it > goes on-off. > > Modern HDD are said to live to 50000 on-off cycles, so assume 20000 > cold boots. But random things can happen, because on-off means power > spike. If you have no problem with eletricity, I would keep it going > all the time. I would however minimise writes. Work on temporary data > in ramdisk, write results to disk. Something like this. > > BIOS battery goes down faster when computer is powered down. When it > is up, clock gets power from the wall and saves the battery. I assume > the modern CMOS battery will only keep the clock for about a year > without power and it will not recharge when you power up. After that > time (and before that time, too, but less necessary), every boot > should include query to time server and adjusting the hardware clock. > > I would buy a decent PSU. Last time I wanted to know, Seasonic was the > maker of best ones a mortal could buy. Their last unit I bought came > with 10 years warranty. AND, according to description, it was built > with classic electronic art, analog parts, no digital. So if you are > so inclined, you can ask your electronic buddy to inspect it and > perhaps even replace some parts with better ones. Or repair it. If > microcontroller goes bunk, you are out of luck, I assume they somehow > protect their eproms. > > If you plan to store some long term data on this box, I would avoid > SSD. They are fast but they also can go bunk and when they do, chance > of recovering data is close to nil (from what I have read). > > I would consider putting the box in a plastic bag to protect from dust > and humidity. Dust will clog into radiators, make chips go hotter, > ventillators work harder. I have not tested this, however. I assume > thermal exchange with loose bag over the box should go ok, but you > need to test it very carefully, monitoring temps all the time - all > temps. > > HTH > > -- > Regards, > Tomasz Rola > > -- > ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** > ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** > ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** > ** ** > ** Tomasz Rola mailto:tomasz_r...@bigfoot.com **
