Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:54:52 -1000 From: Clifton Royston <cliftonr@lava.net> To: Pete French <petefrench@ticketswitch.com> Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: reecommendations for an 'appliance" platform ? Message-ID: <20090613195451.GA15509@lava.net> In-Reply-To: <E1MFWMX-000NUw-GV@dilbert.ticketswitch.com> References: <E1MFWMX-000NUw-GV@dilbert.ticketswitch.com>
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On Sat, Jun 13, 2009 at 05:45:49PM +0100, Pete French wrote: > I am looking to deploy a couple of hundered system, which are supposed > to attach to a network and be plug-in-and-go. I am thinking of doing > this with a FreeBSD installation, duplicated onto flash cards, and > dumped into some off-the-sheelt hardware. The questions I, what hardware ? > > I've done some research, and come up with boxes like this: > > http://www.icp-epia.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=434 > > But I was wondering if anyone knew of any alternatives, preferably > featuring a processor which can run amd64. The rest of thats pec > is fine, and I dont need wifi. I'm not 100% sure, but fairly sure that you'll have a hard time finding something that combines the low-power standalone type spec with a 64-bit capable processor. Once you get the higher-end processor, that draws higher power, and so demands active cooling, a motherboard chipset which also draws higher power, a bigger power supply which becomes a more likely failure point, and so on. Can you elaborate a bit more on which parts of that system spec you really need - do you need the GigE? Two ethernets? The external SATA? > Any suggestions, or words of wisdom from anyone who has done someething > similar themselevs in the past ? Not specifically this, though I've done other embedded work in the past. Several years ago I did research some appliance type setups for a possible spam-filtering appliance based on the VIA Nehemiah CPU; I won't bother you with that info because nowadays the Atom or AMD Geode seem to win in that niche. Besides the frequently mentioned Soekris <http://www.soekris.com/>; these guys seem to make some pretty nice low-power systems: http://www.compulab.co.il/all-products/html/products.htm I bought one of these from them last year: http://www.fit-pc.com/new/fit-pc-1-0-specifications.html due to the two Ethernet ports and low power consumption, and put the pfSense package on it (FreeBSD 7.1-based) for a firewall; it runs a packet filtering bridge with DHCP service, Squid, etc. This particular model is out of production now, but the site implies they could do a new run of them for 100 or more units, and there's a newer upgraded model here: http://www.fit-pc.com/new/fit-pc-1-0-specifications.html Note these are both passively cooled and draw around 5w; I think they also come in at about half the price of what you were looking at, if they'll do. -- Clifton -- Clifton Royston -- cliftonr@iandicomputing.com / cliftonr@lava.net President - I and I Computing * http://www.iandicomputing.com/ Custom programming, network design, systems and network consulting services
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