OT: Lowest-power small server solutions

[Pete Turnbull]

On Nov 1 2005, 16:09, Jules Richardson wrote:
> Chuck Guzis wrote:
> > This may be appropriate for another list, but it seems to me that
there's
> > plenty of applicable knowledge here.
> >
> > Right now, we're using an older Compaq Deskpro P3-600 box as our
incoming
> > Linux server.  Basically, it connects with the DSL modem and
contains IP
> > masquerading, DNS caching, firewall and fetchmail/procmail/qmail
tasks
> > (SpamAssassin included).  It runs 24x7 with no problem, as it has
for the
> > last 5 or 6 years.  Built like a tank.
>
> Would an offering from one of the various UNIX vendors be a
possibility?
> Sun / SGI / HP or something? I'm thinking that getting away from any
> kind of Intel CPU would be a good place to start, plus of course you
> don't need any kind of framebuffer then either (unlike a PC) and can
> just use a serial console on the (very rare) occassions when you'd
need
> to be physically at the machine.
>
> Cut memory to bare minimum too as that's probably a major culprit of
> current draw.
>
> If the machine's not doing any logging to local disk then you can
> eliminate the hard drive too

I disagree with a few points there.  Firstly, SpamAssassin is very
resource-hungry.  It works best with a fair amount of memory.  It also
tends to be very slow - I've seen it take 4-10 seconds *per message* on
a slow machine.  That might not matter on a machine handling a very
small amount of mail, of course.

Then you can't really have your incoming-mail handler run diskless,
because if you do, something else will have to run 24/7 to store the
mail.  Better to have just one machine.  But find a modern slow drive
rather than an old slow drive; slow drives use less power than fast
ones, but modern ones use less than older ones.  Laptop drives are
often pretty low-power.

However, many of the Sun/SGI/HP type of machine might run more quietly
since they don't need big fans for CPU and PSU.  They also don't need a
framebuffer as Jules said, *and* no keyboard.  But they will tend to be
slow, and you'll have fun trying to doing all the IP masquerading
firewally stuff on anything but Linux or BSD, which is going to be more
trouble than it's worth on most of the above.

FWIW, I think Tim's suggestion (mini-ITX) is amongst the best.



-- 
Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Network Manager
						University of York