I too use floppy boot disk for several firewalls, one boots off hard disk with floppy backup. Other rack-mount boxes I've yet to setup to run off the internal 64MB flash disks.
--Cal Webster On Wed, 2007-07-18 at 15:11, Bob Gregory wrote: > > -----Original Message----- > > Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 6:29 PM > > To: leaf-user@lists.sourceforge.net > > Subject: Re: [leaf-user] The old floppy question > > > > >Lets make a poll to find out how many of us are booting bering from a > > >floppy and decide from there. > > > > I still favor & use Bering 1.2 floppies. I like the security of the > > write-protect slider. And part of the idea about Linux, and Bering > > firewalls in particular, is repurposing old hardware for a new & useful > > task. It's not so hard to find boxes of an appropriate horsepower for the > > task that came with floppies. > > My production firewall boxen are still running off diskettes. The downside > compared with a CF/IDE box I use for testing is (1) slower boot and (2) > limited space for packages. But as long as the required packages fit on a > diskette, this is just not an issue for a firewall that reboots maybe a > couple of times a year. > > I have access to a virtually unlimited supply of P3 desktops with diskette > drives. These have plenty of horsepower for a firewall. My production setup > has an identical spare sitting on top of the running firewall with a copy of > the diskette in the drive and instructions to move the Ethernet cables and > and power cord to the spare should anything happen. There is no display, no > keyboard, no mouse and the IDE disk is disconnected. The BIOS is configured > to boot whenever power is restored. This provides a very high level of > redundancy, essentially at no cost. > > There are many other ways to achieve this. But this solution is so simple > and straightforward to understand and implement that I can see no reason to > change. > > I believe diskette based LEAF routers will live a long life because once you > get one set up and configured there is rarely a good reason to mess with it > unless something breaks or until the needs change. > > Bottom line: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". > > Cheers, > -Bob > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express > Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take > control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. > http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > leaf-user mailing list: leaf-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user > Support Request -- http://leaf-project.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ leaf-user mailing list: leaf-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-user Support Request -- http://leaf-project.org/
