Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-07-05 Thread Michael . Dillon

  We're looking to acquire a couple small servers that can act as 
routers for
  us at remote locations.
 
You may want to check out soekris. (www.soekris.com)

This type of server is far more common nowadays
than it was when Soekris launched their business.
A Google search will lead you to dozens of fanless
servers built around a VIA EPIA mini-itx board or
one of AMD's GEODE chips.

--Michael Dillon



Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-07-05 Thread Michael . Dillon

...but the fanless chips are 
 not always as fanless as you might like.  I've seen a number of them 
come 
 back well fried.

Fanless doesn't just mean no fans to break down.
It also means well-ventilated installation required.

Maybe you can find a datacenter with so many hot
bladeservers that they can't fill their racks. Then
you could ask them to give you 8U cheap at the bottom
of a rack and mount your servers vertically for
maximal airflow. ;-)

--Michael Dillon

P.S. on the other hand, if there is enough demand for
fanless server installations, maybe some datacenters
will begin to offer vertically vented space at the
bottom of their racks...



Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-07-01 Thread Mike Tancsa


At 01:29 PM 30/06/2006, Florian Weimer wrote:


* Mike Tancsa:

 Many mini-itx boxes dont have 2 PCI slots.  You might be better going
 with a mini-itx solution and then use a small switch and trunk the NIC
 to act as a VLAN router.

Are there any fanless routers with proper 802.1Q support (with ingress
VLAN tag filtering, for instance)?


Not sure exactly what you mean by vlan tag filtering and if you mean 
OSes based on i386 mini-itx boxes or all fanless routers in general. 
But If you mean filtering based on interface or IP that is associated 
with a particular VLAN, as well as things like ip verify unicast 
reverse-path then yes you can do that in BSD land quite easily.


---Mike 



Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-07-01 Thread Florian Weimer

* Mike Tancsa:

  Many mini-itx boxes dont have 2 PCI slots.  You might be better going
  with a mini-itx solution and then use a small switch and trunk the NIC
  to act as a VLAN router.

Are there any fanless routers with proper 802.1Q support (with ingress
VLAN tag filtering, for instance)?

 Not sure exactly what you mean by vlan tag filtering and if you mean
 OSes based on i386 mini-itx boxes or all fanless routers in
 general.

Uhm, I should really clarify that I should have written switches
instead of routers.  I hope the tag filtering make more sense in
this context. 8-)

I'd be interested in something that offers more than four Ethernet
plugs per PCI slot, and the only way I know to get that are switches.
But those with 802.1Q tagging and proper VLAN separation are all
rather noisy.


Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-30 Thread Robert E . Seastrom


Joe Abley [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

 On 29-Jun-2006, at 14:25, Ray Van Dolson wrote:

 We're looking to acquire a couple small servers that can act as
 routers for
 us at remote locations.

 How small? :-)

 http://www.compulab.co.il/x270/html/x270-cm-datasheet.htm

He wants x86; those are Xscale which is pronounced ARM.

Besides, people like those x270 boards and think they're cool.  Ray
specified fanless machines.  I'm not sure why he wants hardware that
nobody likes, but maybe he's worried about theft in his deployment
environment.

---Rob




Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-30 Thread Mike Tancsa


At 02:25 PM 29/06/2006, Ray Van Dolson wrote:


We're looking to acquire a couple small servers that can act as routers for
us at remote locations.

To minimize hardware issues, I'd love to get something that has no fans, can
still run a fairly decent processor and preferably no hard drive (easy with
an IDE CF adapter).

It would need a couple PCI slots for quad port ethernet cards and a fairly
robust tolerance to temperature variations.



Many mini-itx boxes dont have 2 PCI slots.  You might be better going 
with a mini-itx solution and then use a small switch and trunk the 
NIC to act as a VLAN router.  We have been using various embedded 
devices from Commell 
(http://www.commell.com.tw/Product/SBC/LV-667.HTM). They seem to work 
well and can deal with 45C operating temps and have decent hardware 
watchdog support (FreeBSD version at http://www.tancsa.com/watchdog/).


---Mike 



Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-30 Thread Florian Weimer

* Mike Tancsa:

 Many mini-itx boxes dont have 2 PCI slots.  You might be better going
 with a mini-itx solution and then use a small switch and trunk the NIC
 to act as a VLAN router.

Are there any fanless routers with proper 802.1Q support (with ingress
VLAN tag filtering, for instance)?


Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-29 Thread Ray Van Dolson

We're looking to acquire a couple small servers that can act as routers for
us at remote locations.

To minimize hardware issues, I'd love to get something that has no fans, can
still run a fairly decent processor and preferably no hard drive (easy with
an IDE CF adapter).

It would need a couple PCI slots for quad port ethernet cards and a fairly
robust tolerance to temperature variations.

I like what I see at Advantech -- anyone have any testimonies as to what
they've had success/problems with?

Ray


Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-29 Thread Jared Mauch

On Thu, Jun 29, 2006 at 11:25:01AM -0700, Ray Van Dolson wrote:
 
 We're looking to acquire a couple small servers that can act as routers for
 us at remote locations.

You may want to check out soekris. (www.soekris.com)

 To minimize hardware issues, I'd love to get something that has no fans, can
 still run a fairly decent processor and preferably no hard drive (easy with
 an IDE CF adapter).
 
 It would need a couple PCI slots for quad port ethernet cards and a fairly
 robust tolerance to temperature variations.

It may not have enough ports for you, but perhaps
if you want enough they will build something custom for you.

- jared

-- 
Jared Mauch  | pgp key available via finger from [EMAIL PROTECTED]
clue++;  | http://puck.nether.net/~jared/  My statements are only mine.


Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-29 Thread david raistrick


On Thu, 29 Jun 2006, Ray Van Dolson wrote:


To minimize hardware issues, I'd love to get something that has no fans, can
still run a fairly decent processor and preferably no hard drive (easy with
an IDE CF adapter).


I've worked with a large number of iWill and Portwell products aimed at 
the firewall market.   They can be a bit harder to find in small 
quantities that are not direct from Tiawan, but it's [usually] decent 
stuff.


http://portwell.com/ca.htm
http://www.iwill.net/product_1.asp?pl1_id=64

...david


---
david raistrickhttp://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.expita.com/nomime.html



Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-29 Thread david raistrick



On Thu, 29 Jun 2006, Ray Van Dolson wrote:

To minimize hardware issues, I'd love to get something that has no fans, 
can


Wait, you said no fans.  And decent processor.

No fans tends to == slower Via chips (ala the mini-itx boards, but 
available in network appliances), or Geode Pentium-ish chips.


Your best bet in fanless is either Soekris, as someone else mentioned, or 
PCEngines.


http://www.soekris.com/
http://www.pcengines.ch/

None of these are really PCs though...and they each have their own issues 
getting bsd and linuxs to run on them.  But the issues are known and 
documentation is usually available from Soren and Pascal.



Otherwise, Via based boards are the way to go...but the fanless chips are 
not always as fanless as you might like.  I've seen a number of them come 
back well fried.


...david

---
david raistrickhttp://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.expita.com/nomime.html



Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-29 Thread bob

Check out www.damnsmalllinux.org
They actually sell kits ( power supply, enclosures, etc)
 and have links to mini-itx board. Some of the
Epia run fanless, s I recall-
Cheers,
bob-



Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-29 Thread Aaron Glenn


On 6/29/06, Ray Van Dolson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


We're looking to acquire a couple small servers that can act as routers for
us at remote locations.


What kind of feature set are you looking to run? Is it safe to assume
you're application requires something beyond a specially flashed
Linksys toy router?

aaron.glenn


Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-29 Thread Ray Van Dolson

On Thu, Jun 29, 2006 at 08:29:25PM +0200, Thomas Kuehling wrote:
 Hi,
 
 check this out... ;-)
 
 http://soekris.com/
 

Thanks for the suggestion guys.  We're actually already using Soekris quite
a bit on our network.  In this case looking for something with a bit more
horsepower and we do need a couple PCI ports on 'em.

Ray


Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-29 Thread Steve Thomas

 I like what I see at Advantech -- anyone have any testimonies as to what
 they've had success/problems with?

We resell some of their systems as part of our telephony solutions. Our
experience has been pretty positive, as far as the quality of their
products goes.




Re: Fanless x86 Server Recommendations

2006-06-29 Thread Joe Abley



On 29-Jun-2006, at 14:25, Ray Van Dolson wrote:

We're looking to acquire a couple small servers that can act as  
routers for

us at remote locations.


How small? :-)

http://www.compulab.co.il/x270/html/x270-cm-datasheet.htm


Joe