> I've had an OpenBSD router built on basically commodity PC hardware > running for many years now, long enough that I'm starting to worry about > some part of it (especially the disk) dying abruptly at the worst > possible time.
Same here. I've had a combination router/firewall/802.11 AP/DNS/DHCP/NTP server/Squid cache/file server/backup appliance/... on OBSD for years now. And they have died occasionally ... always due to disk failures or the like. Every disk death causes 1-2 days of abject horror. Usually running on my 5501, occasionally on a whitebox. > I'm planning on replacing it with a Soekris box. Good idea. Compact, less power consumption, reliable (except for the power supply). I've been running it with various internal ATA drives, booing from CF or directly from disk. You still have the disk problem though. Booting/running from CF works, but the CF may be just as short-lived as a spinning rust drive would be; I haven't had CF failures, but stories abound. I was going to try an enterprise-grade (STec, very expensive) SSD on the SATA port of my 5501 next. But the arrival of the 6501 has changed that plan; instead it's going to boot from CF (I have an industrial-grade Sandisk ready for it), with most filesystems except /, /etc and the boot image on a pair of RAID-ed TB-class SATA drives. How to install a Soekris? For lack of CD boot, it's a little hard. I've done PXE once, and didn't enjoy it (took days of trial and error, no idea why it eventually worked, probably would never work again). I'll have to work on honing that skill. Much simpler: take an old laptop with CD, put the Soekris "disk" (might be CF in an adapter) in there, install, then move the "disk" to Soekris. Still possible to screw up (watch your C/H/S, or a laptop that can install to but not boot from CF), but works better for me. If Soren is listening: Adding the capability to boot from a USB-connected external CD/DVD would be great for people who do one-off things with their Soekris. Not very important for big customers who do mass production. One problem is upgrades. If your whole household and family rely on the server, you can't take it out of service for a weekend to upgrade the OS. And OBSD wants to be upgraded every 6 months, otherwise you are looking at a reinstall. Right now, I'm doing a leapfrog technique: About once a year, I rsync my Soekris to a whitebox server, quickly (2-3 hours) swap them, then have a week to do a thorough install/ improve cycle. But if you get busy, that week turns into a month and then a year; right now I'm in that year, and going to restart with a 2GB 6501. Similar problem: if all your infrastructure (incl. network) relies on the Soekris, how do you repair it when it fails? I had an intermittent problem (disk failure symptoms, caused by flaky power supply), and debugging required e-mail to this list ... but there was no network at home, so everything waits until I can send e-mail from Starbucks. That's why I now keep a backup machine that's good enough for basic operation. > So from Soekris's offerings, does the standard net5501-60 look like a > good choice? If you are buying for the long term, seriously consider the 6501, for the extra memory and the two SATA ports. Who knows what function you want to add to your server. I wanted a NFS/CIFS/IMAP/HTTP server with ~1TB of disk space. That's hard to do in 512MB of RAM (the initial fsck is already a problem, solvable but requires extra work and non-standard fs parameters). Now add a backup server for the whole household, with an external 3TB USB drive. This is where I caved and decided to wait for a 6501. > Along with that, I'll need the appropriate power supply The ones Soekris ships have had a history of failures. I recommend the old IBM (not Lenovo) 16V laptop supplies, with the black connector (the newer ones are 20V with a grey connector). Indestructible, and the connector fits. Enough headroom to power external disks using a suitable DC/DC converter. > Maybe an extra null modem cable since I can never find mine. Make sure the machine you use as a terminal emulator actually works, without the Soekris server. Most modern laptops only have serial ports on the docking station, which was thrown out as useless, and without network you can't download the driver required for your non-standard USB->serial adapter on the ancient Linux on the maintenance laptop (happened to me, I ended up taking the Soekris to the office and working on it there). If you need documentation (like network numbers) to restore a Soekris home server after a catastrophic disk failure, and that documentation is stored on the Soekris itself, make a copy on a USB stick or better. And so on; I'm just describing some amusing failures I've had. > about? I know there are plenty of OBSD/Soekris project pages out there, > but it's not always clear whether anything important has changed in the > years since they were published. None of the canned recipes or pre-installs ever worked for me out of the box. I read their docs, gather ideas and concerns, then start with a blank disk or CF, a fresh OBSD install CD (preferably bought from OBSD, they need the money), and a weekend to spare. YMMV. -- Ralph Becker-Szendy [email protected] (408)395-1435 735 Sunset Ridge Road; Los Gatos, CA 95033 _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list [email protected] http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
