[NNOT] Stability on Soekris class h/w? (was Re: 6.0-BETA2 as reliable webserver?)

[Joel Rees]

On 平成 17/08/20, at 13:24, Peter Jeremy wrote:

> On Fri, 2005-Aug-19 23:42:18 +0200, Frans-Jan v. Steenbeek wrote:
>
>> building. Since we are moving in a few months, we decided to use a HP
>> laptop instead (reasonably fast CPU, 512 Megs) since we had a few to
>> spare.
>>
>> The toy is currently set up with FreeBSD 6.0-BETA2, Apache 2.0,  
>> MySQL 5.0
>> and PHP-5.0 with all the reasonable modules. Everything is  
>> compiled from
>> ports. No changes to the kernel yet, no world-rebuilding done.
>>
>
> I'd also be extremely loath to bet my company on a laptop running beta
> software.  As others have pointed out, laptops aren't designed for
> this.  (Though my old Compaq laptop ran FreeBSD 24x7 for several years
> and I only stopped using it because the lid was cracking too badly).

Yeah, I've had my home server running on an old iBook (not FreeBSD).  
I had replaced the original disk with a larger used one because the  
original was just 6GB. The used disk lasted only a year. Had to open  
it back up and put the 6GB drive back in until I can afford a new  
disk (or a Mac Mini). I need to add RAM to that poor child, too.

That said, 512 MB RAM in the HP notebook might leave enough RAM for a  
RAM disk. One could mirror Apache, PHP, MySQL (app, not DB),  
libraries, and the web app itself onto a RAM disk. That way the  
server could respond to initial hits out of the RAM disk while the HD  
is spinning up.

> If you're really concerned about noise:
> - use an older desktop and maybe even underclock it to keep it cooler
> - build your own system.  Either go the low power route (mini-ITX) so
>   you don't need noisy fans or use an over-rated PSU and CPU heatsink
>   to keep fan speed (and noise) down.  In either case, you'll need to
>   look around to find a quiet HDD.

So, what's the stability of FreeBSD 5.x/6.x on Soekris  class hardware?

I'm thinking especially in terms of mulit-port nics that would  
support bridging, etc.

> - [as a completely left-field suggestion] look at something like an
>   Apple G5 system - large fans running slowly generate very little  
> noise.

Maybe even Mac Mini? ;->

fbsd on PPC is still not even close to stable, and the iNTEL Macs are  
still at least ten months away. But openBSD and netBSD run rather  
well on PPC if the eye candy of Mac OS X is unpleasant or the cost of  
Mac OS X Server (for a little added peace of mind?) is uncomfortable.

Joel Rees   <rees at ddcom.co.jp>
digitcom, inc.   株式会社デジコム
Kobe, Japan   +81-78-672-8800
** <http://www.ddcom.co.jp> **