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?
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.
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.
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.
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-
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?
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.
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.
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/).
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.
> 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.
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.
> 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.
...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...
