Any comments on CentOS 5 on Intel Atom CPUs? I need to build a couple of inexpensive systems that will be used primarily as gateway/firewall systems with OpenVPN, and need recommendations in reliable hardware platforms. These will need two NICs. Bill -- INTERNET: bill at celestial.com Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC URL: http://www.celestial.com/ PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way Voice: (206) 236-1676 Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820 Fax: (206) 232-9186 Skype: jwccsllc (206) 855-5792 The demands of the majority are always greater than taxation alone can provide and thats where the FED comes in. The value of the dollar has depreciated 97% since the creation of the FED.
Bill Campbell wrote:> Any comments on CentOS 5 on Intel Atom CPUs? > > I need to build a couple of inexpensive systems that will be used > primarily as gateway/firewall systems with OpenVPN, and need > recommendations in reliable hardware platforms. These will need > two NICs.Go with Soekris, they are built for that purpose. You can even get an SSL accelerator card for them. Mine has a ~500Mhz AMD Geode CPU, 512MB ram, I added a 1GB CF card, it has 4x100Mbit NICs, it has a slot for a PCI device, I put a bracket with another serial port on there to hook to a UPS, has a USB port, and a serial port for console access, draws a tiny amount of power. I don't consider linux a good platform for firewall or VPN devices myself, I use OpenBSD, with pf. I have an OpenVPN from my soekris box at home to my co-located server(runs Debian), have had it hooked up for almost a year now, works great. I don't need the SSL acceleration card as my commit rate at the colo is only 1Mbit, so I don't want to push a lot of traffic. http://www.soekris.com/net5501.htm These things are designed from the ground up to be firewall/VPN appliances(low end mind you, your not gonna be pushing gigabits of traffic through them). The CPU on mine doesn't even have a heat sink. nate
I am not so sure that I would go for something with an Atom processor installed if it is going to be on 24/7 then I would rather if price has to be low, look at building a machine with a p4 dual core, they are really cheap and don't mind being on 24/7 after all Atom has half the processing speed as a pentium m processor. Per E-mail: per at norhex.com [1] http://www.linkedin.com/in/perqvindesland [2] --- Original message follows --- SUBJECT:?[CentOS] Intel Atom systems? FROM: ?Bill Campbell TO:?"centos at centos.org" DATE:?23-05-2009 19:22 Any comments on CentOS 5 on Intel Atom CPUs? I need to build a couple of inexpensive systems that will be used primarily as gateway/firewall systems with OpenVPN, and need recommendations in reliable hardware platforms. These will need two NICs. Bill -- INTERNET: bill at celestial.com Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC URL: http://www.celestial.com/ PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way Voice: (206) 236-1676 Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820 Fax: (206) 232-9186 Skype: jwccsllc (206) 855-5792 The demands of the majority are always greater than taxation alone can provide and thats where the FED comes in. The value of the dollar has depreciated 97% since the creation of the FED. _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS at centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos Links: ------ [1] http://webmail.norhex.com/# [2] http://www.linkedin.com/in/perqvindesland -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20090523/39be5a4a/attachment-0004.html>
On 05/23/2009 06:22 PM, Bill Campbell wrote:> Any comments on CentOS 5 on Intel Atom CPUs? >You will find some of the Via offerings to be more 'potent' and come with h/w random and ssl accelerator support. CentOS4 and 5 work fine out of the box on anything that has cmov ( and via stuff made in the last few years all seems to do so ). Soekris is a waste of time these days, they had their reasons to exist and seem to have lost the plot recently. -- Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/ : 2522219 at icq
On Saturday 23 May 2009 02:15:54 pm Per Qvindesland wrote:> I am not so sure that I would go for something with an Atom processor > installed if it is going to be on 24/7 then I would rather if price > has to be low, look at building a machine with a p4 dual core, they > are really cheap and don't mind being on 24/7 after all Atom has half > the processing speed as a pentium m processor. > > PerPer, sorry to be so direct - but in my opinion that's a horrible recommendation because within a few months, you spent more on power than the system costs... Even with speedstep properly configured, you're going to burn a lot more power on any P4.Doing the same basic file and print services, the Atom boxes we built used around 35W average vs 140W on the P4 dual cores that they replaced. Only had one failure so far but we think that was user error - something seems to have blocked the fan because all other systems had lots of dust in it and the failed unit was perfectly clean.... Overall, the Atom boxes worked great for us. We didn't have a specific reason not to choose VIA, atom boards were just easier to find, at least when we were doing this. Can't help you with a specific model board though since we only needed a single lan port... Peter.
Hi Sure not a problem, i am never really consider power any much in a rack since there a other stuff in my racks that sucks a lot more power then a p4 dual machine :) Per E-mail: per at norhex.com [1] http://www.linkedin.com/in/perqvindesland [2] --- Original message follows --- SUBJECT:?Re: [CentOS] Intel Atom systems? FROM: ?Peter Arremann TO:?"CentOS mailing list" DATE:?23-05-2009 20:55 On Saturday 23 May 2009 02:15:54 pm Per Qvindesland wrote:> I am not so sure that I would go for something with an Atomprocessor> installed if it is going to be on 24/7 then I would rather if price > has to be low, look at building a machine with a p4 dual core, they > are really cheap and don't mind being on 24/7 after all Atom hashalf> the processing speed as a pentium m processor. >> PerPer, sorry to be so direct - but in my opinion that's a horrible recommendation because within a few months, you spent more on power than the system costs... Even with speedstep properly configured, you're going to burn a lot more power on any P4.Doing the same basic file and print services, the Atom boxes we built used around 35W average vs 140W on the P4 dual cores that they replaced. Only had one failure so far but we think that was user error - something seems to have blocked the fan because all other systems had lots of dust in it and the failed unit was perfectly clean.... Overall, the Atom boxes worked great for us. We didn't have a specific reason not to choose VIA, atom boards were just easier to find, at least when we were doing this. Can't help you with a specific model board though since we only needed a single lan port... Peter. _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS at centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos Links: ------ [1] http://webmail.norhex.com/# [2] http://www.linkedin.com/in/perqvindesland -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20090523/82ff698e/attachment-0004.html>
Bill Campbell wrote:> Any comments on CentOS 5 on Intel Atom CPUs? > > I need to build a couple of inexpensive systems that will be used > primarily as gateway/firewall systems with OpenVPN, and need > recommendations in reliable hardware platforms. These will need > two NICs.I haven't tried it, but I thought you could run openvpn on many of the small routers like the Linksys WRT54G that allow re-flashing with replacement firmware. They are probably more reliable than anything with a disk. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
-----Original Message----- From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On Behalf Of Angus MacGyver Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 5:51 PM To: CentOS mailing list Subject: Re: [CentOS] Intel Atom systems? On Mon, 2009-05-25 at 16:22 +0200, Peter Hopfgartner wrote:> >> Any comments on CentOS 5 on Intel Atom CPUs? > >> > >> I need to build a couple of inexpensive systems that will be used > >> primarily as gateway/firewall systems with OpenVPN, and need > >> recommendations in reliable hardware platforms. These will need > >> two NICs. > >> > > > > Go with Soekris, they are built for that purpose. You can even get > > an SSL accelerator card for them. Mine has a ~500Mhz AMD Geode CPU, > > 512MB ram, I added a 1GB CF card, it has 4x100Mbit NICs, it has a > > slot for a PCI device, I put a bracket with another serial port on > > there to hook to a UPS, has a USB port, and a serial port for > > console access, draws a tiny amount of power. > > > > I don't consider linux a good platform for firewall or VPN devices > > myself, I use OpenBSD, with pf. I have an OpenVPN from my soekris > > box at home to my co-located server(runs Debian), have had it hooked> > up for almost a year now, works great. I don't need the SSL > > acceleration card as my commit rate at the colo is only 1Mbit, so I > > don't want to push a lot of traffic. > > > > http://www.soekris.com/net5501.htm > > > > These things are designed from the ground up to be firewall/VPN > > appliances(low end mind you, your not gonna be pushing gigabits of > > traffic through them). The CPU on mine doesn't even have a heat > > sink. > > > > nateWRAP's are old, but I've still got one powering my firewall/VPN device, years later(WAN/LAN and DMZ), and the ALIX is a drop in replacement, and I have one of those in a NAS. Granted, you ain't gonna get multi GB throughput, same as soekris, but by goodness they are stable and reliable, zero moving parts, and as for ALIX/WRAP series, pretty neglible power requirements. Also agree with Nate, I'd choose a version of BSD for a firewall/gateway device over Linux, either FreeBSD or OpenBSD. Something new (shipping starts in june) Have a look at: http://www.fit-pc.net/fitpc-2-p-2.html or http://www.fit-pc.info/downloads/handleidingen/fit_pc_2_eng.pdf Intel Atom Z530 1,6 GHz 1 GB DDR2 onboard 1* 1000 BaseT Ethernet, RJ45 OPTION: 802,11g 6* USB 2.0 high speed ports (for additional ethernet ports) Mini SD port Either diskless or with 160GB sata Size: 115 x 101 x 27 As it new hardware, chances are minute that any flavour of *BSD will run on it for the next couple of years. You can get it with linux pre-installed. _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS at centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos ______________________________________________________________________ Dit bericht kan informatie bevatten die niet voor u is bestemd. Indien u niet de geadresseerde bent of dit bericht abusievelijk aan u is toegezonden, wordt u verzocht dat aan de afzender te melden en het bericht te verwijderen. De Staat aanvaardt geen aansprakelijkheid voor schade, van welke aard ook, die verband houdt met risico's verbonden aan het elektronisch verzenden van berichten. This message may contain information that is not intended for you. If you are not the addressee or if this message was sent to you by mistake, you are requested to inform the sender and delete the message. The State accepts no liability for damage of any kind resulting from the risks inherent in the electronic transmission of messages.