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Frank Steinmetzger wrote: |
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> Am Mon, Aug 29, 2022 at 12:49:56AM -0500 schrieb Dale: |
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> |
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>>> I run a raspi with some basic services, most importantly a pihole DNS filter |
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>>> and a PIM server. But I find it hacky-patchy with its flimsy USB power cable |
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>>> poking out of the side. I’d prefer a more sturdy construction, which is why |
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>>> I bought a NAS-style PC (zotac zbox nano with a passive 6 W Celeron). But |
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>>> that thing is so fast for every-day computing that I actually put a KDE |
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>>> system on it and now I don’t want to “downgrade” it to a mere server. |
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>> I googled that little guy and that is a pretty neat little machine. |
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>> Basically it is a tiny puter but really tiny, just not tiny on |
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>> features. The Zotac systems, even some older ones, are pretty nifty. I |
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>> think I read they have a ITX mobo which is really compact. |
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> ITX (or rather miniITX) is 17×17 cm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-ITX |
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> Those NUC-types are much smaller. I don’t quite know whether that board form |
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> factor has a name of its own (aside from NUC, but that’s a marketing name |
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> from Intel). |
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> |
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>> It sort of reminds me of a cell phone. Small but fast CPUs, some even |
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>> have decent amounts of ram so they can handle quite a lot. Never heard of |
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>> this thing before. I wouldn't mind having one of those to work as my |
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>> OpenVPN server thingy. I'd just need to find one that has 2 ethernet |
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>> ports and designed for that sort of task. |
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> Many of the ZBoxes have dual NICs, which is what makes them very popular |
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> among server and firewall hackers because they are also very frugal. My |
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> particular model is the CI331: |
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> https://www.zotac.com/us/product/mini_pcs/zbox-ci331-nano-barebone |
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> It has one 2,5″ slot and one undocumented SATA M.2 which can only be reached |
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> by breaking the warranty seal. That’s where zotac installs a drive if you |
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> buy a zbox with Winblows pre-installed. |
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> |
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> After updating the BIOS, which allowed the CPU to enter lower C states, it |
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> draws 6 W on idle. It’s not a record, but still not so much for a 24/7 x86 |
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> system. |
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|
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I was looking for one with two ethernet ports but wasn't having any luck |
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yet. I did find and download like a catalog thing but it will take a |
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while to dig through it. They have a lot of models for different |
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purposes. I did see a pre-made thing on ebay but can't recall the brand |
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that cost hundreds that was made just for VPNs and such. It was really |
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pricey tho. But, you plug it in, boot it up and it had evrything |
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installed and then some to control networks traffic. It had stuff I |
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never heard of. |
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|
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I notice that several are made for home theater devices. That's pretty |
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neat too. |
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|
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>>>> I have a old computer that I might could use. It is 4 core something |
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>>>> and I think it has 4GBs of memory, maxed out. I think it will perform |
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>>>> well enough but wish it had a little more horses in it. |
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>>> An Intel Celeron from the Haswell generation (i.e. 8+ years old) did not |
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>>> have AES-NI yet, and it reached around 160 MB/s encryption speed. I tried |
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>>> it, because I had dealings with those processors in the past before I built |
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>>> my own NAS. Your old tech may still be usable, but please also consider |
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>>> power cost and its impact on the environment if it runs 24/7. |
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>> I'm not real sure what that old machine has. I have Linux, can't recall |
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>> the distro tho, on it. Is there a way to find out if it supports the |
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>> needed things? |
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> cat /proc/cpuinfo and look for aes or the like. Or enter the processor name |
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> into wikipedia, which will redirect you to the “List of processors by |
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> <Manufacturer>” with huge tables of comparision and general info on an |
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> architecture’s improvements over its predecessor, like AES. |
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|
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I have booted that old thing up and I grepped cpuinfo and no AES that I |
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could see or grep could find. Must be before it's time. |
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While I had it booted up, I checked into what all it did have. It only |
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has 4 SATA ports, one already used for the OS hard drive. I could |
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likely run it from a USB stick which would make all 4 available. It has |
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8GBs of memory too. CPU is a AMD Phenom 9750 Quad running at 2.4GHz. I |
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found it add that cpuinfo showed a different speed I think. I'll check |
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it again later. Maybe I misread it. It's not a speedster or anything |
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but I may can do something with it. It also has two old PCI slots and |
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one that I'm pretty sure is a PCIex16 for like a video card but it has a |
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built in one already. To add more SATA ports, I'd have to use the |
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faster slot really made for video cards. Guess it would work but. |
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Also, it only has a 100MB ethernet port. Fairly slow but I'm not going |
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to expect a lot of hard drive speed either. |
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>>>> I may use actual NAS software too. |
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>>> What is “actual NAS software”? Do you mean a NAS distribution? From my |
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>>> understanding, those distros install the usual services (samba, ftp, etc.) |
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>>> and develop a nice web frontend for it. But since those are web |
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>>> applications, there isn’t much to be gained from march=native. |
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>> I've seen TrueNAS, OpenNas I think and others. Plus some just use |
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>> Ubuntu or something. Honestly, almost any linux distro with no or a |
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>> minimal GUI would work. |
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> OK, but then you don’t run those on Gentoo. And those NAS distros are so |
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> small and light-weight, they can be run from a USB stick if you so choose. |
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> My NAS’s mainboard has a USB-A socket on-board for that reason. |
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I downloaded several but plan to look at FreeNAS first. Just see what |
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it looks like. Pretty sure it is BSD based. |
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>>>> I'm sure Gentoo would work to with proper tweaking but then I need to |
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>>>> deal with compiling things. Of course, no libreoffice or anything big so |
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>>>> it may not be to bad. Thing is, the NAS software will likely be more |
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>>>> efficient since it is designed for the purpose. |
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>>> More efficient than what? |
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|
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Bigger system with lots of software running and using even more power, |
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some of which may not even be needed. |
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>> I figure something like OpenNAS or TrueNAS would work better as it is |
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>> built to be user friendly and has tools by default to manage things. |
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> Yeah, I was thinking of using one of those, too. But I liked the idea of |
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> being more flexible with some ZFS voodoo which the web interfaces won’t |
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> allow. Like creating a downgraded pool because I don’t have enough HDDs, filling |
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> that up and adding the missing disk later. Sometimes I wish for the bigger |
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> ease of use of a web interface. |
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> |
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>> I'm pretty sure they support RAID and such by default. It is likely set |
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>> up to make setting it up easier too. |
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> They do, naturally. And yes, the frontends hide lots of the gory details. |
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> |
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That's my thinking since RAID, ZFS and such are new to me. Of course, |
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front ends do take away a lot of fine controls too, usually. |
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|
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Dale |
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:-) :-) |