Re: [gentoo-user] Rasp-Pi-4 Gentoo servers

[james]

On 2/27/20 4:49 PM, Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 27, 2020 at 4:25 PM james <garftd@×××××××.net> wrote:
>>
>> Yea, I was not clear. I'd run the mail-server, on a 'cluster' (4 or
>> more), not an individual pi-board unless it was beef up, processor and
>> ram wise. Gig E would also be on my list.
>>
>
> Unless you have some niche need I wouldn't generally run servers on
> Pis.  The biggest issue with ARM is that all the cheap platforms are
> starved for RAM, and RAM is one of the biggest issues when running
> services.  And of course the Pi in particular has IO issues (as do
> many other cheap SBCs but this is less of an ARM issue).  The RAM
> issue isn't so many an ARM issue as a supply/demand thing - the only
> people asking for 64GB ARM boards are big companies that are willing
> to pay a lot for them.
>
> I do actually run a few services on Pis - DNS, DHCP, and a VPN
> gateway.  That's about it.  These are fairly non-demanding tasks that
> the hardware doesn't struggle with, and the data is almost entirely
> static so an occasional backup makes any kind of recovery trivial.
> The only reason I run these services on Pis is that they are fairly
> fundamental to having a working network.  Most of my services are
> running in containers on a server, but I don't want to have to think
> about taking a server down for maintenance and then literally every
> IOT device in the house won't work.  These particular services are
> also basically dependency-free which means I can just boot them up and
> they just do their jobs, while they remain a dependency for just about
> everything else on the network.  When you start running DHCP in a
> container you have more complex dependency issues.
>
> A fairly cheap amd64 system can run a ton of services in containers
> though, and it is way simpler to maintain that way.  I still get quick
> access to snapshots/etc, but now if I want to run a gentoo container
> it is no big deal if 99% of the time it uses 25MB of RAM and 1% of one
> core, but once a month it needs 4GB of RAM and 100% of 6 cores.  As
> long as I'm not doing an emerge -u world on half a dozen containers at
> once it is no big deal at all.
>
> Now, if I needed some server in some niche application that needed to
> be able to operate off of a car battery for a few days, then sure I'd
> be looking at Pis and so on.


Exactly. It's going to be a small RV, basically a 4x4 with a 
campershell. 2 Laptops with AMD64 and ram, the newest ones, are the 
powerhouses. One multicore with Radeon Graphics with a stand for 4x32" 
4K 120MHZ screens to be mounted on the 1/2 table in front of the bench 
seat (my new mobile office).  I'm hoping to get gcc-9 (10?) happy with 
auto-compiling using the AMD graphics (radeon chipsets). And a plethora 
of small embedded boards for a wide variety of toy-interfaces.....


Biggest problem?  The arrival of the new roof mounted, 12VDC 21 SEER AC 
is delayed, due to that virus. Trying not to crank a genset, just solar, 
and fast-charge 12VDC battery banks; but we'll see how that goes in the 
Texas summer. I'm going to map out some 5G hot-spots and encourage folks 
in the areas to jump on a gentoo (derivative?) OS. The greater Dallas 
area is a hotbed for 5G testing and development. Austin is on fire with 
tons of new technologies too. Texas is pumping serious monies into 
everything 5G. It'll be an addon package for guys with tractors......


Making all of this fun and easy with Gentoo, should help grow our 
distro. The Texas Universities are moving to a new multi-homed private 
fiber network, where each link is 100G fiber based. So every campus in 
Texas, will soon be hotbeds for 5G R&D and play. Since the state of 
Texas has many 5G chip manufactures and many custom Rf shops, it's gonna 
be the worlds hotspot for 5G, imho. There's talk of Texas sharing this 
100G multi-route network with Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi; a 
brilliant move imho. Gentoo could 'own' Texas, with just a wee bit of
effort. IBM taking over CoreOS(new version of RedHat) is leaving a very 
foul taste in many circles.....


5G + gentoo + embedded toys, is going to be FUN FUN FUN.


Then I'll be off to other states, via a hacked out Redneck camper...... 
and too many microProcessors....


Thanks Rich, your insights and comments are always most welcome.


James