Possible Vendors…

gte451f

I'm looking for a high availablity machine to host pfSense. We don't need much, just a fast and flexible firewall/vpn/dhcp/dns with multiple NICS. Do I need a raid hard drive or compact flash? Or should I buy two cheap machines for failover?

What do you guys think of these machines?

http://www.abmx.com/1u-entrylevel-mini-server-p-319.html

http://www.asaservers.com/config.asp?config_id=V112

GruensFroeschli

Here are the recommended vendors:
http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=50

wallabybob

What bandwidth through the box?

VPNs?

What failover? e.g a hot standby you can manually rewire, automatic failover if unattended or something in between?

What do you think is most likely to fail? Power supply? Air con?

How many NICs? (It looks as if both those boxes have only a single PCI slot so you would be limited to 4 or 5 NICs because I don't know of any PCI cards with more than 4 NICs.)

What would you be looking to store on the box? Web cache?

gte451f

We're looking at supporting 20 road warrior VPN users and 4 site to site VPNS.
I'll order two for a hot standby.
Rack mounted in an indepentenly cooled server room.
We need 5 or greater NICS

I've really zeroed in on this particular model even after looking at the hacom line. It has great features and a great price. I'm still unsure about the mother board though.

http://www.abmx.com/1u-miniserver-with-gigabit-lan-p-362.html

1U Mini-Server with 4 x Gigabit LAN
ABMX Part # 114S7-4

Color Black
Processor Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 (2.5GHz, 2MB, 800MHz FSB, 65W TDP, Energy-efficient)
Memory 1GB (1 x 1GB) DDR2 SDRAM
Chassis Upgrade Standard Chassis (2 x HDD Bays)
Hard Drive 80GB SATA (7.2K rpm, 8MB Cache, 3.0Gb/s)
2nd Hard Drive (if compatible with Chassis Upgrade Option) Vacant
External Optical Drive (for OS installation, Backups, etc.) None
External Floppy Drive (for Windows RAID configuration, etc.) None
PCI Expansion Slot (Req. Riser Card) Additional Network Adapter (Intel, 10/100/1000 Mbps, with RR1U-X Riser)
Remote Management None
Rack Mounting Sliding Rails Kit 1U PT08 Sliding Rails Kit, 24-inch (41-inch extended)
What Operating System do you plan on using? BSD Unix (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc.)
Operating System Bit Version 32-bit
Pre-installed** Operating System FreeBSD 6.3 - OS QA install, standard config, no CDs
** Windows Installation (w/ Microsoft Windows purchase only) No Windows installation required (Arbitrary test OS will remain for QA)
Extended service plan 1 Year Limited Warranty, Return to Depot, Parts & Labor