Small form-factor Setup advice

traigo · Dec 1, 2008, 8:23 PM

I'm playing around with an old PC right now for testing. I need some advice on the production hardware.
Test Hardware: AMD Athlon 1600mhz, 512mb, HDD1 30g, HDD2 20g, Onboard NIC, 2x 3C980-TX PCI

Goals for this box:
DHCP Server
VPN Server
Internet Gateway
Load Balancing, Connection Failover
Route incoming connections based on port/protocol
WAN 1: Cable 12m/4m with 2 fixed IPs
WAN 2: T1 1m/1m (split from PRI trunk) with 5 fixed IPs
LAN: 100mbps to Dell PowerConnect 3324

Hardware goals:
Small footprint
Low heat generation

I was looking at http://www.mini-box.com/Mini-Box-M300
Mainboard: Jetway NC92-N230 mini-ITX Intel Atom 1.6GHz + ICH7
Mainboard Modules: Jetway 3 x Gigabit LAN
Memory: 1g DDR2
Storage: Internal 4g USB stick (purchased separately)
DC-DC Power: picoPSU 120
AC-DC Power: 12v/5A AC-DC Power Adapter

Our internal network uses SIP phones with an Asterisk box connected to the PRI and to backup analog lines (no external VoIP)

We have ~15 remote users who use VPN as needed with heavy load early in the morning and a few working after hours.

Does this sound like it would work well? Any forseen problems? With the USB, should I choose the compact flash install to reduce disk writes? I'd like to have a 2nd 4gb USB stick that I can clone from the original after the initial setup. That, paired with a regular backup of the config would be a very fast recovery in case of failure.

Thanks in advance for any help,
Traigo

covex · Dec 1, 2008, 9:13 PM

i have this guy http://portwell.com/products/detail.asp?CUSTCHAR1=NAD-2081 in my office handling 50 ipsec tunnels used mostly for techsupport and 3-5 remote users connected. firewall, dhcp, wireless. works out of the box even with pfsense 1.2. now i'm thiking about adding a vpn encription card so i can put more load through vpn.

traigo · Dec 1, 2008, 9:26 PM

Thanks. Is it not able to handle the encryption for more than 5 users on VPN?

GruensFroeschli · Dec 1, 2008, 11:59 PM

The number of users is irrelevant.
What counts is the bandwidth you're pushing.

covex · Dec 2, 2008, 6:46 AM

@traigo:

Thanks. Is it not able to handle the encryption for more than 5 users on VPN?

it handles the current load just fine. as i said 50 3des/md5 tunnels.

marcusone · Jan 22, 2009, 6:35 PM

Did you end up getting the Mini-Box Jetway ITX PC? I'm getting one and curious what you thought of it if you did get it?