Critique my hardware config? Replacement for Alix2d3
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I'm trying to spec out some hardware as a performance upgrade from an Alix 2d3. I'm running siproxd for a number of SIP phones and found that the 500MHz Geode CPU just can not keep up. I've discovered audio problems that crop up when cronjobs are started or when accessing the web GUI. I'm hoping that a more powerful dual-core CPU will prevent this from happening. I need to keep the cost about the same as the Alix 2d3 with case and power supply, about $200. Here's the hardware I'm looking at now:
In Win case and power supply - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108412
Intel D2500HN motherbooard w/Atom CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121705
Crucial 1GB RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148195
Syba CF to SATA adapter - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186099
Kingston 4GB CF card - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134514A single NIC is sufficient for my application since I will be breaking out VLANs through a switch. From what I can tell the NIC on this board (Intel 82574L) seems to be pretty well supported in pfSense 2.0. I'd appreciate any thoughts or critique of this hardware list, or experiences from someone in a similar situation.
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I own that CF card, it won't get close to USB 2.0 speeds even driven ATA on SATA. While its tempting to get a better CF card, perhaps a USB stick, even in a USB 2.0 port would be better?
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I own that CF card, it won't get close to USB 2.0 speeds even driven ATA on SATA.
Thanks, that's interesting. I'm not too concerned about disk speed since I'll be running an embedded image but it's something to consider. I suppose a USB stick, if I can figure out a way to mount it inside the case, would work just as well and maybe be a bit cheaper.
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Its easier with solaris, but I know of several storage appliances that boot from zfs mirrors of three usb sticks.
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If you are running the NanoBSD images the speed of the boot media makes almost no difference. It will reduce the boot time slightly if you have a fast USB stick. After that it runs almost entirely from ram anyway.
Steve
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it runs almost entirely from ram anyway.
true, but logs for system, firewall, http, ntp, dhcp, syslog and rrdtool do enough writes that one should at least think about it. although a mirror will be as slow as the slowest stick, so I guess the three are more for insurance from cheap sticks. hmm, with pfsense there are plenty of sata ports unlike a storage appliance. hmm, never mind, dumb idea.
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true, but logs for system, firewall, http, ntp, dhcp, syslog and rrdtool do enough writes that one should at least think about it.
In Nano all those things are written to a RAM drive only with the exception of RRD data but even that only writes out to the flash periodically. Logging to flash directly would use up it's limited write cycles too quickly.
No such thing as a dumb idea. ;) It's just not really necessary in this case.Steve
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I can't figure out how to edit my previous post (if that's even possible) so I'm posting a followup on my experience with this hardware so far.
The only real problem I've had with this configuration so far was with the CF card. I couldn't get the machine to boot off this card no matter what I did. I ended up swapping it out with a Kingston "Elite Pro 133x" card that I had lying around and it booted right up off of that. From what I can tell I think it may be due to lack of DMA functionality on the cheaper card but I'm not 100% sure. FWIW I was also able to boot the system from a USB stick with no issues.
2.0 seems to run fine, except for some weird video issues that were documented in another post on the Intel D2500CC, which is a similar board. 2.1 runs fine and the video issues seem to be fixed on that build. I haven't done extensive testing yet but VLAN tagging seems to work fine on the onboard NIC.
One annoyance with this board is that the serial port on the back is actually COM2, while COM1 is simply a header on the board. This does not seem to be adjustable through the BIOS. If you want to access COM1 with a DB9 null modem cable you'll need an adapter like this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815158115. The problem is that there's no place on the case to install this, so you basically have to take it apart to access the serial port.
Another annoyance is that this case does not have a built-in power button or status LEDs. If I had read the NewEgg reviews more closely I would have found out that these are handled by a wired remote that sits outside the case. Not really ideal for an appliance like this, but it's great if you're trying to build something that can VESA mount to the back of a monitor. The BIOS can be configure to boot automatically when power is applied, so it's not a huge deal once you've got it set up, but the lack of even a power LED on the case is not ideal for this application.
I'll post back when I have some more data on how pfSense is working.
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Some more of my experiences with this hardware.
2.1 seems to run fine. No real problems discovered yet in our usage. A co-worker figured out how to get the rear serial port working as the default console (basically swapping COM1 and COM2), which makes this board a lot more useful for us.
- Disable acpi for physical console ports:
echo 'debug.acpi.avoid="\_SB_.PCI0.SBRG.UAR1 \_SB_.PCI0.SBRG.UAR2"' > /boot/loader.conf.local- Swap the hardware addresses for uart.0 and uart.1 in /boot/device.hints.
The original entries for uart in /boot/devices.hints will look like this:
hint.uart.0.at="isa" hint.uart.0.port="0x3F8" hint.uart.0.flags="0x10" hint.uart.0.irq="4" hint.uart.1.at="isa" hint.uart.1.port="0x2F8" hint.uart.1.irq="3"Modify them so that they look like this:
hint.uart.0.at="isa" hint.uart.0.port="0x2F8" hint.uart.0.flags="0x10" hint.uart.0.irq="3" hint.uart.1.at="isa" hint.uart.1.port="0x3F8" hint.uart.1.irq="4"
