Intel Mini-ITX Atom 8-core Hardware Build Recipe Available Here

robi

@robi:

I'm using two of the c2758 boards with CF-to-SATA adapters running from 4GB CF cards the NanoBSD version.
Much better than the SSD, imho.

Why CF to sata? why not just get a decent USB key and plug it directly into the internal USB port.

Define "decent" ;)

CF technology is used by far more often in professional environments, it proved during the years to be a reliable choice in many industrial areas.
USB sticks are more for home use. I don't really trust them. At least, I couldn't find any reference of any USB stick to be "industrial grade" used as bootable device (booting USB stick is often a "hack", rather than an officially supported mechanism, it's heavily dependent on motherboard BIOS implementation, while booding from PATA/SATA is a standard)

Also, I installed a special CF-to-SATA adapter which has an opening on the case, thus allows me to replace the CF card if needed, without having to remove the device from the rack and open it.

But, nevertheless, imaging a 4GB USB stick with the NanoBSD image, and booting from it, works with this motherboard (I tested it successfully with a Verbatim USB stick. Installing packages was slower on the same machine than when using with CF-to-SATA and a CF card).

dopey

Good point. I'm having a hard time trying to find an enterprise ready USB stick, or even a USB stick that documents it's load levelling algorithm and lifespan.

I think I'll stick with the grossly overkill 120gb ssd :)

pfcode

I'm having a hard time to find the fan control/speed settings in BIOS for my PWM fan. BTW, Does anybody know where to order a 20pin male to 24pin male power supply cable (at least 1ft long)?

redpine

Standard 10mm long fan screws should work. They're the "fat" looking screws:
Something like this should work:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Computer-Case-Screws-Pack/dp/B00785I5ZM

These were slightly too large for the fans I bought. Ended up going to home depot and buying half inch #6 screws. Works real good. These fans are real quite.

trumee

@redpine:

Standard 10mm long fan screws should work. They're the "fat" looking screws:
Something like this should work:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Computer-Case-Screws-Pack/dp/B00785I5ZM

These were slightly too large for the fans I bought. Ended up going to home depot and buying half inch #6 screws. Works real good. These fans are real quite.

What fans are you using?

redpine

What fans are you using?

Found them on ebay. 40x40x10 4pin fans. Everflow is the brand. Shipped from Hong Kong. Beat my SSD from California.

dopey

In case anyone is curious:
CPU Temp Normal 25 degrees C
System Temp Normal 31 degrees C
Peripheral Temp Normal 31 degrees C
DIMMA1 Temp Normal 30 degrees C

Ambient temp is 22-24C

This is with two fans on the top blowing in
and a fan on the front blowing out.
All three are 40mmx10mm top motor fans purchased from mini-box.com

I should note, it's pretty noisy. But my furnace is less than 10' away in the same room :) So yeah, the noise is nothing.

@redpine:

It's an open air case, so it's best to have all fans blowing inward. Closed air boxes have a design for how air moves, so usually you blow air from one side and suck it out the other side. Open air have no path for moving air since air can come and go anywhere. Best to have them all blowing inward. Outward facing fans will suck air from the side and not move much from inside.

That's a good point, but on the other hand, the case is so small that you can feel air flow from all of the perforated vents in just about any configuration, so unless you're running a CPU at the edge of it's thermal tolerance, it's probably not going to make a difference :)

I mean if you look above, the CPU temp is pretty close to ambient air temp.

Downloadski

Thanks for the good information in this thread.
Last time i tried to invent the wheel myself and did not want to do that again.

I ordered:
supermicro MBD-A1SRI-2758F-O
2 x samsung M474B1G73QH0-YK0 (8 GB SoDIMM from approved list)
M350 mini-ITX case
M350 Wall Mounting Bracket
M350-HDD Bracket
Mini-Fit-JR Adapter
3x Evercool EC4015SH12BP
still have a samsung MZ7WD240HCFV-00003 240 GB SSD left over from my tests with windows storage spaces (that sucked hard)

Still need a 12 volt mini din power brick.

I looked at the 80 watt seasonic SSA-0901-12 http://www.seasonicusa.com/adapter-80W.htm
i have 5 supermicro boards running on Seasonic PSU and no issues till now, so seems good idea to stay with the combination.

I read however that more person choose a 192 Watt brick.

Is 80 Watt not enough ? (i read killawatt results from 17-20 watt running in the thread and i guess there is no spinup power for SSD needed ;D )

SSD is 3.0 Watt max
Fans few watts each (0.26 Amp on 12 volts will be 3.12 watt)

Edit: ordered the 192 watt brick from the German shop that delivers the mini box items.
The seasonic image was misleading, no 4-port mini din is possible with them accoring to the eu support i asked.

redpine

Got this system up and running. Added an UPS to it and it's all hanging on a wall in my garage, keeping unfriendlies out of my house. This system uses very little resources and blocks a considerable amount of traffic.

My biggest problem was I got way laid trying out using KVM on the box. I had so many problems with KVM, from traffic not making it out the gateway to occasionally not even routing inside the LAN. I had everything working in an isolated environment, but then when I moved to connect to the WAN, I had so many problems that after a day of fiddling, I reinstalled pfSense on bare metal and everything was up and working in 10 minutes.

Great little box.

Sir Loin

Very good to see the thread is still alive. Glad the information has been helpful for so many people.

For me, I am still running 2.2.2. I have been afraid of upgrading to 2.2.4. Has anyone upgraded your box from 2.2.2. to 2.2.4? Did you do anything to prepare for a fail upgrade? Did the upgrade go smoothly for you?

Thanks.

divsys

I've done a few 2.2.2 -> 2.2.4 without issue.
Only thing "special" was to make sure I had a backup config.xml just in case.
The only other caveat from me: all my systems are HD installs, no CF.

C'mon, what could go wrong? ;)

For me, I am still running 2.2.2.

On what you are running 2.2.2? CFCard, CFast card, mSATA, HDD or SDD or…...

Are you able to install it once more again and then try it out for sure!
Are you using LAG (LACP) or IPSec VPN?

Backup Config.xml
Backup all your scripts
create a separate loader.conf.local file for custom things like boot options, or special entries

Sir Loin

I am running 2.2.2 on an SSD. I don't have any scripts. So backing up config.xml would be it, I suppose. There are a few users on my network that there isn't really a good time to do the update. May be I will try it this weekend. I would hate to go back to the old Asus router if the upgrade goes up in flames :-)

sujyo1

Here I am about to build my pf on 1u. For Max user load is 300 wireless clients no vpn clients. willing to use squid/sarg when it works.
Please advise what else should I need in this box….

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPERMICRO-SYS-5018A-FTN4-1U-Rackmount-Server-Barebone-FCBGA-1283-DDR3-1600-1333-/301380755396?hash=item462bb15fc4

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239958

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820173071

Thanks

Sir Loin

Looks like the 5018A-FTN4 has the power supply and power cables you need. With the RAM and SSD you linked, the only thing I can think of is more fans if it runs too warm. 300 clients are not concurrent max, right?

sujyo1

Thanks for reply Sir Lion…
Right now about 150-175 clients. If their is +300 then this fan http://www.directron.com/ec4015sh12bp.html should work as you mention here. Do I need longer cable for this fan? I think this box already has 1 fan as shown in pic.

Sir Loin

I don't mean that if you have a lot of concurrent users you need another fan. I mean it looks like you have everything you need and the only thing I can think of is you could add more fans. I asked about your max concurrent users number only because I am not sure if this server could handle this many concurrent connections and traffic (depends on what they do). We will need feedback from someone with more experience on pfSense to tell us.

sujyo1

That's make sense…I can't find anywhere how many normal (no vpn/no gaming) concurrent clients this Atom 8-core box can handle... here my set up would be...

From ISP CABLE MODEM

WAN---Pfsense (Squid, Sarg, Corn etc packges)

LAN----SWITCH----5 Hard Wire Computers/DVR/TV...etc

OPT1---SWITCH ----10 Access Points----300 max Wireless Clients

OPT2---Future WAN2

Hope some one will help....Thanks

That's make sense…I can't find anywhere how many normal (no vpn/no gaming) concurrent clients this Atom 8-core box can handle...

This would depending on many other things and not only on the 8 Core "Rangeley" SoC alone!

structured network
VLANs & QoS
used switches (L2/3) and there performance

From ISP CABLE MODEM

Ok

WAN–-Pfsense (Squid, Sarg, Corn etc packges)

ect packages I really mean is one of the points that should be known right to come closer
because Squid & SquidGuard & Snort will be narrow down the performance of the entire pfSense box.
Or perhaps massively DPI tasks on Layer 7 are hard core narrow down the power of the SoC.

/DVR/TV…etc

Set up a DMZ with a Layer2 Switch and store these multimedia things there that the network will not be disturbed by those devices. Cisco SG200-10/20 would be right.

LAN–--SWITCH----5 Hard Wire Computers

VLAN10 privat

OPT1–-SWITCH ----10 Access Points----300 max Wireless Clients

VLAN20 WLAN, Perhaps a separate switch likes a Cisco SG300-20/28 that is able to route the VLANs by its own?
Its to offload this from the pfSense box!

Also the VLAN10 and VLAN20 are able to run then over one bigger Layer3 Switch as mentioned
perhaps a Cisco SG300 series switch with an viewing eyes for the OPT2 as WAN2!

OPT2–-Future WAN2

Why not!

10 Access Points–--300 max Wireless Clients

What WLAN APs are installed here and is this by a WLAN controller regulated and handled WLAN or not?
If the WiFi clients are only surfing, mailing or facebook using it would be not the problem,
but if they are watching YouTube or downloading massively files it would be really slow down.

sujyo1

Thanks for detail advise Bluekobold,

ect packages I really mean is one of the points that should be known right to come closer
because Squid & SquidGuard & Snort will be narrow down the performance of the entire pfSense box.
Or perhaps massively DPI tasks on Layer 7 are hard core narrow down the power of the SoC.

WAN set to DHCP. willing to use this new box for hotel. I have to keep logs of visited urls so I need only squid/sarg & still trying to make it work since 2 years in my other pf boxes (HP Thinclient 5740 for 30 to 50 clients) but never works properly. so as of now not using squid. Do not need Snort or other cup/mem hungry packages.

Set up a DMZ with a Layer2 Switch and store these multimedia things there that the network will not be disturbed by those devices. Cisco SG200-10/20 would be right.

VLAN10 privat

VLAN20 WLAN, Perhaps a separate switch likes a Cisco SG300-20/28 that is able to route the VLANs by its own?
Its to offload this from the pfSense box!

Also the VLAN10 and VLAN20 are able to run then over one bigger Layer3 Switch as mentioned
perhaps a Cisco SG300 series switch with an viewing eyes for the OPT2 as WAN2!

you are absolutely right, but in my case Due to remote site setup if switch fails VLANs config is problem, using regular GB switchs are just plug and play. Also I never use VLANs & Managed switches.

What WLAN APs are installed here and is this by a WLAN controller regulated and handled WLAN or not?
If the WiFi clients are only surfing, mailing or facebook using it would be not the problem,
but if they are watching YouTube or downloading massively files it would be really slow down.

On OPT1 (HOTSPOT 10.10.10.1/24) using engenius-600/360 APs with static IP 10.10.10.3 to 15 no dhcp. Keep few pre config APs as standby unit at location just in case any AP fail to replace with. all APs are hard wire from/to switch no POE used. Not using WLAN controller at all. pf is handling dhcp leases for all. pf rules & allias on OPT1 are controlling unwanted access to LAN & OPT2 well. Yes, there are youtube users so as of now using captiveportal.inc to control bandwidths for all users. Do not know how to share available bandwidth equally to all when network is busy. Hoping this box will do the job.

Thanks for your help