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Just ordered 2 personal servers for $433

I fear my 5+ year old server is on it's death bed. Long story short, it locked up for the first time ever yesterday, and it took multiple tries, POST failures, and loading the bios defaults to get it to boot.

Current server does these tasks and more: dns hosting, e-mail server, firewall, dhcp, smb file sharing, printer server, security cam server, MythTV media center server, movie/music/tv show repository, etc. etc. etc.

I'm going to replace this with 2 servers and split the tasks. Ok, so maybe "servers" is a bit of a stretch. I decided to seriously cheap out and cut my electricity use so I ordered 2 nettop (book size mini) computers. The first is designed to be a firewall type appliance. Dual 1G nics, Atom processor, 2G ram, 64G SSD drive - this will take over firewall, dns, e-mail, dhcp type tasks. The second is a Celeron 857 based netbook, 2G ram, 64G SDD, single 1G nic - it gets the rest of the server duties.

I was worried a netbook wouldn't have enough grunt for my media server, then I compared the CPUs offered in netbooks to my existing server which has never had performance issues and found the Celeron 857 is almost identical.

The next question, just leave them as 2 servers with separate functions? Set them up so I can manually start stuff up if one dies? Maybe go all out with a HA cluster?
 
nerd alert
Correct sub forum right? I KNEW you'd reply, but honestly I was expecting you to chastise me for using cheap-ass garbage for servers.

There are more than enough nerd/geek types on this board. I was hoping you all would get in a discussion about high availability and such so I could read through and possibly get some ideas. I added the geek details to avoid "what are you using them for, what are their specs" type questions.

Now, quit being a buzzkill, let your inner professional nerd out, and throw out some ideas.

Forgot to mention, these will be running linux.
 

wct097

NPD Club President 2021-2022
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I'm a big fan of Nettop type of machines. Have one set up as a server that I use almost daily, and another as a garage desktop for listening to Pandora in the garage. I think I figured that I saved $25-45 a month in electricity using them over a pair of old Dell rackmounts that I got when they were decommissioned at work.

edit: To answer the question at hand, I'd probably just set them up for their individual intended uses. Especially with SSDs, they'll probably last for years.
 
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DieselSJ

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Why not just 1 box and load Hyper-V host and run the servers as virtual machines? Did that at work and I must say that I am quite happy with it.
 

wct097

NPD Club President 2021-2022
Staff member
Super Moderator
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Why not just 1 box and load Hyper-V host and run the servers as virtual machines? Did that at work and I must say that I am quite happy with it.
In my case, that's exactly what I was doing. A Dell Poweredge rackmount draws a ton of power with dual 500w power supplies and fans running full blast.
 
Why not just 1 box and load Hyper-V host and run the servers as virtual machines? Did that at work and I must say that I am quite happy with it.
For me I'd be using something like Xen, not Hyper-V. I have very little concerns about OS reliability, it's hardware failures that get me. With this in mind I came up with 3 options -

1) buy another desktop, possibly use raid, set it up like the old one or virtualize it, and hope I don't run into hardware failures. Cheapest option initially, especially if I used a nettop. Ongoing electricity costs would depend on what I bought, but again a single nettop would be cheapest.

2) buy server class hardware, dual power supply, raid disks, Xen, etc. Too expensive, both initial purchase and ongoing power bills. Best option for a business, but for personal use where downtime is measured in hassle not $$ it just doesn't make sense.

3) buy 2 dirt cheap nettop boxes, split the functions. More flexible than a single box, not much more expensive in the long run than a single box (the firewall appliance type box was under $200 and should be very low electric use), and opens up the possibility of some kind of manual or automatic fail-over.
 

DieselSJ

Staff member
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For me I'd be using something like Xen, not Hyper-V. I have very little concerns about OS reliability, it's hardware failures that get me. With this in mind I came up with 3 options -

1) buy another desktop, possibly use raid, set it up like the old one or virtualize it, and hope I don't run into hardware failures. Cheapest option initially, especially if I used a nettop. Ongoing electricity costs would depend on what I bought, but again a single nettop would be cheapest.

2) buy server class hardware, dual power supply, raid disks, Xen, etc. Too expensive, both initial purchase and ongoing power bills. Best option for a business, but for personal use where downtime is measured in hassle not $$ it just doesn't make sense.

3) buy 2 dirt cheap nettop boxes, split the functions. More flexible than a single box, not much more expensive in the long run than a single box (the firewall appliance type box was under $200 and should be very low electric use), and opens up the possibility of some kind of manual or automatic fail-over.
Very nice. :tiphat:
 

Justin

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Except for this post and the first one.... Come on, you know you are dying to poo-poo all over the idea of using cheap crappy netboxs for "server" duties.
No, not really. I don't nerd out at home like you would think. I get to play enough at work that I just don't gaf at home. I have one desktop at home and a core2duo Untangle router box. :shrug:

All I have to say is that 1 SSD will replace any need for RAID on the machines you are describing.
 
No, not really. I don't nerd out at home like you would think. I get to play enough at work that I just don't gaf at home. I have one desktop at home and a core2duo Untangle router box. :shrug:
Ok then... If nothing else, you should look into some kind of media center. If I didn't care about keeping my personal e-mail address that I've been using since the late 90's, the media center/security cam would be the only thing I used a server for. Call it geeking out if you will, but it's just nice to be able to sit in front of any TV in my house, pick up a remote control, and have access to live TV, recorded TV, my entire movie collection, hulu, all my music, security cam live view and recorded events, weather forecasts, etc.
All I have to say is that 1 SSD will replace any need for RAID on the machines you are describing.
Agreed. Splitting out to two servers is more for convenience. I can upgrade my media center, reboot it, install it from scratch if I decide to change to something else, etc. all without bringing down the internal connection to the Internet. This latest hiccup (server seems to be fine again), has reminded me that hardware fails, so the thought of being able to run everything on either of the new netboxs is fresh in my mind. In all probability, I'll never do anything. Especially since there have been zero suggestions or ideas.
 
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