Replacing a Personal Rack-Mounted Server? 108
Starky writes "Many moons ago, I cobbled together a 1U rack mount from parts which has since been diligently serving up my homepage and web sites for family and friends. It's a truly "Mom and Pop Shop" setup, running on a rack secluded in a closet at home over a DSL line. At the time, I was able to piggyback my order on a large order placed by a company for which I was working, allowing me to get a substantial discount.
Now, the time has come to consider a replacement. However, I no longer work at a company that orders chassis and chips by the dozen. I would like to get a rack-mountable chassis, but don't know where to go as a lowly individual consumer looking for a box with minimal specifications (1 processor, dual drives, and 1G RAM is about all I need) at a reasonable price.
Any recommendation from Slashdotters who maintain their own rigs?"
Are your needs that great (Score:1)
Granted, my home server isn't rackmounted (exactly because I don't know where to get the rack, etc...), but it runs OpenBSD and currently uses a whopping 31Meg RAM. It does routing/firewalling, DHCP server, NTP server, Samba Server, DNS server (not forwarding, but a full one), email server, webserver including a webmail interfact, IMAP and I'm most likely skipping some stuff.
It's only a P-III 800MHz with 768Meg (my old desktop) and I have playroom if you consider the load average: 0.32, 0.19, 0.12
Hey, bu
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As the previous poster mentioned, if you don't need a lot of power, the D-Link DNS323 [dns323.info] with two SATA drives might fit the bill. I just got one and put in two 500GB drives. So far, it is doing a good job replacing my home server for file serving, web serving, email, dns, dhcp, and rtorrent.
It cost about $300 ($160 for the unit, 2 x $70 for the drives on sale). The big payoff is that it uses (well, supposed to use since I haven't
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For exatly those reasons, and the fact that we don't have a basement, so the machine makes noise in our office room, I want to go Soekris [soekris.com]. Small, silent, power efficient. It's a bit more expensive than your solution though...
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Re:Are your needs that great (Score:4, Informative)
Even after paying shipping and picking up a could of larger hard drives, I don't think I could have build a similar system any cheaper. One is my mail/web server and the other is an internal domain controller and file server.
They don't come with rails, so they're sitting on shelves in my rack rather than actually installed but I can live with that.
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My home file/mail server is a P233, and if anything it's overpowered for the job.
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He could still get the basics like the chassis, power supply and maybe with a backplane for SCSI drives so they would be hot swappable. The rest of it, I would think he would want new stuff. Most ATX and extended ATX form factor main boards will work in a 1 us chassis. For a limited volume serv
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I think knowing why the existing equipment is no longer good enough is actually very good information to have when recommending a replacement.
Reuse the chassis (Score:5, Informative)
Consider the Geode (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Consider the Geode or a Via C7 (Score:4, Informative)
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www.plinkusa.net
They have about the dirt cheapest bare rackmount chassis and accessories that I have run across.
ft
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You could also try some of the lower-end Supermicro Chassis:
(SuperMicro SC512 - roughly $80) [provantage.com]
Rackmount chassis, in my experience, only get really expensive if deep (requiring more oomph from the rail kits) or have hotswap bits.
Shop around (Score:2)
You can get a low cost dell server for cheap, 1u or even cheaper if you go with a low end desk-side server.
Why do you need a rack mount? Seems like for a home server a quiet desk-side server would be easier to keep cool and quiet, and more space conservative.
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You can get a low cost dell server for cheap, 1u or even cheaper if you go with a low end desk-side server.
I'm going to have to second this. As much as I loathe Dell's consumer products, and especially their laptops, I'm really in love with their rack-mount servers. The last I checked, there are often deals on low-end servers in their SMB server section. Granted, it's not going to be a $199 PC, but it's still in the "reasonable" realm for rackmount... (ie, just speccing out a 1U PowerEdge R200 using the specs given, it comes in at under $1k. If you look at over the course of "many moons", that's a decent pr
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1000s of rackmount servers being sold second hand cheaply (and you can find trustable sellers - most sellers are businesses regularly selling old equipment)... (We got a 1U Proliant DL360 cheap however it sounds like a jet engine -- I would't want one in the house!)
Desktop chassis is more appropriate (Score:4, Informative)
If you're set on a rackmount server, I've been very happy with Silicon Mechanics [siliconmechanics.com], but their cheapest machine is still ~$1000.
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Just upgrade (Score:5, Informative)
Your other option is to watch Geeks.com. Every now and then they have cheap refurbished servers.
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To impress the babes, dude!
ebay (Score:2)
Pogo Linux (Score:2)
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ebay! (Score:2)
eBay (Score:2)
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Go with a Barebones Rackmount (Score:2)
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Dude, (Score:3, Interesting)
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surpluscomputers or geeks.com (Score:4, Informative)
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I was looking at some of their dual-core xeon options with 2 SATA bays. You can get one of those for $400.
Does it have to be 1U? (Score:3, Informative)
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I have a couple of the Antec 4U rackmount ATX cases that I use as "glorified servers" at home and they function great! You can get the cases for under $200, more like around $150 maybe less online. Then just buy whatever ATX-based components that you need and you are set.
Heat issues in the closet? (Score:2, Interesting)
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Ebay (Score:2)
Is an ask slashdot necessary for this? (Score:2)
If you don't want to spend that much, go to newegg, search for 1u and enjoy the 379 results.
If you want something in between; http://www.google.com/search?q=1u+server [google.com]
There's no need to place a huge order for this type stuff. And there's no need to ask
System76 (Score:3, Informative)
Where to buy a server (Score:3, Informative)
Sometimes I give/sell them parts out of my garage, because their old equipment also somehow ends up in my garage.
I tend to like SuperMicro equipment, so if you have a few bucks to spend, go find yourself a nice SuperMicro 1u. But since this is your personal machine, and you don't have a huge budget, you'll have to shop like I do.
Check out the VisionMan machines on tigerdirect.com. For about $550, you can get a 2Ghz dual core with 1Gb RAM, 2 160Gb SATA drives
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/search.asp?page=2&mnf=1286&sort=Price%20asc [tigerdirect.com]
I haven't bought any yet, but if I ever run out of parts in my garage for new servers, I'll probably buy one.
You can always go browsing on eBay. Sometimes you'll find a good deal, but generally you're not going to get much decent for under $500. There are resellers on there all the time, who grab up anything cheap (or bid them up to over $500), that they're going to sell to their customers. If you do, be cautious of home built machines. They're the best thing in the world if they're done right, but if they weren't, you can experience lots of nasty problems. Like, if there isn't enough air flow, the CPU can overheat, and in a week or two you may end up looking for a new machine again.
I was building my own 1u machines for quite a while. When we approached 1Ghz, I had to start doing some special cooling. After that, since the company was making good money, it was cost effective to get the SuperMicro machines.
The final option is... I needed an incoming mail server to filter viruses and spam. This was a rather urgent matter, and I didn't really have time to go through my garage piecing a machine together and test it. I also didn't have time to order anything. I went down to CompUSA (they re-opened close to my house), and picked up an eMachines AMD64 with 1Gb ram for $250. It's a tower case, but if I felt ambitious (which I didn't that night), I could have easily rebuilt it into a spare 2u case. The memory was not seated well when I unboxed it, but that's the only problem that it's had so far, and it's been running hard for a few weeks.
When did Ask Slashdot become a Google Replacement? (Score:2)
I tend to agree with a lot of the posters here though who ask "Why rackmount?" I see no logical reason for it other than the 'cool/geek' factor.
Re:When did Ask Slashdot become a Google Replaceme (Score:3, Insightful)
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And almost all of them are worthless unless you already know exactly what you want. Hardware changes so fast that sometimes it's hard to know what the good gear is this month.
Re:When did Ask Slashdot become a Google Replaceme (Score:2)
Google doesn't have an informed opinion about what I'm searching for, and doesn't really give me any of the options I've even seen posted in these responses.
I grant you, I'd get some sort of answer from Google, but not necessarily a good one.
Check out Epic Systems (Score:3, Informative)
Quiet low power 1U (Score:3, Informative)
Start with a Supermicro 1U 510. This is 11" deep with an 80+ efficiency 200W power supply. It will house most uATX motherboards, although you will have to nibble out the back panel to get non supermicro boards to fit.
Then add a low cost AMD socket-AM2 motherboard.
Put a low power 45W dual core like a BE-2400 or one of the newer series. You will need a 1U blower for this.
Put one 3.5" drive (or up to 4 2.5" drives).
With a Gigabyte board and 1 2.5" HDD + 1 2.5" SSD, my system draws 37 watts in use as measured from the power line. It is not 100% quiet, but is the quietest of any 1U I have worked with.
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Hey! Me too! Help me pick a CPU (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm replacing a dying server, and for various reasons I'm getting a Dell [dell.com], probably the PowerEdge 840. My questions:
To those who would tell me (and this story's poster) to Google it: I'd rather get today's recommendations from an interactive forum than try to find a website with the same information from the last year or so. Besides, what geek doesn't want to talk about hardware?
Why? (Score:3, Informative)
Perhaps I am confused. Why exactly do you want a rack-mounted server for this? Why not just use an old PC, most people have scads of these things sitting around. Better yet, use something like the VIA NAS 7800 [via.com.tw] and throw it in a nice small quiet case. Compared to some crappy old 1U server, you'll save hundreds of dollars a year in electricity costs alone if the thing is on 24x7.
Soekris 5501-70 (Score:1)
I'm thinking about adding another 5501 in the same case for firewalling, routing and providing wireless for the rest of my network.
Power usage is minimal, it is *completely* silent (no fans) and it has been proven to be rock solid.
More info at Soekris [soekris.com] or kd85 [kd85.com].
Disclosure: I'm just a happy cu
Rack mount is dying (Score:3, Informative)
Use a hosting company... (Score:5, Informative)
I used to have a dual CPU P3 1U rackmount server I used for those sort of things. A day of running it through a Kill-A-Watt showed me it was costing almost $40 a month in electricity.
That buys a LOT of hosting when you look at places like dreamhost, etc.
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Thats still more than a shared server with a hundred or more gigs of storag
Why use 1U? Use a Mac mini (Score:4, Insightful)
I bought a cheap mac mini (intel core solo) on ebay, gutted it, replaced the CPU, added 2 GB RAM and a 250 GB drive.. I then put an external 250 GB drive on top of it. Alternatively buy a brand new Mac mini with the specs you need.
There you go - $600 or so and you have a totally silent "home server".
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Really, for the size, noise, and economy of the Mac Mini... its not worth having a server room/closet at home anymore.
Re:Why use 1U? Use a laptop (Score:1)
There you go - $600 or so and you have a totally silent "home server".
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eBay (Score:2)
weird stuff warehouse (Score:3, Informative)
They have nice current systems too.
http://www.weirdstuff.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=10174 [weirdstuff.com]
highly recommended
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Ebay, Craigslist, too. (Score:2)
Personally, I wanted a rack server for several reasons:
a) more space for hard drives
b) easier to fit in than putting a server on a shelf unit.
c) looks cool, and is easy to cool.
It is still loud, but it's a
ABMX.com (Score:1)
ABMX.com [abmx.com]
Unlike most custom shops they dont totally rape you on component upgrades and they have a wide selection of form factors and options, and anything they dont offer on the site they're pretty open about customizing. And everything if very cleanly laid out and tied down, very professional and its all standard form factor parts. And theyll preload many flavors of linux at minimal cost. No i don't
Want a cheap refurb with serious geek cred? (Score:3, Informative)
Building your own (Score:2, Informative)
There's other reasons to go with a 4U case. You can use standard PSU's in a 4U case. You can use standard PCI/PCI-X/PCI-E cards in a 4U case (
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Penguin Computing (Score:2)
Newegg, or even Dell (Score:2)
Dell will also sell rackmount servers to individuals. I'm not horribly impressed with their servers, but I'm forced to use them because my employer contracts with them and unless there are some very, very big exceptions, we buy all of our hardware through them. Ironically the prices listed for home users are often a lot highe
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4:00pm so I can't claim lack of coffee as the culprit. Just weird typo
DL360 off ebay (Score:2)
IBM Servers / eBay (Score:1)
Does it have to be a rackable system? (Score:1)
In the past year however I have dumped the over sized, excessively power hungry gray box servers for an Intel based Apple - Mac mini, only a 110W power supply. Then opted for a couple of external SATA drive enclosures for additional storage, the power bricks / wall warts used for the external drive enclosures are low wattage (though I do not have the
Go with cheap 3U cases (Score:1)
Seriously, I've found many sources for inexpensive rackmount chassis online. Often you get what you pay for, of course, but places like "rackbuy.com" have some great deals on generic ATX rackmount chassis that will probably be good enough. I have several of the 3U chassis, and I think they're great. They're just tall enough to support a standard ATX power supply and full upright cards instead of using a PCI riser board or some-such. (one caveat-- don't buy anything elect
Rack shelves are the solution (Score:3, Insightful)
However, you might consider this idea. I decided to be more flexible for my own home after observing a small dotcom that acquired several smaller dotcoms, some of which used towers and others that used rack mounted machines.
I opted to install a two-post rack, the kind some people call "relay racks," and I installed shelves on them. The shelves allow me to install whatever computer I want, whether rack-mounted or tower configuration. They also allow me to use non-rack-mount communications gear like routers and modems. I also have punch-down blocks at the top for cabling and power hanging off the side. Naturally your four-post 19-inch rack would have similar if not somewhat less expensive shelving available for it.
Back to my setup, the all-aluminum two-post rack came from American Power Conversion and only cost me $150.
The shelves vary from $35 to $70 each. The shelves holding the smaller gear are cantilevered and vented. The rest are center-mounted.
For your rack you can use your old rack-mounted computer as a shelf for the other components.
There shouldn't be a reason to restrict your options to just rack-mounted computers. The more flexible and less expensive tower form factors are definitely going to satisfy you more.
Cheap rack mount equipment (Score:2, Informative)
Next you need cases. I got 4U cases. There are lots around. As others have mentioned, 4U cases allow you to use any standard hardware.
Next you need slide rails. Search for "rack mount slide rails" on eBay. I bought from ArrowMax for $18, plus shipping. The shipping is expensive, so buy
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Ask yourself why you want a home server (Score:1)
Is it your OWN closet? (Score:2)
Tyan Transport... (Score:2)
I use them for firewalling, and they are teh sweet, with 2 gigabit and 1 FE intel NIC onboard.
SGI server (Score:2)
http://www.sgi.com/products/servers/ [sgi.com]
They start with the minimal specs you quote (I think) and they tend to scale quite well, so I'm lead to believe, in case you increase the size of your family and/or circle of friends...and they start at a very reasonable price, I'm sure.
Mini-itx boards (Score:2)
The Travla C146 and C147 cases are fantastic. If you need a system with a few PCI cards, go for the C146, if you don't need any expansion, the C147 will hold two mini-itx motherboards and disks, all in 1U of space.
The benefits are low space consumption and low power too. They aren't very deep either so can fit in a small size rack, unlike a lot of off the shelf servers from the big companies.
Darren
Mini-ITX (Score:2)
Cases aren't hard to come by; the Su