[ILUG] Looking for a small, quiet server device.

[Niall O Broin]

On 7 Aug 2008, at 11:29, Darragh wrote:

> I'm very likely hoping for too much but I'm doing some work in an  
> office that would really benefit from a small server.
>
> Requirements of this server are:
> Something about the size of a normal residential internet router.   
> AS quiet as one too.
> A distribution of Linux..... obviously.
> most importantly,  easily configurable to authenticate users on  
> windows machines.
> some kind of mail server to pull in mail from a number of pop3  
> servers.  Squirrelmail for remote access would be nice but not  
> escential.
> Another very important function is a proxy. Both for regulating  
> usage and reporting.  Squid would be great.
> If at all possible, a method of attaching removable storage either  
> via LAN or USB would really help.
>
> I know I'm asking for a lot but the people I'm doing this work for  
> are not particularly technical.  However, their requirements are  
> expanding as they take more staff on.  Their already paying out  
> quite a lot for more desktops so I want to keep the price of this  
> device reasonably low and one major factor is keeping the running  
> cost down as well.

They shouldn't really need to be be paying much for desktops in this  
day and age. If the budget is tight, Dell's cheap end will provide a  
perfectly functional desktop for considerably less than one week's  
average industrial wage - and if you pay them an extra €15 you can  
even get XP instead of Vista - how's that for a deal?

> I've heard of projects in the past set up to build Linux  
> distributions on very portable hardware so I'm almost sure at least  
> some of this functionality is possible.
>
> If absolutely necessary, I could configure this functionality on a  
> normal PC but I'm still not as skilled at this than most of you and  
> I've only about two and a half weeks to get this up and running.

Hardware which fits the bill is out there e.g. Buffalo's Linkstation  
range, which comes with a distribution of Linux which is optimised to  
be a home NAS. However, it (and probably other similar devices) will  
have a number of problems fulfilling your requirements.

1) Underpowered CPU, so will have a hard time dealing with all of the  
above under load

2) Not a lot of RAM - see point 1

3) Doesn't come preconfigured to do most of the above, which I think  
is what you'd like to have.

Another option, if small and quiet is very important, would be a Mac  
Mini. It would have more RAM and a more powerful CPU than something  
like a Linkstation but again, you'd have to install an OS on it and  
then configure everything you need individually.

TBH I think the best option for you would be something like Clark  
Connect [http://www.clarkconnect.com], running on a small PC. It won't  
be quite as small as you'd like, but it should be reasonably quiet,  
and it will have far more CPU and RAM than a small appliance. And it  
has the advantage that it comes OOB ready to do most of what you want.


Niall