soekris embedded linux devices
For years I’ve had a number of systems that have been retired to
my server closet as they’ve lost favor as my primary desktop, only to be reborn as
a server of this, that, or, something else…
Unfortunately, these systems are power hogs and are getting old enough that replacement
parts are available only from a museum.
A few months back I decided to remedy this situation and started by replacing my
VPN server (OpenVPN) with a nifty embedded
linux box from soekris.
The soekris are a bit pricey, compared to say a WRT54G using OpenWRT, but I gave them
a go anyway and have been thoroughly pleased. So pleased in fact, that I’m in the process
of replacing my home web/db server that I use for a number of personal tools and toying with ideas,
my firewall box, and another server that powers the house PBX system (Asterisk). The current
web/db server is a Pentium 3 system circa 2001 or so. The PBX is slightly newer, but is an eBay special
Dell small form factor desktop that was probably new sometime in 2002. The firewall system is
another eBay special, but is an HP small form factor desktop that likely began life in 2003 or so.
Less power consumption, more efficient use of what hardware is available, and no more systems
that have ISA expansion slots.
After this project, and some additional consolidation, the only non-soekris will be the house wide
NAS which is a 4U rack mount with 3.5″ 7200 RPM SATA disks driven by OpenSolaris and the ZFS
file system.
check soekris out if you need some reasonably priced
embedded boxen. They have a wide array of configurations.