On 06/04/16 10:08, Daniel Pocock wrote: > > > Can anybody comment on strategies for building a home or small office > server using entirely free hardware? >
I went looking for existing options and came across the QNAP TS-431+, has anybody looked at replacing the OS on it with a 100% free OS? > The earlier thread (here[1] and on the FSFE list[2]) about Intel and AMD > never being truly free identifies platforms like ARM and other low power > chips as alternatives that can be 100% free. For home and small office > servers where people typically want low power consumption and low noise > levels rather than raw performance, using ARM is probably quite > agreeable, a compromise they may already have been willing to make for > other reasons. > > Are there any particularly good examples of off-the-shelf solutions or > how to make such servers from components? > > Even if CPU power is limited, can such solutions be designed for > IO-intensive workloads, such as hosting NFS home directories or > Maildirs? These tend to do lots of small writes, just putting them on > SSDs helps a lot. > > Another thing that people tend to look for these days is the ability to > have lots of storage for photos and movies. This type of storage > doesn't need fast IO but it does generally need multiple disks for > redundancy. > > A combined solution to both of those storage problems typically needs a > pair of SSDs (for home directories) and a pair of large disks (for media > collections) and if there is going to be a spare disk bay for migrations > and standby disks, it means having a box with 5 or more bays. > > > 1. > https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2016-04/msg00020.html > 2. http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/discussion/2016-April/010912.html >