Re: [Server-devel] Ultra Mobile XO Server
Hi John, Thank you for your comments. The helped me to formalize further the analyse of the usage cases and the options to be considered. Glad to see that there is a need for this experiment. We want to offer an option in the deployments where the energy and the cost are impeding factors for the schools. Our first step is to analyse the situation and to benefit from your experience and your caveats. Second, to receive XOs for our project (we are waiting approval for it via the developers program). We could have 2 options: a/ a dedicated XO based XS server, to be used during classtime, serving eventually a few ( 40-50) XOs, for example in a class) as well as the teachers monitoring XO. b/ a multipurpose XO with an alternate boot options, to be used by the teachers: - with the kids, during classtime, for monitoring purposes, - outside of the class, in order to prepare/evaluate the class activities. In case a, booting from an external storage may be an option, especially if additional storage is needed. The installation of the XS on the internal disk is another option, eventually with additional storage for the user data. In case b, the multibooting function will make the XO a versatile machine. Bests, Samy Selon John Watlington [EMAIL PROTECTED]: This is a regular project around OLPC. Nobody has found time to finish it, but a new person regularly takes it on... Tyler was the latest to try, Scott had worked on it some as well. The simple part everybody is working on is building an external disk that is basically XS (F7) plus the OLPC kernel, and getting OFW to boot it. You have our encouragement, how can we help ? John On Jun 22, 2008, at 5:53 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi, OLPC France is plannig different deployments for which an ultra mobile Server based on a XO could be an option. My question: has anyone experimented the installation of a XS server on a XO? Our project Ultra Mobile XO Server is located here http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Projects/UltraMobileXOServer and here http://llaske.free.fr/olpcfrance/index.php?title=UltraMobileXOServer Thank you for your comments Best regards Samy ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] Ultra Mobile XO Server
On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 2:23 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We could have 2 options: a/ a dedicated XO based XS server, to be used during classtime, serving eventually a few ( 40-50) XOs, for example in a class) as well as the teachers monitoring XO. Hi Samy! Excellent project! I think this (a) is the most viable option. What we mainly need at the moment is work in fixing any bugs in the LiveCD install we have that are preventing installation on an XO, and ensuring we can support an external HD for storage easily. There is also work to be done in shrinking the memory footprint of the current XS software, and we can work together on that. The XS software should be the same regardless of HW. With a bit of tuning (and perhaps alternative config files) the software can definitely run on an XO. And once we have achieved that goal, you might want to tackle the multi-boot option, but the XO does not have enough storage to handle the XS role, and much less a multi-boot XO/XS. cheers, m -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] Target price and quantitiy
Well, I got some more questions... Whats the typical power source for the server? 12V DC or 24V DC or 110V AC or 230V AC? What are the other conditions like temperature and humidity? Would it be enough if the server is capable of operating between 0°-55°C and 0-90% humidity? Which outlets are really needed (w/ switch)? I guess something like: -4x Ethernet (over the switch) -4x USB2.0 -1x Power Is something like a vga, p/s2, rs232, ... needed? Best regards, Christopher On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 5:54 AM, John Watlington [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Jun 22, 2008, at 2:19 PM, Christopher Niemöller wrote: Hi, I was playing around with some embedded computing and rugged hardware and got some questions. Whats the target price for the school server? Around 500 USD for a server plus 500GB disk. Networking (access points and switches) are additional (although ideally a four port switch is built in...) How many school server are needed anyway? One per school... Larger schools need more capable servers. There is no single solution, from a product design perspective. If we concentrate on the needs of smaller rural schools (30-300 kids), we are talking about the $500 server mentioned above, with tough environmental constraints. In this case, we are unfortunately only talking about 5K-10K units per year, and these are spread across multiple countries. As you might know, its my job to design such systems, please dont take this questions the wrong way. I dont want to sell anything, but Im interested in supporting this project. ;) We have no problem with people interested in selling stuff. We need to buy servers ourselves for use in trials, etc... Cheers, wad ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] Ultra Mobile XO Server
Hi Martin, Thank you for your useful comments! On the software side, we will certainly integrate in this project important components such as the Moodle server, thus allowing the teachers/administrators to monitor and manage the whole class easier. Best regards Samy Selon Martin Langhoff [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 2:23 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We could have 2 options: a/ a dedicated XO based XS server, to be used during classtime, serving eventually a few ( 40-50) XOs, for example in a class) as well as the teachers monitoring XO. Hi Samy! Excellent project! I think this (a) is the most viable option. What we mainly need at the moment is work in fixing any bugs in the LiveCD install we have that are preventing installation on an XO, and ensuring we can support an external HD for storage easily. There is also work to be done in shrinking the memory footprint of the current XS software, and we can work together on that. The XS software should be the same regardless of HW. With a bit of tuning (and perhaps alternative config files) the software can definitely run on an XO. And once we have achieved that goal, you might want to tackle the multi-boot option, but the XO does not have enough storage to handle the XS role, and much less a multi-boot XO/XS. cheers, m -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] Ultra Mobile XO Server
On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 11:12 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Using the mesh? Wiki and experience say the mesh cannot handle 40 XOs, probably 15 is tops. We have here in France 'nil' experience and we will value your input and comments concerning the feasibility and scaleability of each scenario. The mesh scales to about the same group size that the XO hw will be able to handle acting as a XS. Right now some usage patterns hit bads spots wrt mesh routing but we are working on that. For larger groups, the XO could handle an AP, but that will require additional hw and complications, but the machine will start hitting memory and cpu limits anyway. So the sweet spot is small schools - where mesh will do just fine. Yes, we would save $500 a pop per server, but would we really? The costs of XO + HD mean that the money savings are there but are not the main consideration; however, the XO hw is very rugged and low power. Most of the $500 servers are OTS kit that doesn't deal well with dust, heat, etc. cheers, m -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
[Server-devel] Target price and quantitiy
From: Christopher Niem?ller I was playing around with some embedded computing and rugged hardware and got some questions. Whats the target price for the school server? How many school server are needed anyway? Whats the typical power source for the server? 12V DC or 24V DC or 110V AC or 230V AC? What are the other conditions like temperature and humidity? Would it be enough if the server is capable of operating between 0?-55?C and 0-90% humidity? Which outlets are really needed (w/ switch)? I guess something like: -4x Ethernet (over the switch) -4x USB2.0 -1x Power Is something like a vga, p/s2, rs232, ... needed? Chris, I put together a school server from parts at a local computer supply store for $530. This is for a project for OLPC Uruguay ( http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educational_Blogger_Project ) The full parts list is here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Az990tony/edublog-beta-hw In addition to XS, I also have Fedora 7 and Debian 4 Etch installed in a multi-boot GRUB. The software installation: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Az990tony/edublog-beta-hw The entire machine needs only a single RJ45 Ethernet connection. I am able to access the system remotely from my Windows PC using OpenSSH. I have created a customized SysRescCD that allows me to boot into SSHD mode to perform the install and admin remotely. Currently, I have it set up as a RAID1 mirror between two 160GB drives, but I have two 30GB un-raided partitions, for a total space of 190GB. The implementation could easily accomodate larger or more drives to have the 500GB Wad suggests. I need to figure out Moodle+PostgreSQL this week, then I ship it off to its final destination. Thanks Tony Pearson Senior Storage Consultant, IBM System Storage™ Telephone: +1 520-799-4309 | tie 321-4309 | Cell: +1 520 990-8669 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | GSA: http://tucgsa.ibm.com/~tpearson Blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/InsideSystemStorage AKA: 990tony Paravane, eightbar specialist image/jpeg___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] Target price and quantitiy
On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 11:29 AM, Christopher Niemöller [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Whats the typical power source for the server? 12V DC or 24V DC or 110V AC or 230V AC? All of them - some locations will have 110VAC/230VAC but some regions have no power grid. In all cases, power is prone to brownouts and spikes. We'd like to be able to offer solar panel + battery packs, connectors for car batteries / alternators and similar setups for schools with no electricity. What are the other conditions like temperature and humidity? Would it be enough if the server is capable of operating between 0°-55°C and 0-90% humidity? http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Server_Specification has some notes on environmental conditions. The style in that page is confusing - there is a mix of what we would aim to provide if we were manufacturing a server, and what to look for in an OTS system. Which outlets are really needed (w/ switch)? I guess something like: -4x Ethernet (over the switch) -4x USB2.0 -1x Power The server itself needs 2 ethernet ports (lan, wan) and 4-6 USB connectors. For very small schools, Active Antennas (usb connected) can be used, though we are still sorting out some issues with them. For medium to large schools, the lan port hooks up to a switch+AP that has 4 ports or more. Is something like a vga, p/s2, rs232, ... needed? It is meant to be headless - a least a serial port is required for installation support. If VGA can be had at low cost, probably countries will go for it. cheers, m -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
[Server-devel] list
hi. [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Henry Vélez Molina Administrador de red OLPC Fundación Marina Orth Tel: (57)(4) 3412359 Móvil: 3127690169 ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] XS SW
Got throught the moodle + postgre install. I'll now play with setting up some courses and users. I cheated on the authentication as I don't know how PAM SOTP works; I just set the authentication to trusted. - Original Message - From: Martin Langhoff [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Tim Moody [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: server-devel@lists.laptop.org Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 1:50 PM Subject: Re: [Server-devel] XS SW I guess I'll continue to struggle get moodle to work with Pg on XS(163). I didn't find Pg as an installed service and the moodle that yum installed only had mysql support libraries as dependencies. Or should I just wait until moodle is bundled with XS? It's ok to install it against mysql in your system if you want to play with it.I plan to provide a custom moodle package preconfigured against Pg, and to provide matching Pg packages (probably v8.2). If you later need to migrate from MySQL to Pg, there are some helper scripts I've posted in moodle.org a while ago... ;-) m -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
