Re: [libreplanet-discuss] home / small office servers with free hardware

[Daniel Pocock]

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
>