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Portables as Servers?
vincecate asks: "Do portables make reliable Linux servers? The power on the island where I live is very unreliable. With the screen off the battery should last through a long power outage. I could even put on a UPS and have it last a day. My servers have little load (DNS and some web). Prices on portables are getting reasonable. Can anyone report on using portables as servers?"
If you use such little server space/bandwidth it could be more cost productive to get one of the multiple under $5 plans that some hosting companies have.
Sadly I have no experiance with portables though.
I don't preview or spellcheck.
with some caveats:
I/O on a laptop likely to suck, due to compromises in HD size/speed/DTR
limited memory upgradeability...but do you need 16GB in a laptop doing 'light duty' as a server?
I've run L.A.M.P stuff and Samba on an old K6-400 laptop, and it ran fine.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Maybe you'll find some answers here.
It's actually a very good way to recycle lappies with a smashed screen. Over time, we made a beowulf cluter of those (imagine that, eh?) at my university. In that specific case, a problem is that some batteries are old and almost dead, so it still needs its own UPS... lots of space & power saving, though.
The best advice I can give is - try to make it not use any moving parts in normal operations.
Boot is okay from either HD or CD, but it should have enough ram to not poll the HD. 512m is usually a good bet, 1g will definitely be enough for pretty much anything (aside from running a mysql server with a large db or something), if you calculate everything you may find that 256 is enough... Then make it turn off HD after 1 minute of operations. Disconnecting either the CD or the HD might be a good idea too. If you boot from a CompactFlash or similar card, you don't need HD/CD at all - even less electricity consumption.
Fewer moving parts translates directly into longer battery life and better performance (standard HD speed is still 5400 RPM on laptops). It'll probably live longer, to boot (pun intended)
Heat dissipation is another issue you may want to look into (if the CPU is not one of those new low-power ones.. if you have a 15W core duo, you're golden). Since it'll be a server, you can easily pop off the keyboard and bare the cooling pipes (better cooling performance).
HTH
Did you know that "FTW" ("for the win") is a direct translation of "Sieg Heil"?
(off topic - why is it that there's ALWAYS someone who answers a question like this with "do something that has nothing to do with your question, such as getting a $5 hosting provider"?)
I've used laptops in many places where a larger computer would not do. For instance, before you could buy wireless access points which would do real IP routing, I used to use recycled laptops to provide access via routed subnets. They can be placed in the ceiling, in closets, et cetera. One even spent a good bit of time in an awning in a storefront providing wireless access to Tompkins Square Park in NYC for a while. Of course, the "built-in UPS" is always good!
On another note, I'm running a site which hosts lots of video files and was slashdotted recently - usually two things which do not mix well. The server it runs on pushed 400 Mbps quite well, and it uses less than 30 watts measured at 120 volts - no, it's not a laptop, but it's made with many of the same parts - it's a Mac mini. If I were running a rack of these instead of your typical AMD or Pentium 4 systems, I'd be saving tons of money on power and cooling. Portables and low power devices make lots of sense, especially where it's abundantly clear that there is no need for machines which take 90 watts JUST for each CPU. (As one site recently pointed out, the Intel Core Duo is also quite performance competitive with high end AMD and Intel CPUs)
So the real question is why not? The only reason I can think of is if you were doing things which would involve thrashing the disk heavily. 2.5" hard drives are not particularly good for 24x7 thrashing. But if you were to get an external Firewire 3.5" drive, that wouldn't be an issue.
John Klos
ZiaSpace Productions
A regular laptop will have even worse hardware. The HD especially is a weakpoint. However for non-heavy use where either the number of reads is limited or even avoided by loading everything in memory a laptop is just a lowend pc.
It can be very usefull as long as you don't expect it to perform the same as a real server.
The build in UPS is however very handy. I worked at an ISP where for some reason the power wasn't that stable for a year or so. Didn't matter for the important stuff because they were on a UPS like system but it did mean regular power failures in the offices (I think it was because workmen kept digging up the powerlines or something).
Anyway I put the ISP job to good use in the form of running my own FTP server. Hey, when you got a fat pipe you need to share it right? It is what I tell my gf anyway :P
It ran of an old laptop hidden in my cupboard (note, do not store chocolate in drawer above a laptop running 24/7) and it just ran regardless of power interruptions. Our workfloor test server was not so lucky and because it was badly adminned it never automatically recovered after a powerfailure.
So I developer on a laptop against my server laptop with power down all around me. Kinda cool although I now realize I was the only one working while everyone else was goofing around.
So yes, laptops can be used to overcome power outages. HOWEVER for what reason? In my case the network was on its own UPS. Will your laptop be as lucky?
No point in running a server when there is no network to serve right?
On the other hand if you can get a cheap UPS to power your network then the batteries of a laptop can last a long time especially if you add all the batteries you can by replacing the cd. Mine lasted through a 8 hour power outage once. The screen being off makes a huge difference.
Just remember heat and HD performance. Then again, I did have the old HD from that computer in my normal server (with adapter) running for years afterwards. I think HD reliability is severly underestimated.
Go for it. Just don't post your server on slashdot.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Just out of curiousity, did you read the f'ing question? If he's worried about the power going on a regular basis do you really think he's concerned with I/O and hosting something like slashdot? Sheesh, lighten up dude.
I know I'm coming off as rude
No, you're coming off as a complete dick. Do you honestly think that Vincecate was wondering if they could replace his quad Opteron server and couple TB RAID with a 1500 dollar laptop and an external USB hard drive??? He's obviously not doing 2000 transactions a second if his power goes out constantly. Remember what happens when the power goes out? Your Internet connection goes down. No connection to the outside world (or outside your "server" room for that matter) to process transactions. If his Internet connection goes down for a day, I'm guessing those 172800000 lost transactions would have a slight impact on business. Not to mention his question clearly states server load is pretty light.
I can probably safely assume that Vincecate is sick of power going off on a server without safely shutting down. I'd also guess he's not there to take care of their servers 24/7, so the laptop staying up for a full day would be ideal...they can just leave it and forget about it. Hell, he's probably like me, and is just plain lazy. So judging by his requirements (staying up with no AC source for longer than 10 minutes, handling a light server load), a laptop would work out just fine. My laptop handled it's basic server duties just fine when I used it for that.