Rugged Linux Server For Rural, Tropical Environment?

travalas writes "Last year I moved to Rural Bangladesh. My work is pretty diverse, everything from hacking web apps to designing building materials. Increasingly a Linux VM on my MacBook Pro is insufficient due to storage speed/processing constraints and the desire to interface more easily with some sensor packages. There are a few issues that make that make a standard server less than desirable. This server will generally not be running with any sort of climate control and it may need to move to different locations so would also be helpful if it was somewhat portable. The environment here is hot, humid and dusty and brutal on technology and power is very inconsistent so it will often be on a combination of Interruptible Power Supply and solar power. So a UPS is a must and low power consumption desirable, so it strikes me that an Integrated UPS a la Google's servers would be handy. Spec wise it needs to be it needs to be able to handle several VM's and some other processor storage intensive tasks. So 4 cores, 8GB of ram and 3-4 TB of SATA storage seems like a place to start for processing specs. What sort of hardware would you recommend without breaking the bank?"

Comments

Go Small or Go Home

[grcumb]

What would you suggest? Lesser hardware? Surely there must be a solution somewhere in the middle of "I want this" and "I can use this".

Yep, there is. But it's not always where you think.

Shameless (but hopefully useful) self-promotion:

I've been living and working in Least Developed Countries in the tropics for nearly 6 years now, and for the last 2, I've been writing a weekly IT-related column called Communications. There's a ton of advice in there. Go take a look. Check my tag cloud for relevant topics.

Here are a few fundamentals:

-1- The first thing to do is to adjust both hardware and - and this is important- software to the circumstances. Focus on the task first, then avoid confusing how that task is completed in a North American office environment with 'the right way' to do things.

-2- Scale everything down, in order to make the cost of failure of any single element as small as possible. This way, you get a solution that's replicable, affordable and - most importantly- easily replaced when (not if) it breaks.

-3- If you have unreliable power, then do two things first: Make your system tolerant to current fluctuations[*], and then plan for an intermittently available service. Forget about trying to keep it running at all times. Just minimise the cost of interruptions. A surge suppressing electrical switch on the wall where your main power source enters the building will cost you less and save you more than anything else.

[*] Bad (i.e. poor quality) power is the source of about 80% of hardware failure where I live. Every time the local power company hits us with brown-outs and spikes, I'd get a surge (heh!) of customer service calls.

To me, this situation screams 'require redundancy'. I understand this was not given as an option originally, but with the environment described I would certainly not want to rely on one single server.

Yes, redundancy is good. Cheap, small, easily replaced devices are good. Snap-shotted VMs are also good. The bottom line is that you need to keep the cost of failure low, because the system is certain to fail due to environmental factors. A good motto for working in the Developing World is: If you can't beat 'em, at least don't lose too much.

The best way to do this is to try to run on hardware that's about 3-5 years behind the curve, or to go straight to the bleeding edge of low-power tech.

To the submitter: I have a personal interest in Bangladesh, by the way. You can reach me by leaving a comment on my website. Good luck!

P.S. Unless money and space are no object, you'll never run full-time computing services on solar power. Especially in monsoon season. IMO, best not to try.