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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?"
Yeah, not breaking the bank isn't going to be an option here, I'm afraid.
Ever heard the expression "Fast, reliable, cheap (pick two)"?
It applies here.
Of course, you were fairly specific with the processing specs you need, but not your budget. So it's hard to say what "breaking the bank" is for you. also, you called it a UPS, but you also called it an "Interruptible Power Supply". I'm assuming a brain-fart, but the "U" stands for Uninterruptible.
Just picking nits.
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
Low power consumption, quad core, 8 gigs of ram, a UPS and a few TB of storage? 1. Not gonna be cheap, though I'm not sure what your budget is, this will be somewhat pricey. 2. You might want to get a few UPS's, because I doubt, unless you get a very large solar array, that you will be able to run it on that. Expect power loss, disable write caching on the disks, etc. Also, a UPS isn't meant to be used as a constant power source, just as a way to keep you from losing work if power goes out, and if you're lucky, hold you over till it flickers back on. 3. This will NOT be portable, those UPS's will be a pain to move. Good luck, I certainly don't mean to be so negative, but this is a somewhat unreasonable thing to look for.
http://CryoLANparty.com/ A lan I'm staff on!
You sound like you want a high power server (multiple VM's) with significant storage (multiple TB's) to run on no power in an unconditioned environment. And you want it affordable. Those are rather contradictory requirements, rather like having cake and eating it too.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
... in rural Bangladesh that requires 4 cores, 8GB Ram, and 4 TB of storage? I can understand if you're in the city and involved in some company, but you make it sound like you want some serious number crunching to occur in the middle of the jungle.
How about offloading all of your processing requirements to a co-located server and just getting a cheap rugged laptop to access and control the processing.
Choose two
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
That's going to be a performance limiter at any price, especially if you need x86-compatibility.
At least for now.
There are some nice low-power architectures out there if you don't mind having to use a free operating system. For them, the degree ruggedization will be a driving cost factor. -40C-+85C costs more than 0C-50C, but it costs less than -70C-+120C.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Are you protecting against heat and cold or rapid temperature changes? Shock? Humidity and liquid spillage? For each, how much ruggedness are you willing to pay for?
You can build a computer that can handle -40-85C and both high and low humidity that won't survive a 5-foot drop onto concrete, and you can build a device that will survive a 10-story fall while operating, but that has no extra protection against humidity and temperature extremes.
State your requirements, and for a price, someone will build it, or at least try.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
That's a big ruggedized server.
Take a look at the Logic Controls 8600. That's a server for fast-food restaurants and similar harsh environments. 1.6GHZ, 2GB, 40GB hard drive. Will run Linux. Fanless and ventless. Temp range 5C to 40C. Relative humidity 8 to 80%, non-condensing.
What do you need 4 terabytes of storage for? Unless you're running a movie piracy service?
What a very interesting post (as evidenced by the +5). Thank you!
To boil it down, it sounds like the biggest single problem once you actually HAVE a machine is keeping juice to it consistently.
What I'm wondering now is, how do you solve that problem? Capacitance systems? Would there not be a (potentially) larger cost involved in just keeping power to the box(es)?
(FWIW, I've not read through your site yet, so if you've already covered this topic, my apologies... you are bookmarked though)
For the last time, PIN Number and ATM Machine are redundancies!
Having also worked in IT in the developing world, under very similar physical conditions described by the OP, my reaction is that the parent's points are all excellent.
I would add this:
MANAGE EXPECTATIONS.
It is particular important in this kind of setting to manage both your own expectations and those of the people to whom you're providing service.
In my experience, people to whom you're providing service don't appreciate how much more can and does go wrong with a computer than say a phone or a dryer - let alone networked machines or trying to deal with a connection to the Internet. It is worth a lot of effort to help them understand what it takes to provide a particular kind of service. In particular it's important to them think through the cost of that service, often to clarify that the cost of will add up to more they initially can imagine, but that in spite of those costs, there's still a lot of value. Back here in the States, I find that decision-makers in the nonprofit sector often tend to see costs in this limited way and make very limited plans for the ongoing cost of IT service, pile up deferred costs, and inevitably end up struggling along with marginal service and, quite often, higher overall cost.
Since you're an IT professional, I'm guessing that like nearly all of us, you find the potential in IT very appealing. So it's pretty key to constantly remind yourself that your tradeoffs between well-engineered and practicable are profoundly different than IT folks in the developed world and keep yourself grounded in what's feasible and valuable.
Other than that, I think the parent knows way more about this subject than the rest of us, so listen to him or her.