Netbook server project

The netbook server project is a project using asus eeepc 1015 models that was started in 02/04/2012 as consequence of a professional hosting provider massive hosting system malfunction which almost caused 100% data loss of all wirelesspt.net hosted projects.

In the past these those projects were hosted for several years on a home system with 100% stability using a workstation that was was used as workstation, system, gaming platform, media system, routing box and much more. During it's last 2 years of active performance the box which had a dual core xeon/emt64 3.2 ghz, 4TB storage and 4GB Ram was rock solid stable and only rebooted 2 times due to optional kernel upgrades.

However the energy consumption of such setup was escalating to the point that many of us start to consider a hosting provider solution if bandwidth is not a problem.

Projects were hosted with OVH for 1 year on virtual (VPS) 1.8 ghz dual core atom with 20 GB storage and 512 mb ram at a cost of 190 U.S. dollars / 145 euros which included 100 mbit unlimited bandwidth.

At the time the VPS machine was then running the following services on lenny 4 & 5.* linux kernel 2.6.32.2: httpd, sftp, ssh, ircd, mysql, stunnel, ntpd, bitlbee, tor.

With the hosting provider upgrades to the kernel distro versions and many packages were blocked and or not supported by the (provider) package and service bought at the time.

After the hosting provider incident and given the unprofessional nature of how reports and tickets were dealt with it decided not to risk wirelesspt.net projects again with them; even tho the hosting service was paid upfront for 2 more years. A decision of hosting again privately and not on a professional hosting service was made due to previous experiences, advantages and problems.

Objectives

After some deep research and having thought about, pros, cons, costs, time, functionality, durability, performance and testing the main goal is to have a netbook setup with fully custom (riced) gentoo linux operating system providing a simple stable and very affordable for one straight year which by then allow us to will consider this project a success according to my current beliefs. The asus eeepc 1015pem was choosen.

Performance

Status log of the eeepc performance over the years.

2012

After one year of full functioning without any problems; the netbook system project update revealed itself to be a success for a low cost and very economic hosting solution. During the first year the project has paid itself.

2013

It has been totally worth it and is recommend anyone to take the same path for a very cheap home hosting based solution. Power consumption remains as expected and an SD card was added to work in full duplex for operating system directories that are often used in read/write modes to save hard drive wear and tear.

2014

One of the best decisions/project ever. So far no hardware failures or problems. Only 2 reboots during it's life time and half storage used. 120 GB Usb pen was added for operating system files backup.

2015-2018

Keeps on running. No hardware failures or problems. No changes.

2019

During April 2019, a hardware failure finally occurred. The netbook stopped booting and it’s mechanical hard drive needle was getting stuck and the drive died later.

It worked flawlessly for 8 years, far surpassing any expectations and compensating professional hosting costs.

After data recovery, an asus eeepc 1015ped was chosen to continue hosting the project.

description: CPU
product: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N475   @ 1.83GHz
vendor: Intel Corp.
physical id: 4
bus info: cpu@0
version: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N475   @ 1.83GHz
serial: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
slot: CPU 1
size: 1833MHz
capacity: 1833MHz
width: 64 bits
clock: 167MHz
capabilities: x86-64 fpu fpu_exception wp vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge    mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl cpuid aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm dtherm configuration: cores=1 enabledcores=1 threads=2
Hard drive: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 120GB
Consumption: 4w minium, 5W average, 8W maximum.
OS: Gentoo linux
Kernel: gentoo sources custom

2020

Assessment to be done at the end of 2020

Pros and Cons

A list of pros and cons compared to a professional hosting provider service.

Advantages:

Cheaper hosting
Power consumption at 5w
Full machine control 24/7
Increased security due to physical access to the hardware
More CPU, RAM and HD storage compared to the professional service at the time and for less economic cost
Portability to anywhere anytime
Wireless compatible system perfect for wireless networks in particular adhoc mesh
One time economic cost of 200 U.S. dollars / 153 euros compared to 190 U.S. dollars / 145 euros from the hosting provider.

Disadvantages

If the UPS run out of power and the netbook shuts down, it does not have bios wakeup wol functionality which means manual boot. This is the biggest downside.
Less bandwidth (if you cannot have 100 mbit from your ISP) (optional)
Hard and costly to find ECC buffered compatible RAM (optional)

Migration

In August 2019 the possibility of hosting the project with the option of start using a sbc/nettop with 4 GB of ram like raspberrypi 4 is valid.

The main reasons to use hardware like the raspberrypi 4 are:

Automatically turns on after power failure, bringing back the system online.
Higher RAM memory capacity
Bonus of having a quad core cpu.
Easier faster to clone the sdcard for backups

Services hosted

Over the years the project has hosted the following like of services:

Conclusion

Project remains stable, solid and running without any issues either from software or hardware. It also remains hardened. Investment expectations have been immensely surpassed.

Editor

Cmsv