[asterisk-users] Small PC to build and run Asterisk

[Michael Graves]

On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 07:58:34 -0400, SIP wrote:

>Danny Nicholas wrote:
>> Also cheaper to replace flash card than hard drive.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
>> [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Hans Witvliet
>> Sent: Monday, June 14, 2010 4:21 PM
>> To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
>> Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Small PC to build and run Asterisk
>>
>> Why no flash?
>>
>>   
>>>     * Small pre-built PC (not buying board, case, all parts separately)
>>>     * Low power consumption
>>>     * No fan or very small fan
>>>     * Hard drive (not flash memory)
>>>     
>>
>> An ssd uses less power, so generates less warmth, hence less need for
>> fan in the drive area. Also less noise..
>>
>> I like this one, or its smaller brother:
>> http://www.fit-pc.com/web/fit-pc2/fit-pc2i-specifications/
>>
>>   
>
>But a flash card needs replacing more often than a hard drive. It's just
>not designed for the same sort of lifecycle of writes that a hard drive
>is. Sure, the number is always increasing as they increase the capacity,
>but it WILL NOT LAST.  Dependent on the type of filesystem access you
>need, SSD could be a great choice. But if you're heavy on logging and
>writing small data bits here and there (which isn't always something you
>can control if you don't write all the software), then a hard drive is
>just going to be the better choice to hold up for a long period of time.

This need not be the case. It depends upon what Asterisk distro you're
using. I ran Astlinux from a vintage 256 MB CF card for several years
without a problem.

If you simply build up a server and use flash media in place of a disk
then you will likely kill the media in a short period. The behaviour of
the system needs to be tailored to running from Flash.

Some distro's, like Askozia and Astlinux, have been specifically
engineered around running from flash media. This basic form of
operation has been well proven in projects like monowall and pfsense.

For very large installations with a lot of I/O intensive extra
activities running on the server running from flash may never be
appropriate.  

Michael
--
Michael Graves
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