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

[Tzafrir Cohen]

On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 08:46:17PM -0500, Michael Graves wrote:
> 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.  

I'm not sure how much this is an issue.

We've had our share of "embedded" (read: small, headless) systems where
I work.

We originally used our own specifically-engineered distro. It was
basically Debian, where the root file system was read-only, some changed
parts were on a ram-disk, with an option to actively sync them. We
basically used http://packages.debian.org/flashybrid for that.

Later on we decided to check what would happen if you take a standard
distro (Elastix, eventually. Ypu, FreePBX-based, with MySQL and the lot)
and put it on our embedded systems. Well, it happens to work.

Now, you have to be careful about the "flash" you use. We did test it.
Our own office's PBX also ran on a box with such a "flash" for quite
some time (and we employ active very active logging, and occasional call
recording).

It's still not as cheap (per MB) as magnetic disks. But it may be cheap
enough for you.

-- 
               Tzafrir Cohen
icq#16849755              jabber:tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com
+972-50-7952406           mailto:tzafrir.cohen at xorcom.com
http://www.xorcom.com  iax:guest at local.xorcom.com/tzafrir