Topic: Anyone using a solid state HDD?

[del]

I was wondering if anyone was using a solid state HDD for there SME/SAIL box? I am about to build a new box and I am swaying towards the following:

Travla C137 Black
Travla C137 Front Panel w/out CD and CF Slot (Black)
120W AC Adapter
VIA VB8001-16 Motherboard - 1.6GHz VIA Nano Processor
128GB 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive
DDR II 2GB
Dual Riser Card and Extender
Digium TDM404EF

Anyone care to comment on my spec? Do you use any of these components or know of any reason why I shouldn't? All feedback appreciated. Thanks.

Del

[versa]

I seen this some time ago I dont know if it still applies, I never tried it.

http://sarkpbx.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/DocChapter2514

[del]

OK, I've just realized that the VIA VB8001-16 motherboard doesn't have dual LAN  So I am now considering the following motherboards:
EPIA SN18000G
EPIA-M700-15/EPIA-M700-10E
EPIA LT15000G/LT10000EG
EPIA PE10000G

Thanks,
Del

[gippsweb]

I remember Jeff mentioning some time back that they were building mini boxes using 2G CF cards to run the system, so I can't see the SSD being a problem..

I don't know that I'd want a busy mysql db running on one though, I expect something like that would drag down the drives life expectancy...

[del]

I don't know that I'd want a busy mysql db running on one though, I expect something like that would drag down the drives life expectancy...

I am only going to use it for SAIL and Asterisk and Corsair are quoting 1,000,000 hours life expectancy for their SSD, (thta's over a 114 years!) so it would have to reduce the life expectancy by quite a lot to be a problem for my use

Del

[arne]

Possybly slightly off topic .. but I have used astlinux on compactflash media for some years now, and there has never been a problem. Just run and run. Astlinux works in such a way that it copies all files into a ramdisk while booting, so there is no communication against the compact flash during ordinary operation.

http://www.astlinux.org/

By the way I am also using Asterisk on SME server, but standard Asterisk not Selintra (Because I prefere manual configuration for the Asterisk server.)

Positive about Astlinux: Very compact, effective and reliable. Fits very well into a solid state enviroment. A low power cold running installation with no physical moving parts runns for ever.

It can also be turned off and on likke a light bulb, as there is no mounted physical file systems.

Negative: Require some knowledge of text based configuration of the Asterisk server.

Just some ideas ..

By the way .. as my Astlinux installation has runned for years without a bug, I have not tested the newer versons of this distro with the new functions ..

[SARK devs]

seen this some time ago I dont know if it still applies, I never tried it

Yup - still works as advertised.   We build a lot of solid state units commercially.  We use 4Gb CFcards on SME7.3 (2Gig was a bit tight   ).

We've not tried solid state hard drives because they are still a bit expensive and the CFcards work just fine.   However, if you do fit SS drives then you should see no difference to running regular drives.

We stopped running VIA EPIA boards some time ago in favour of Intel Atom based units.

Best

S

[del]

Hi Selintra,

What motherboard, with dual LAN, would you recommend for the Intel Atom? How much voicemail will a 4GB CF card hold? How about recording calls? Or is it possible to store the voicemail and recorded calls on an external USB drive? Storing these were my main reason to use a SSD, I admit I could save a substantial amount if I used a CF card instead 

Thanks,
Del

[gippsweb]

I haven't seen any dual ethernet m/b's here in Aust yet for the Atom base.

I would think just for storage the SSD would be overkill..
Even so, if you are worried about space a 32G CF card can be had here for $140-$160 AUD.

Yeah, actually at that price the little extra for the same sized SSD seems more than worthwhile..

Just checked locally and can't see any mini-itx atom boards with dual ethernet.
(Whatever you get make sure its the 330 Atom and not the 230, the performance difference is huge)..

[SARK devs]

Uncompressed wav audio, as a rule of thumb, is about 1Mb per minute.  That's roughly 16 hours per Gig.

If you are going to do call recording then it might be best to use a regular drive.  CFCards and USB sticks generally aren't fast enough and they can only sustain a certain number of writes before they fail.

[del]

I haven't seen any dual ethernet m/b's here in Aust yet for the Atom base.

I would think just for storage the SSD would be overkill..
Even so, if you are worried about space a 32G CF card can be had here for $140-$160 AUD.

Yeah, actually at that price the little extra for the same sized SSD seems more than worthwhile..

Just checked locally and can't see any mini-itx atom boards with dual ethernet.
(Whatever you get make sure its the 330 Atom and not the 230, the performance difference is huge)..

Hi gippsweb,

I found this one:
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/ms_9832
I believe that they will ship to Oz.
The manufacturer's site is here:
http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=388&cat2_no=&cat3_no=&prod_no=1614
Here in the US a 32GB Sandisk Extreme III is $30 USD more that a Corsair 32GB SSD  and only $20 USD cheaper than a 64GB SSD 

Del

[gippsweb]

Damn thats a nice board, (need to see if our MSI disty has them) but I don't think those GbE ports are supported by SME..
I've had the Realtek 8169 cards working, but performance varies greatly(the driver is crap).
Haven't seen much support for any other Realtek GbE chips....

[del]

Damn thats a nice board, (need to see if our MSI disty has them) but I don't think those GbE ports are supported by SME..
I've had the Realtek 8169 cards working, but performance varies greatly(the driver is crap).
Haven't seen much support for any other Realtek GbE chips....

So what motherboard do you use for the atom? It's seems I may be better off using a micro ATX and a rack mount case.

Del

[gippsweb]

unfortunately all the ones we have used only have single 10/100 ethernet ports.
As we've been using then only as ip pbx's it hasn't really bothered us to this point.

[del]

unfortunately all the ones we have used only have single 10/100 ethernet ports.
As we've been using then only as ip pbx's it hasn't really bothered us to this point.

Which one do you use with a single LAN? I could always out it behind a router.

[del]

We stopped running VIA EPIA boards some time ago in favour of Intel Atom based units.

Best

S

Hi Selintra,

Can you tell me why you've stopped using Via EPIA boards? My home SAIL/SME is using a ek10000g motherboard (which you recommended sometime ago) and I have had no problems with it. I am opening a small office and need to build another box but the ek10000g is no longer in stock anywhere here in the USA and I'm having trouble finding an Atom board with anything but dual Realtek LAN. Any help appreciated.

Del

[SARK devs]

The EK10000 is now obsolete.  In a nutshell, that's why we don't use it anymore...  That and the fact that they (EPIA) don't have a suitable replacement.  However, the Atom 230 boards make a compelling alternative. Yes, they all use Realtek NICs as far as we know, but that's OK, we just downloaded the relevent driver and compiled it on SME7/CentOS4.  Works for us.

It really depends what you want.  For our entry PBX range we just wanted a quiet, mini-ITX format board in the one and a half Ghz range;  the Atom 230 boards hit that very nicely and the fact that Intel is producing them by the bucketload means that they aren't expensive.

Kind Regards

S

[del]

Yes, they all use Realtek NICs as far as we know, but that's OK, we just downloaded the relevant driver and compiled it on SME7/CentOS4.  Works for us.

Kind Regards

S

Hi Selintra,

I've downloaded the driver from Realtek for kernel 2.4 to 2.6 in .tar.bz2 format. Can you point me in the right direction on howto compile it for SME/Centos4. May be a link explaining the procedure and relevant command line instructions, anything that will give me a start. All my search efforts keep going to Centos5 tutorials. In the .tar.bz2 file there is a makefile, can I just run the make command?

Thanks,
Del

[SARK devs]

You'll need GCC if you want to compile it yourself. 

In theory, you should recompile the driver from source each time you upgrade your kernel release.  You may, or may not, find that this step is necessary for you.

Kind Regards

S

[del]

You'll need GCC if you want to compile it yourself. 

In theory, you should recompile the driver from source each time you upgrade your kernel release.  You may, or may not, find that this step is necessary for you.

Kind Regards

S

I'm sorry for being a bit slow, but what is GCC? Do I install it on my server? Please forgive me I  have not done anything like this before, but I am willing to listen and learn.

Thanks again,
Del

[arne]

The question of compiling source code has been, someway a hot potato during the years.

There is some security concerns about this. When the discussion has been up, from time to time, the advice from experienced SME users and developers has been "don't do it you will hurt the overall security of your server."

It can be done, but I actually don't do it myself any more. (I rather use virtual installations of the SME server running under Vmware, and then hardware support is not a issue anymore, as this will be handeled by the host system.)

Here is a link to one of the many discussions from the old days, and the recomendation is as already mentioned: Don't do it.

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,38788.0.html

.. Unless S has some more updated and bether ideas ?

[del]

OK, I've sorted out GCC, I am now trying to find the source for my kernel (2.6.9-78.0.22.EL) I can only find the source code for original kernel (2.6.9-78.0.08.EL). So can anyone point to it? I have searched Centos's site and can't find that exact version. Do I need it to compile drivers? I understand that I would need it compile a software package.

Thanks,
Del

[arne]

The developer manual contains a clear warning against installing compilers on production servers. The advice that has been given before in this forum is to compile the drivers on one other Centos installation and transfer it to the SME server after. (I actually don't know how to do that myself.)

Anyhow, to find the sourcecode for that particular network adapter I think you should specify the model of network adapter or the main board with the integreated adapter.

[Stefano]

OK, I've sorted out GCC, I am now trying to find the source for my kernel (2.6.9-78.0.22.EL) I can only find the source code for original kernel (2.6.9-78.0.08.EL). So can anyone point to it? I have searched Centos's site and can't find that exact version. Do I need it to compile drivers? I understand that I would need it compile a software package.

Thanks,
Del

Del, please, install a Centos 4.X machine, update it then compile your drivers on it..

there are many many guides and howto out there, search with Google; stop tampering your server

[del]

Arne and Stefano, don't panic, I'm using a test server to try it on. Any how couldn't I just remove GCC when I'm finished?
Arne, I've got the source for the driver, I'm looking for the source for the latest kernel on SME 7.4, the original kernel source is on the srpm iso.
Stefano, I have seen lots of howtos, but none that show you how to move from one PC to another, they all seem to be doing it on the PC that needs the drivers. So I am still trying to work through it. I would use SME8, even though it's still beta (my limited tests have found it to be as stable as 7.4) but I don't think that the current SAIL and Asterisk 1.4 can be used on it, the only howto for it involves compiling Asterisk 1.6 (which brings us back to the security problem that you mentioned) and using an experimental SAIL rpm.

Del

[del]

I still have not given up with this yet, the MSI motherboard with dual LAN sits here waiting patiently so if anyone  can help I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Del

[SARK devs]

email me at admin@aelintra.com