Micro Datacenter: Requirements? How to??

[plugcrazy]

Hi,

As mentioned in my previous thread, I would like to create a micro-datacenter. What i'd like to know are which would be the common services for a small-business to have? I'd like help in figuring out the missing pieces. Once I have more information, I'll create a wiki page and add the instructions there.

Small Business Requirements?
=====================
Please add as many services as you think is required by a small business.

* NAS -- this is a must I guess. How to install NAS, how to test it??
* WebServer -- Which one, LAMP? How to?
* Other?


System Setup
==========
* 5 Plugs
* One 8 port GigE workgroup switch
* One Seagate 250 gig drive, connected to one of the plugs

Final Network Setup
==============
* Connect the 5 plugs to the workgroup switch
* Connect the Seagate drive to one of the plugs
* Connect the workgroup switch to the network

I'm a complete novice/newbie to plugs and not the best linux admin. So will be posting a lot of questions the next few days. Maybe could create a wiki at the end of this exercise.

Thanks in advance for all the help.
PC

[plugcrazy]

OK. I'm gonna RTFM first and read up http://www.plugcomputer.org/plugwiki/index.php/QuickStart before I shoot off more questions :-).

Thanks,
PC

[plugcrazy]

So the QuickStart guide Wiki worked perfectly! I now have a plug with light httpd running. Next to see how I can get the USB drive mounted on it. Unfortunately I bought a Seagate 250 Gig which needs to be powered with  an external source. Have to get a USB hub for that.


What other services to install on different plugs? Any suggestions are welcome. What does a small business need? Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,
PC.

[pingtoo]

Hi plugcrazy,

I am working on similar idea, I want to build a data center ready system. I use plug as my test bed. So far I build my own rootfs using Gentoo as building meta environment. on my system I have install openldap, samba, rsync, dhcp+ldap, ldapdns, lighttpd, apache2, php5, webmin, gosa, cfengine so far I am still in configuration phase once I finish setup you are welcome to test it out. (hopefully it can be out in January time frame.)

for the data center idea, I would want to have monitoring, statistic gathering. So I will put on nagios and something to draw pictures.

Good luck 

[plugcrazy]

Hi CCP,

Thanks for post! I want to offer this as a data-center in a wall. Something that one can just hang on the wall. I could probably work on a form-factor design for it too :-), But that would be the more 'creative' part ;-).

Just a question, you did all that on a single plug? With just httpd, mysql-server and client I'm already down to about 200+ Mbytes of free space. Or did you add additional memory using an SD card? I havent added that as yet. I have 5 plugs and want to use all of them in a single setup.

But, yes would be great to try out your setup on my test-bed. Looking forward to it.

Best regards,
PC :-)

[DamonHD]

When you say 'free' space do you mean free virtual memory space?

The default on Linux these days seems to be to allocate 8M for each thread's stack, which is WAAAAAY more than is needed for (eg) Apache.

I tuned (in the rc shell scripts) Apache and a couple of other apps to use much less, well under 1MB, and also to run fewer processes and threads, which is fine unless you have a very busy site.  I support multiple Apache static sites and sendmail and NTP and a complex Java Web site and various other things on the plug.

Rgds

Damon

[pingtoo]

Hi CCP,

Thanks for post! I want to offer this as a data-center in a wall. Something that one can just hang on the wall. I could probably work on a form-factor design for it too :-), But that would be the more 'creative' part ;-).

Just a question, you did all that on a single plug? With just httpd, mysql-server and client I'm already down to about 200+ Mbytes of free space. Or did you add additional memory using an SD card? I havent added that as yet. I have 5 plugs and want to use all of them in a single setup.

But, yes would be great to try out your setup on my test-bed. Looking forward to it.

Best regards,
PC :-)

If you are talking about storage space then yes I did it by add SD card but probably not the way you are thinking about. I use unionfs on top of NAND so I have a read only portion of the rootfs store in NAND anything changes will store on SD or USB depand on how you setup. on NAND I use UBIFS which compress my current rootfs down 50%.

Same idea, I was thinking in the term of appliance. I want it to be a plug and play system. also a development platform too.

[plugcrazy]

Trying to insall webmin, running into some issues (thats another thread).

But I was thinking if I have an array of plugs all connected to a switch, can they all be managed by webmin on one plug? Or is it better to run Nagios on each and manage the plugs using that?

Thanks,
PC

[pingtoo]

Webmin can discover other machine with webmin installed and manage from one central machine.
Nagios is a monitoring platform, it can not be use as management system unless you add your own event process.

[plugcrazy]

When you say 'discover', what does that mean? Is there something that webmin broadcasts? What if the devices are on separate networks? But within the scope of a micro-datacenter where all the plugs are connected together through a switch it should be ok.
- PC

[pingtoo]

When you say 'discover', what does that mean? Is there something that webmin broadcasts? What if the devices are on separate networks? But within the scope of a micro-datacenter where all the plugs are connected together through a switch it should be ok.
- PC

In webmin there is a ? (not sure how to describe it, I am new to webmin too) anyway from the web interface you can find in webmin configuration to ask the instance to discover other webmin installation. may be because I have nmap installation so it know how to probe network.