[GLLUG] Low-power Home Server

[Tom Schouten]

It works and I'm happy with the setup.

The main plus point is that Debian's asterisk works without trouble 
after some tuning.  I can now switch off the PC without worrying about 
the desk phone.  Next to pbx and normal router functions it has a USB 
backup drive attached to receive remote backups.

It takes about 5W, so that goal is more than met.  Also it's cheap.  I 
used this to purchase a 2nd one for experimentation. Total price was $20 
for the router, $12 for the 16GB mini USB flash drive and about $100 for 
the external USB backup disk.  Prices where amazon/newegg deals so might 
be a bit higher now.

Currently it starts standard OpenWRT config that serves as a backup 
configuration.  From there it detects if the USB flash drive is present, 
and will proceed booting into Debian, killing the OpenWRT deamons and 
start the Debian ones.  I do keep the OpenWRT dropbear daemon running to 
be able to log into the real root.  Debian ssh daemon logs into the 
Debian chroot.

The downsides:

- Needs A LOT of work to tune for memory use and make robust.  My 
approach just starts a couple of daemons from the Debian chroot to keep 
the memory usage low, so the rest of the Debian boot is done manually, 
i.e. I'm not running the main Debian init script.

- I'd advice to install a hardware serial console from the start.  The 
board already has the 4-prong header soldered on it.  I broke it once 
after I switched it to be my main router, cutting myself out due to some 
network configuration error and a non-working (non-tested) failsafe.  Of 
course this is just me not being careful.

- Device is not supported in standard OpenWRT (yet).  I'm not sure if 
this is just an organizational problem or if there are licencing 
issues.  Compiling it is a pita.

- The main disappointment is that ssh/rsync is very slow.  I don't get 
over 2MB/sec and the limit here seems to be CPU, but for my purpose this 
is OK (receiving rate-limited incremental backups over the internet).

- It seems to need swap to run some of the more resource-intensive 
Debian apps.  Especially during "apt-get install" things can get out of 
hand.  I have this swap on a USB flash drive which is not ideal.

It was a nice learning experience, but I did not expect it to take so 
long to get going.  In retrospect, what I have running as daemons can 
probably be done in pure OpenWRT, but it sure is handy to have the 
convenience of a Debian system even if somewhat slow and 
memory-constrained.  OpenWRT is great for its intended purpose, but has 
its limitations.


On 07/05/2012 05:42 PM, Bryan Laur wrote:
> So, how is this working out?
> Did this end up being a viable solution?
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 1:57 PM, Tom Schouten <tom at zwizwa.be 
> <mailto:tom at zwizwa.be>> wrote:
>
>     To run debian I had to recompile the image on this page
>     http://manojpi.blogspot.com/2012/05/openwrt-on-belkin-share-max-n300.html
>     and enable FPU emulation.  Compilation didn't go without problems
>     so if anyone is interested in the .trx or the *.ipk, drop me an
>     email (strip the [GLLUG] tag in the subject line).
>
>
>
>     On 06/21/2012 07:02 PM, Tom Schouten wrote:
>
>         I bought the N300.  Let's see if I can scale down requirements
>         a bit..
>
>         Next is "debootstrap --foreign --arch mipsel squeeze squeeze"
>         on a USB 2.5"
>         Looking for more info I ran into this page:
>         http://wiki.debian.org/DebianWRT
>
>         I used OpenWRT + chrooted Debian system a couple of years ago
>         on an old SimpleTech SimpleShare NAS.  Worked well only for
>         very basic stuff since the disk was very slow and the machine
>         was a bit low on memory (32M).  The Belkin has 64M so should
>         be a little better, but still seems quite tight.  I'm curious
>         if it will run asterisk.
>
>
>         On 06/19/2012 12:38 AM, Charles Ulrich wrote:
>
>             Not a bad price for a hackable router, even if the stock
>             firmware is a bit crap. I might grab one to be a wifi bridge.
>
>             Also, what OpenWRT class? :)
>
>             Charles
>
>             On 06/18/2012 11:56 PM, Tom Schouten wrote:
>
>                 Thanks a bunch for all the answers.
>
>                 In the OpenWRT class I ran into this one today,
>                 currently $19.97 on amazon
>                 Belkin Share Max N300
>                 http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Share-N300-Wireless-Router/dp/B004B1Z6EE
>                 There are patches for OpenWRT
>                 http://manojpi.blogspot.com/2012/05/openwrt-on-belkin-share-max-n300.html
>
>
>                 Cheers
>                 Tom
>
>
>
>                 On 06/18/2012 08:23 AM, Tom Schouten wrote:
>
>                     Hi List,
>
>                     Recently I've been doing some math and found out
>                     that running a 100W
>                     machine 24/7 at my parent's back home cost me
>                     about 150 Euros/year
>                     (Belgian electricity is quite expensive, about 20
>                     Eurocents/kWh more
>                     than double of what it is here). The 100W was
>                     measured with power
>                     meter over period of 24h so is probably quite
>                     accurate. Includes PC,
>                     GB ethernet switch + wireless router.
>
>                     Anyone have an idea of how to replace this with
>                     something more
>                     power-efficient?
>                     I recently ran into [1] which seems like a nice
>                     solution. Not sure
>                     about the power though.
>                     It probably can go lower still. This[2] might be
>                     nice too.
>
>                     The main purpose for the server is backup, VPN,
>                     asterisk, email with
>                     spamassassin+clamav, apache and to serve as print
>                     server and gateway
>                     for the home network, maybe also PLEX but that can
>                     also run on a
>                     "real" PC if necessary.
>
>                     [1]
>                     http://mocko.org.uk/b/2012/06/17/how-i-store-my-1s-and-0s-zfs-bargain-hp-microserver-joy/
>
>
>                     [2]
>                     http://www.androidauthority.com/via-android-pc-arm-49-dollars-88209/
>
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