CWWK/Topton/... Nxxx quad NIC router

[idle_user]

I see that it might be possible to buy a NVME M.2 to USB 3.0 thing on AE which then it might be possible to route a USB 3.0 port or two out of the case but who knows if it will work.

There should be a non-standard SATA connector pins available that you could use. The cwwk unit I have arrived with the adapter in the box. All units should have the same layout. Topton just doesn't include any of the extras

 

[hot22shot]

Does anyone can share their BIOS settings for a low power system ? I have the CWWK/N305 version and I'm trying to make it as low power as it can be.

 

[ShoruKen]

Do you have a box with SATA ports? If so, why not connect them directly? USB attached disks should always be the last option due it various issues associated with the USB connection (regardless if it’s 2.0 or 3.1)

I was hoping for one or two USB 3 ports so that I can plug-in external drives for scheduled backup jobs.

A WD 10TB HD for media backup, and a 2TB external SSD for snapshots, etc. This would keep traffic off the network. I should probably setup a dedicated VLAN.

 

[alexw1982]

I see but wouldn’t the usb 2.0 be fine for that purpose? After a lengthy initial backup incremental backups should be faster if you don’t modify 100s of GBs per day

 

[Zer0_C00L]

I see but wouldn’t the usb 2.0 be fine for that purpose? After a lengthy initial backup, incremental backups should be faster if you don’t modify 100s of GBs per day

Especially when you consider a 2x USB3 port is basically a PCIe 3.0 x8 lane. I'd much rather those PCIe lanes.

 

[vamega]

Has anyone seen the 6 port version of this? The cwwk image shows that one exists/is in development but I haven’t seen it anywhere.

 

[sos_nz]

Prolly 'cos that would use up even more of those valuable PCI lanes.

 

[CuriousShrew]

Were you able to figure out how to power the device via the PSU?

The project has been delayed while I wait for replacement parts. But to put it simply the computer accepts 12v - 19v for power, so I'll just use a the 12v line on the PSU to power it.

 

[cessquill]

The project has been delayed while I wait for replacement parts. But to put it simply the computer accepts 12v - 19v for power, so I'll just use a the 12v line on the PSU to power it.

Sounds like how the NUC motherboards work - either via a barrel connector OR 4-pin micro(?) molex and a fairly wide range of voltages. Built a similar NUC rackmount machine over lockdown with a mean well supply. All fairly simple, but had to get acquainted with lots of different dupont and JST crimp size connectors. I'm no good at that, my eyesight is crap, but with some eBay components, an Amazon crimp and patience, it wasn't too bad.

 

[SnJ9MX]

Can someone please confirm if it is possible to passthrough only 2 of the NICs to say a pfSense VM in Proxmox? I see they're listed as separate PCI devices in the various lspci outputs on the forums so I am assuming it is but looking for some confirmation.

The goal would be to have 2 ethernet ports passthrough'd to a firewall/router VM and leave the rest for the proxmox host (potentially as a pseudo-switch).

 

[athurdent]

Can someone please confirm if it is possible to passthrough only 2 of the NICs to say a pfSense VM in Proxmox? I see they're listed as separate PCI devices in the various lspci outputs on the forums so I am assuming it is but looking for some confirmation.

The goal would be to have 2 ethernet ports passthrough'd to a firewall/router VM and leave the rest for the proxmox host (potentially as a pseudo-switch).

Yes, I did that for my OPNsense VM.

 

[Tortelli]

How did you do this? Looking for a decent tutorial to install OPNsense on proxmox with 1 WAN and 1 LAN port passtrue. 1 or 2 other ports will be used for VM's.

(also not able to find recent bios for N6005)

 

[JdeFalconr]

Just wanted to stop by to say my N200 system from CWWK (Amazon) is now humming along running bare-metal Opnsense. CPU temps are unfortunately higher than I'd like but given that it's running in a ventilated rack in my garage and ambient temps are in the low 80's F I'm not expecting good cooling this time of year. Fortunately two-thirds of the year is considerably cooler here in the Pacific Northwest so I'm not worried.

 

[athurdent]

How did you do this? Looking for a decent tutorial to install OPNsense on proxmox with 1 WAN and 1 LAN port passtrue. 1 or 2 other ports will be used for VM's.

(also not able to find recent bios for N6005)

As for Proxmox, STH has a guide: https://www.servethehome.com/how-to-pass-through-pcie-nics-with-proxmox-ve-on-intel-and-amd/
I'm using

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="intel_iommu=on iommu=pt"

Zenarmor have a good doc on how to install OPNsense on Proxmox: OPNsense Firewall Installation - zenarmor.com
You'll need to map the passed through interfaces deriving from the guide:

I suggest to try out their free version of the DPI plugin, too. It's awesome, and these boxes will usually do line rate 2.5G throughput with the added security/visibility.
I am using 2 CPUs, 8G RAM and a 150G disk for my VM to run Zenarmor.

 

[Donut7059]

Just wanted to stop by to say my N200 system from CWWK (Amazon) is now humming along running bare-metal Opnsense. CPU temps are unfortunately higher than I'd like but given that it's running in a ventilated rack in my garage and ambient temps are in the low 80's F I'm not expecting good cooling this time of year. Fortunately two-thirds of the year is considerably cooler here in the Pacific Northwest so I'm not worried.

how high are we talking?
I was looking to order that one to run proxmox with an instance of pfsense

 

[JdeFalconr]

how high are we talking?
I was looking to order that one to run proxmox with an instance of pfsense

 

[Donut7059]

View attachment 30728

thanks, could be worse i guess. wonder if it just needs new thermal paste/tape.

the n200 one is 10% off today

 

[JdeFalconr]

thanks, could be worse i guess. wonder if it just needs new thermal paste/tape.

the n200 one is 10% off today

Well the other thing is that my garage doesn't ventilate well and it gets hot in there. I'm going to see how it does in the fall when temps start to drop. If it remains considerably higher than ambient then maybe I'll look at fiddling with thermal paste.

 

[idle_user]

Here are the temperature readings for the last 12 hours of my two units for those curious. These are the i3-n305 version of CWWK and TopTon.

• I have default BIOS, no changes besides boot order
• Both are running proxmox with low intensity VMs
  • The TopTon unit has more VMs running on it
• Both units have 2 NVMEs on them
  • The TopTon unit does have an NVME with a heatsink on it - this might be helpful
• Both units are in an enclosed rack with only exhaust on top.
• Room ambient temperatures are around 75-80 F

I'm sure I can lower the temperatures by tweaking the BIOS settings to make them more power efficient.
Please let me know if you have any questions or any input.

Thanks,

 

[AnthonyUK]

how high are we talking?
I was looking to order that one to run proxmox with an instance of pfsense

I don't see the benefit of the N200 over the N100 for this use case.