"Mobile" server

[Opensupport.it]

i have some crazy idea, i would build my new home server proxmox infrastructure with 1 (or 2 node)
powerful laptop (es. DELL e6420 i5/i7 and 8 or more gb of ram) and a dedicated raid nas.

pro:
- ssd disk
- battery as a perfect backup ups
- vm machine can work in local or via nfs share (raid nas)
- low price for used laptop with similar performance if hardware go down

cont:
- short life of laptop?

anyone use similar idea/project or tips?

tnks.

 

[marcoi]

with laptop, you have at least a few issues that i can think of.
1. limited Ram (most top out at 32GB)
2. you are paying for a screen you dont need to use.
3. you are limited to 1 nic port @ 1GB interface.
4. no add-0n capabilities. IE you can add usb card for pass-through.
5. if you push the laptop hard the thermals will kick in the fans and they can be loud.

If you want small, might be better to consider a nuc or m-itx build.

 

[Kapel]

i have some crazy idea, i would build my new home server proxmox infrastructure with 1 (or 2 node)
powerful laptop (es. DELL e6420 i5/i7 and 8 or more gb of ram) and a dedicated raid nas.

pro:
- ssd disk
- battery as a perfect backup ups
- vm machine can work in local or via nfs share (raid nas)
- low price for used laptop with similar performance if hardware go down

cont:
- short life of laptop?

anyone use similar idea/project or tips?

tnks.

Mind that the processor in the laptop is not as efficient as the desktop version. Also, how would you handle the heating solution? A good thing would be quite low power consumption.

 

[TLN]

Mind that the processor in the laptop is not as efficient as the desktop version. Also, how would you handle the heating solution? A good thing would be quite low power consumption.

laptop have low power consumption compared to any server.
If you wanna stay mobile - I think laptop is the way to go. Having a screen doesnt hurt, and internal battery eliminates UPS need.

 

[nk215]

A long time ago I had a "mobile" server. The idea was to have my flex movies with me on long trips for the children. There was also a Wifi LAN in our vehicle for minecraft network game etc. Everything was based on an i7 laptop with 16g of memory and a cheap AC router (+ external HDD).

Everything fit nicely under the back seat.

 

[marcoi]

laptop have low power consumption compared to any server.
If you wanna stay mobile - I think laptop is the way to go. Having a screen doesnt hurt, and internal battery eliminates UPS need.

some servers can run low power. My e3 based systems are around 50 watts or less. I think the performance/watt ration of lower power server would be better then laptop.

I also dont think the OP particularly looking for it to be mobile, based on the statement "i would build my new home server" Seems like the plan is to keep it in his home vs making it mobile.

as for UPS, well depends on how old the laptop is, batteries on them tend to not last more then 2 years. and a low power server doesnt need a huge UPS, so he could get away with a lower end model or pool all his servers onto one unit, etc.

 

[TLN]

some servers can run low power. My e3 based systems are around 50 watts or less. I think the performance/watt ration of lower power server would be better then laptop.

I got 1265Lv2 and now coming 2618Lv3 CPUs, which should be pretty low power.
But its so easier to transport laptop, and so easier to deal with battery rather then UPS or anything else. Big bag vs server + UPS + cables + etc.

I see some laptops reasonably priced with 64G memory. Keep in mind that you'll get pretty fast CPU(cause gaming) with that.

Server would be cheaper/faster/easier to manage. But if I have to move it quite often - I'd pay premium for laptop.

 

[Marsh]

I have two x 4 nodes clusters consists of 4 x Shuttle DS81 , and 4 x Shuttle DS61 .
Another 8 nodes cluster consists of 8 x Shuttle SH67 ( larger size )

I have many various models of Shuttle Xh61v, DS61 , DS81 ,DS87 , DH170 , SH87 , SH67, because its compactness and quietness. I sit 1 foot away from one of the 4 nodes cluster.

Shuttle barebone computer lets me install the CPU that I want from I3 to I7, but still limited by memory slots,

All the DSxx and Xhxx( except verion 1 of Xhxx ) models have 2 network ports.

 

[marcoi]

i love shuttle mini pcs

 

[fractal]

It is hard to beat a laptop if you plan on shoving it under the seat of the car and running it while driving down the road. 12 volt wide input range power supplies are common for most laptops. You can buy wide input range pico-psu's and feed them from 12 volt warts / car battery if you are building a low power box. The one thing they won't have is the build in keyboard / display for when you are in the hotel room. Though, if you are planning on putting it under the car seat you probably have a laptop or tablet for your UI so that won't be an issue.

The one problem I see with laptops is they tend to get warm to hot if you demand much from them. This can be a problem if you put them under a seat and with other luggage.

If, on the other hand, the goal is portable as opposed to mobile, there are some nice cases that will take a pair of mini-itx boards and have a carrying handle that will likely give you more punch for the buck.

 

[Opensupport.it]

i have now a supermicro A1SAi-2750F 16gb, raid 1 500gb on two arrayfor virtualizzation home production lab, with real ups and nas data and backup, but recently i testing a laptop for node backup and the firrs test are encouraging.

here is started my thought....

i know the hardwar expansio limit of a laptop (lan etc etc) but is interesting the "resistance to the house problem" vs "datacenter infrastructure hardware"

 

[Netwerkz101]

with laptop, you have at least a few issues that i can think of.
1. limited Ram (most top out at 32GB)
2. you are paying for a screen you dont need to use.
3. you are limited to 1 nic port @ 1GB interface.
4. no add-0n capabilities. IE you can add usb card for pass-through.
5. if you push the laptop hard the thermals will kick in the fans and they can be loud.

If you want small, might be better to consider a nuc or m-itx build.

A NUC shares most of the limitations of a laptop and fewer of the benefits ie .. #1, #3, and #4.
#2 is a benefit it you think truly mobile - unless you assume a display exist everywhere you go.

Newer laptops can have up to 64GB RAM + Thunderbolt 3 ports for 10Gbit networking.
Dell Precision Mobile Workstations 7710 or 7510 are examples.

Until the newest NUC came out, I enjoyed watching post of people exploding the guts of a
NUC to make it do what a mITX server was built for.

I've never tried Type 1 hypervisor on mine, but VMware Workstation + 64GB RAM provides a nice nested setup to
take on the road when needed.

 

[MBastian]

I had roughly the same idea and recently bought a much abused Dell E5530 with a borked DC Plug for a few Euros. Repairing it was easy if a bit time consuming. Today I upgraded the installed i5-3340M with an i7-3630QM I bought on Ebay. Originally I wanted an i5-3632QM but these go for quite a bit more.. Probably because these are 35 TDB parts, the 3630QM is a 45 Watt part and might be a bit on the hot side for most Heatsinks.
Right now it runs Fedora 25 Workstation with cpupower limit set to 3GHz. Temperatures(70ish °C) under full load are reasonable so far.

Right now it has 8GB RAM installed I hope to upgrade to 16GB sometime soon. 32GB is out of the question unless I find a once-in-a-lifetime deal on Ebay and some sort of confirmation that it actually works in my E5530.

 

[Blinky 42]

If you are going for more "ease of picking it up and bringing it elsewhere" vs. have it "run while on the road" I would go with a small mini-itx board in a compact case + a laptop for your interaction with it vs multiple beefy laptops. If you are going to do a NAS anyway, just make that NAS beefy enough for VMs and then use whatever laptop you want to access it.

For work stuff I have a supermicro "cube" (SC721TQ-250B | Mini-tower | Chassis | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.) with xeon-d and 4x 10T drives in it so I can sneakernet 20-30T of data in a trip. If I just needed CPU/Network and not disk I would go with the smaller E200 / E300 style boxes (Supermicro | Products | SuperServers | Mini 1U | SYS-E200-8D and SCE300 | 1U | Chassis | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc. ). I would rather pay for a decent compute power and SSDs vs putting that $ into extra laptop parts that are not needed.

I wouldn't recommend actually using the 10TB or any spinning drives while driving around in a car, but SSDs would be fine. I have run the whole setup on a bog standard 12V->120V power inverter along with wifi and switches in the past for testing out sites. Much more comfortable to sit in my car seats and listen to decent audio than stand in a colo and go deaf with server whine while all the moisture is sucked out of your body from the hot air moving around

Now if there was a sturdy workstation-replacement/gaming laptop sized box with a Ryzen or Xeon-D in it, with 10G network, room for multiple NVMe and/or SSD then we would be talking! Could stick it in a big laptop bag and take that on the road along with a skinny laptop for interacting with it.

 

[Opensupport.it]

when i think my title "mobile server" i not think "on the road pc server or car server" i think to use this solution as a stable home server solutio, without losing some performance of my actual system (A1SAi-2750F)

 

[wiretap]

So you mean a stationary home server?

 

[msvirtualguy]

There are so many types of "Servers" you can choose today, but like anything, you need to figure out your requirements, ie # of VMs which will lead to how much CPU/RAM/Storage you need or want to grow into. The answer to this question may assist in eliminating the form factors that may not fit. For example, if you need more than 32GB RAM, then you can eliminate NUC and the majority of laptops as an option or even the smaller Xeon D systems like the e200/e300 if bulk storage is a requirement.

You have to ask yourself what exactly you are trying to accomplish. This is no different than a production environment, the requirements dictate the solution...not the other way around.

For example, I have a Xeon D minitower system because I need it to be somewhat mobile because I bring it to Bootcamps and Conferences but I also need it to have a lot of power, so Xeon D, NVMe/SSD all flash, and 128GB RAM running Nutanix Community Edition with Nested instances works great. I know I need to run the nested instances and a few VMs and I need it to be somewhat powerful and fast. This is why this platform fit perfectly.

 

[acquacow]

If you want something small and capable, I suggest you follow the lead of this thread:

Pocket Sized ESXi box!

And use a board like this:
Amazon.com: Supermicro Mini-ITX 2133/1866/1600MHz ECC DDR4 Single socket FCBGA 1667 Motherboard (X10SDV-TLN4F-O): Computers & Accessories

You can usb boot it, use the internal M.2 for a datastore, and still have a few 2.5in SSDs attached for data volumes/etc.

-- Dave

 

[Opensupport.it]

So you mean a stationary home server?

yes stationary device but using laptop or similar

 

[Opensupport.it]

i think to use two use proxmox VE on a DELL precision M4600 or two latitude e6230 (i5 3320M) as a good workstation laptop (one laptop as only a backup hardware solution) and expand lan with Expresscard if i need more lan