Bill Campbell wrote:
Any comments on CentOS 5 on Intel Atom CPUs?
I need to build a couple of inexpensive systems that will be used primarily as gateway/firewall systems with OpenVPN, and need recommendations in reliable hardware platforms. These will need two NICs.
Go with Soekris, they are built for that purpose. You can even get an SSL accelerator card for them. Mine has a ~500Mhz AMD Geode CPU, 512MB ram, I added a 1GB CF card, it has 4x100Mbit NICs, it has a slot for a PCI device, I put a bracket with another serial port on there to hook to a UPS, has a USB port, and a serial port for console access, draws a tiny amount of power.
I don't consider linux a good platform for firewall or VPN devices myself, I use OpenBSD, with pf. I have an OpenVPN from my soekris box at home to my co-located server(runs Debian), have had it hooked up for almost a year now, works great. I don't need the SSL acceleration card as my commit rate at the colo is only 1Mbit, so I don't want to push a lot of traffic.
http://www.soekris.com/net5501.htm
These things are designed from the ground up to be firewall/VPN appliances(low end mind you, your not gonna be pushing gigabits of traffic through them). The CPU on mine doesn't even have a heat sink.
nate