[CentOS] Intel Atom systems?

nate centos at linuxpowered.net
Sat May 23 18:11:12 UTC 2009


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






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