From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 19 17:20:59 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 60C9310656B4 for ; Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:20:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from hartzell@alerce.com) Received: from merlin.alerce.com (merlin.alerce.com [64.62.142.94]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4A3D98FC26 for ; Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:20:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from hartzell@alerce.com) Received: from merlin.alerce.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by merlin.alerce.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 125F233C62; Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:49:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: from merlin.alerce.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by merlin.alerce.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9697333C5B; Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:49:05 -0700 (PDT) From: George Hartzell MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <19003.49536.836196.347170@already.dhcp.gene.com> Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:49:04 -0700 To: John Almberg In-Reply-To: <94A1EEFE-A341-41C8-A63E-4F9EC1C75670@identry.com> References: <94A1EEFE-A341-41C8-A63E-4F9EC1C75670@identry.com> X-Mailer: VM 8.0.12 under 22.3.1 (i386-apple-darwin9.6.0) X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV using ClamSMTP Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Compact Freebsd 'appliance' X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: hartzell@alerce.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:21:00 -0000 John Almberg writes: > I have a client who has an application that he wants to deploy in his > customer's offices as a headless 'appliance'. Basically, just a black > box that you can plug into a Lan, turn it on, and it runs. No floppy > disk or CD, no monitor/keyboard, just remotely managed. > > This application won't store any critical data, so it doesn't need > redundancy. It just needs to be reasonably reliable, compact, and quiet. > > My first recommendation was to use a Mac Mini, but that excellent bit > of hardware was deemed 'not professional enough'. So now I am looking > for a compact pc that can run FreeBSD, of course. I think it probably > just needs a power supply, tiny motherboard with onboard ethernet, > usb, etc., and hard drive. > > If anyone has a recommendation (or if their are any vendors lurking), > please shoot me an email off list. I'll compile a list of > recommendations and post it all at once, in case anyone else is > interested in this. I have a couple of Via Artigo a2000 boxes, one running FreeBSD-STABLE (post 7.2) and the other running FreeNAS. Both work well. I've seen posts from one fellow who's tracking a bug with the vge interface under very heavy load, but both of mine stream music and do Time Machine backups via netatalk without any trouble. Logic Supply has a custom FreeNAS build that recognizes the disks as SATA and that adds support for Gb ethernet to the NIC (rolling in changes from -STABLE to the 6.x series on which the stable FreeNAS is based). http://www.logicsupply.com/blog/2009/05/11/custom-a2000-freenas-image/ They're not the cheapest place to buy the box, but they're close and they do good support (I'm just a happy customer and I helped with the FreeNAS image, no other association). They're not Living Room quiet, but they're about as unobtrusive as you can get in a little box w/out going fanless. g.