From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 27 12:03:32 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7851B106566B for ; Fri, 27 May 2011 12:03:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from DStaal@usa.net) Received: from mail.magehandbook.com (173-8-4-45-WashingtonDC.hfc.comcastbusiness.net [173.8.4.45]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4E8838FC17 for ; Fri, 27 May 2011 12:03:29 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.1.50] (Mac-Pro.magehandbook.com [192.168.1.50]) by mail.magehandbook.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 46629902 for ; Fri, 27 May 2011 08:03:28 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 27 May 2011 08:03:28 -0400 From: Daniel Staal To: FreeBSD Questions List Message-ID: <2421CFAF1938713B84EAEA0F@mac-pro.magehandbook.com> In-Reply-To: References: X-Mailer: Mulberry/4.0.8 (Mac OS X) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Cc: Subject: Re: RAM needed for DHCP + router? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: FreeBSD Questions List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 27 May 2011 12:03:32 -0000 --As of May 26, 2011 7:46:10 PM -0400, Chris Hill is alleged to have said: > I'm looking to build a NAT / DHCP box for a lab network for my company. > My question is, how do I estimate the amount of RAM the machine will need? > > This box will be running isc-dhcpd, doing NAT either via natd or pf, and > not much else. I expect the amount of traffic (throughput) to be very > small, but the address space involved is quite large, at least by my > standards. It seems to me that this will require potentially large > amounts of memory for routing tables, etc., but not much disk. > > I'll be installing the latest -RELEASE; 32-bit if I can, 64-bit if I > must, depending on how much memory it looks like I'll need. I may also > install webmin for the benefit of my computer-literate-but-not-unix-savvy > coworkers. --As for the rest, it is mine. Just to give a low-end on this: My home firewall is a custom-kernel NAT/DHCP box, using pf. It's running on a Soekris box, using a RAM disk for logs. Total RAM in the box is 64MB. Avalible RAM (minus the RAM disk) is under 30MB. I usually run with over 10MB of RAM free. It also runs an FTP proxy (outbound, to allow stuff through the firewall) and a miniunpdp deamon. Even with the full kernel, and a few thousand users, I'd be absolutely amazed if a GB of RAM isn't well more than enough. Even half a GB should be more than enough. I'd expect a higher-end Soekris box would be plenty, in fact... Daniel T. Staal --------------------------------------------------------------- This email copyright the author. Unless otherwise noted, you are expressly allowed to retransmit, quote, or otherwise use the contents for non-commercial purposes. This copyright will expire 5 years after the author's death, or in 30 years, whichever is longer, unless such a period is in excess of local copyright law. ---------------------------------------------------------------