Ok, so there hasn’t been all that much movement on this project as of yet, but I do have a lot of ideas for it and I am in the proccess of aquiring parts. At the minute, I have the following embedded boards to use,
- PC Engines Alix .3C
- PC Engines Wrap .1D
- PC Engines Wrap .2C
- PC Engines Wrap .1C
- RB-532 (Routerboard running MicroTik firmware)
- RB-564 (Routerboard Expansion Module)
For storage, I have 5x 128mb CF cards and 1x 2GB CF card. I also have 3x PoE injectors (the quick and dirty kind), 3x CM9 radio cards, and 1x 27dBi omni-directional antenna for 2.4GHz (which by the way, is awesome)
For servers, I still have PhoneBox, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom mini-ITX machine, I am working on getting a new, shiny rackmount dual core 1.6GHz machine too so that will be two servers for a start. I have also managed to aquire a racking case thats 600mm deep and has the capacity for around 12u, although it is missing its front bezel rails – I’m fairly confident I can find them somewhere in work. Im working on getting a new (2nd hand) patch pannel to keep everything neat and tidy too. Next on my list of things to do is to get a PSU built that can run all of this equipment with UPS functionality, I do have a 3A power plex box here that I also got from FWI, however it is not working at the moment, I beleive it is the power FET thats gone and it should be a simple chop & change replacement. Failing that, I will design a SLA charging circuit and feed the 12v supply from the transformer, and the 12v supply from the SLA bank into a comparator for fast switching on a power cut. I would like to have a UPS that can maintin the routing infrastructure during an outage for 16-24 hours. As the (soon to be) two Mini-ITX servers also run off 12v, I would like to have these included in the UPS scheme for a few reasons,
- A transformer at max-efficiency can only be around 85%, less transformers (power blocks etc…) means less power lost and a smaller electricity bill.
- The servers will be running Linux, which in some (lots of) cases, it doesnt like just having its power yanked.
- Everthing will be in a centralised location (at least at my station) so it will mean less wiring.
- Everything can then be rackmounted, and there would only be a single mains feed.
I am currently trying to draw a sufficient network topology plan including wiring and subnetting for my station to allow for easy management & high security. This also involves selecting what services will be provided on the network here – more on this later.
