Low power Linux machine for Bacula

bothyhead

I'm working from home, and currently running Baclua software on my Windows machine to do disk-to-disk backups. Bacula is really designed to be run on Linux, and the Windows version that I'm using is not supported (3.0.3a). I am looking for some sort of Linux computer or appliance to host the server side of things. I'm not planing on using the machine for anything other than backup, so a high-spec machine is not required. What would be more important is to keep electric power consumption as low as possible. I'm thinking of something along the lines of the following, without any KVM attached:

http://www.aleutia.com/products/d1-fanless-atom-nettop-pc

My current backup data is taking < 150GB for a 6 month GFS rotation strategy, so, I'm thinking that a 500GB drive would give me ample space for the OS (ubuntu or centos) and for my current and future data demands.

Network I/O will probably be the most worked area. Do you think that the above machine specs are up to the task, or have any of you used something else?

Many thanks.

bhickey

If you want Linux on a low power device then try one of these and attach a USB drive.

bothyhead

Thanks for the info, but I'm not sure that's a runner. The device you linked uses 19W and in addition I'll have add a HDD, which will consume an additional 10W probably (I'd have too much data to consider using SSD). By comparison, the Aleutia device I mentioned consumes 23W under load and 12W when idle (which it will be for most of the day). So, both devices are probably similar, with Aleutia having the slight advantage that the HDD is internal, and therefore not needing a separate power source.

Anyway, I appreciate your reply, thanks.

bhickey

bothyhead wrote: »

Thanks for the info, but I'm not sure that's a runner. The device you linked uses 19W and in addition I'll have add a HDD, which will consume an additional 10W probably (I'd have too much data to consider using SSD).

Err no. What you're looking at is where it says that the power supply that comes with the unit is capable of delivering 19W. This would be to cover situations where you might attach all sorts of peripherals (e.g.USB drives) to the Dreamplug.

The unit itself will probably use less than 5W and an external 2.5" USB drive would use about 3W so you'd have a total then of about 8W.

Later that day ..... Actually I've just plugged one in and attached a 250GB 2.5" USB drive to it. This setup is using 7W.

bothyhead

Ah, so the dreamplug is powering the USB drive? Sorry, I incorrectly assumed the USB had to be plugged in to a separate 220V supply as well. You're running at 7W? Nice! I'll have another look at the dreamplug specs so.

I emailed the Aleuita guys, and they recommended their T2 machine, but this will be running at about 550 eur, which hurts the pocket a bit.

http://www.aleutia.com/t2-dual-core-fanless-mini-atom-pc

Jonathan

I use PC Engines for my embedded machines.

I've used both OpenWrt and Debian on them and never had any problems.

Capt'n Midnight

does it need to be always on ?

you could use an old laptop with wake on lan, there are plenty of windows apps that send magic packets, if using a pull backup simply put in a startup script and set the laptop's power settings to suspend after a while

on suspend you are looking at 1w or maybe 3w for a desktop
if you had a USB powered extension socket ( christmas shop had them for €9 a while back) you would only use that 1w while your windows machine was powered up.

For a smaller backup look at backuppc too , this will just backup changed files , web browser for recovery - it's a file backup not a full system one. But it's single instance store so very good on space.

To speed up full backups try setting up a small system partition and a large data one. You can image the system partition , but only need to copy the files on the data one, this means way faster backups while allowing full recovery , also means uber fast recovery as you have the system up and running quickly and can restore users data according to their priorities

bothyhead

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

does it need to be always on ?

No, I suppose not, though I was planing on putting Nagios on it as well.