I've managed to move teleinfo.pb.edu.pl, a small university server, from an old Pentium 3 550 MHz box to Efika. It runs Debian Linux, my distribution of choice. I started from booting netinstall kernel via TFTP. The server is running Apache 2.0.58 with PHP 5.2.0 (compiled on Efika from sources as I've needed GD + FreeType in PHP), SMTP and POP3 service, FTP service (no anonymous access however), sshd for management, MySQL server, and some small services like BNC tunnels and an eggdrop IRC bot. The server is running 24/7. Looking at 'top' figures, CPU load is not that high (0.16), swap is used moderately. I admit that teleinfo.pb.edu.pl is not a heavily loaded server, but Efika is a perfect solution here - energy saving, silent, small unit.

Transferring /home from the old machine was an interesting test for network interface and HDD. The home.tar file was 3.9 GB, it has been transferred via a crossover cable to the old box with a typical Realtek 8139 PCI card. Sustained transfer rate was 2.95 MB/s, of course md5 sum verification was positive.

Moderator Note: You never cease to amaze us!

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http://krashan.ppa.pl

Grzegorz, could you prepare a "How To" for that? We have an educational program starting up that could use this configuration possibility.

Thanks!

R&B :)

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http://bbrv.blogspot.com

Hi :)

Would you happen to have some power consumption figures from the old server to the new server?

It would be very interesting to show simply how you can update your hardware without overspecifying (moving a 500MHz box to a 400MHz box, rather than a ~5GHz box) and save power, money and earplugs :)

However power consumption data of real life systems is a little hard to come by. Even for the Efika we don't have super-hard figures on it (as the board can be configured many ways with graphics or other adapters and different spin-rates of disks or compactflash..) so two systems that do/did the same work would be a good comparison to make.

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Matt Sealey

I just bought a power meter today just for this purpose :-) When I get home, I'll make some measurements. Then I'll also measure my old server at the University, which has just about the same functions: DHCP and file server for a few people.

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CzP
http://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/

I have an el cheapo power meter and 80 GB HDD, 9200SE
and EFIKA drew about 20-22 Watts.

Can be done (I will take some photos), but I have to find a reliable True RMS power meter. Should not be difficult at Department of Electrical Engineering. Answering to later posts I must say that measuring power consumed by modern PSU is not that easy and using cheap power meters can give unreliable results, as current waveform is heavily distorted.
Unfortunately the old box is retired already, it has HDD and network board dismounted, so I cannot measure its power consumption.
My server Efika has no gfx board (it is not needed as soon as you install sshd). Konwing that IDE interface of Efika is not ultra fast, I've used low-power 4200 rpm hard disk.

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http://krashan.ppa.pl

Just to throw in some numbers...

I have one EFIKA running with a Club 3D NVidia FX5200, without harddrive, and this set-up consumes 15Watt. Measured from a quality lab power supply, so should be accurate.


Best regards,
Johan

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Johan Dams, Genesi USA Inc.
Director, Software Engineering

Yep, I have a blog... PurpleAlienPlanet

PurpleAlien:
So my 20-22 W with HDD wasn't that far off..

I was more curious about the specs of the Pentium box (considering it had the same task..)

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Matt Sealey

My server Efika running Debian Linux just passed the first month of continuous work. No problems so far :D. And I have to turn off all other computers in the room to hear it working (only HDD head movements are hearable).

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http://krashan.ppa.pl

Great! 8)

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http://bbrv.blogspot.com

Grzegorz,

Congratulations on getting your web server running!

I noticed that you said you installed debian via net-boot, and that the gfx adaptor was no longer needed once you got sshd installed.

I have been trying to install via netboot but have had problems. Did you need to use the serial interface to get your EFIKA working, or were you able to do the installation with gfx board and keyboard? I have been using the di_efika image off the bplan site, and have also tried a Gentoo installer image. Neither seems to be working for me. Though I get the images to load on to the EFIKA, once the tftp download is complete I find myself left at..
Since I don't have a serial connetion, I can't tell if it worked beyond that point. Were you able to get a console on the fgx card, or did you use serial?

Thanks,
Tim

Did you need to use the serial interface to get your EFIKA working, or were you able to do the installation with gfx board and keyboard?

No, serial interface is not needed at all. I've just used Radeon 9200SE (via supplied riser) and plain USB keyboard. Then, after system installation, I've verified that SSHD is up and is accepting connections. At this time I've removed graphics card, the riser, and plugged the keyboard out.

I have been using the di_efika image off the bplan site

I've used di_efika as well, and I've encountered no problems.

Were you able to get a console on the fgx card, or did you use serial?

Well, di_efika is a net install kernel, so I've rather got series of installation screens instead of console, but it worked out of the box (on the connected Radeon), the install process is the same as for official x86 netinstall kernel. After fetching choosen packages from network and installing them and reboot, I've got a typical console login and logged in succesfully. Serial cable was never used.

BTW have you tried with another model of gfx card? It looks like OF has problem with card BIOS initialization.

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http://krashan.ppa.pl

Thanks Grzegorz!

My problem was twofold... First of all, I was using an nVidia board not realizing that it would be a problem for text mode. I had thought it was only an issue for graphics mode. Not so. Luckily I have an ATi Radeon 9800 Pro that I use in my desktop system. So I was able to temporarily swap out the video card.

The second part of my problem was that I had a corrupted copy of the di_efika installer. I finally realized that the file size was off by a few bytes. Since bplan had the md5sums posted a quick check showed me that my file was bad. I re-downloaded (and verified) the file and all worked beautifully.

I had to abort my install about 75% of the way through because I don't have enough net connections on the home router and I was hijacking my roomie's port. But I should be able to complete the install in the next day or so. I have a few other images to play with. There is the di-efika Debian installer from Sven Luther's page (much larger than the "underscore" variant, "di_efika" from bplan - about twice as big, A Gentoo "stage 3" net-boot image that I would very much like to try, and another Gentoo image (stage 4?) with E17 (enlightenment destkop mgr) that frostwork (I think) posted up here in the forums.

Since I have a 40Gb hard disk on my EFIKA I have partitioned it out and will be running Debian and Gentoo. I am comfortable with Debian from running Ubuntu for the past 3 years. But I hope to acclimate to Gentoo and use that for my final project builds. Cross compiling will be new territory for me and is a little intimidating. But it is only fear of the unknown. I am sure that with the friendly help that is everywhere on IRC and forums I will get it all figured out. A low resource machine like EFIKA makes the little voice in my head say "may the source be with you".. :) And it is the perfect excuse I have been needing to get myself to dive into Gentoo.

Thanks again for writing me back!

Peace,
Tim

Hm, this is a lot. My EFIKA just needs 10 Watts and my Pegaos 1 needs 38 Watts.

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