Looking for a Linux distribution to run wholly in RAM
I am building a backup server machine and I'm trying to minimise its power requirements. Originally I was going to give it two disk drives, one small one for the OS and a big one for the backups. There's space for more drives as/when the backups run out of space. I then though that maybe I could put the OS on a USB stick to save the power consumption of the small OS drive. Not going to be fast but saves a significant amount of power. Then I thought even further and, as the system I'm thinking of using for this has 8Gb or RAM installed why not run the OS from the RAM? I don't need/want a GUI, this is going to be a headless machine running just a basic installation plus rsync and a few utilities. Access will be by SSH. So, what distributions are there that would be easy to do this with? Requirements are basically:- Must have a non-GUI installation option that fits in a few Gb. Preferably designed to work like this so installation is simple and can be kept up to date without doing wierd things. Ideally Debian based as I'm familiar with it, but it's not vital. What I'm looking for is something that boots off a USB stick but doesn't use the USB stick once up and running, at least not for frequent writes. Loading programs off the USB is OK I guess. -- Chris Green
On 7 January 2015 at 18:41, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
So, what distributions are there that would be easy to do this with?
Google got me this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions_that_run_from_RAM including: http://cmrg.fifthhorseman.net/wiki/debirf (Debian running in RAM) Instructions: http://www.debianadmin.com/debirf-build-a-kernel-and-initrd-to-run-debian-fr... Not tried any of this so would be interested to know how you get on. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER
On Wed, Jan 07, 2015 at 06:41:46PM +0000, Chris Green wrote:
I am building a backup server machine and I'm trying to minimise its power requirements.
In that case do the sane thing and use an SSD which will use approximately sod all power or put the OS on a small partition at the front of the backup disks and mount them noatime. Or use a laptop disk, I really can't believe that the power usage of the disks is in any way going to be significant (and if it was then an SSD will be cheap) or just network boot the machine and write logs elsewhere. Adam
On Thu, Jan 08, 2015 at 10:20:16PM +0000, Adam Bower wrote:
On Wed, Jan 07, 2015 at 06:41:46PM +0000, Chris Green wrote:
I am building a backup server machine and I'm trying to minimise its power requirements.
In that case do the sane thing and use an SSD which will use approximately sod all power or put the OS on a small partition at the front of the backup disks and mount them noatime. Or use a laptop disk, I really can't believe that the power usage of the disks is in any way going to be significant (and if it was then an SSD will be cheap) or just network boot the machine and write logs elsewhere.
... I'm trying to be a cheapskate as well! :-) I don't have any SSDs or laptop disks lying around unused, I do have lots of memory in the system in question. Network boot would be fine along with writing the logs somewhere else but what distribution lends itself easily to that sort of setup? -- Chris Green
On 2015-01-09 10:24, Chris Green wrote:
On Thu, Jan 08, 2015 at 10:20:16PM +0000, Adam Bower wrote:
On Wed, Jan 07, 2015 at 06:41:46PM +0000, Chris Green wrote:
I am building a backup server machine and I'm trying to minimise its power requirements.
In that case do the sane thing and use an SSD which will use approximately sod all power or put the OS on a small partition at the front of the backup disks and mount them noatime. Or use a laptop disk, I really can't believe that the power usage of the disks is in any way going to be significant (and if it was then an SSD will be cheap) or just network boot the machine and write logs elsewhere.
... I'm trying to be a cheapskate as well! :-)
I don't have any SSDs or laptop disks lying around unused, I do have lots of memory in the system in question.
Network boot would be fine along with writing the logs somewhere else but what distribution lends itself easily to that sort of setup?
Many distro's have instructions on creating diskless network-boot clients (for example Ubuntu has a howto here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DisklessUbuntuHowto). DRBL (http://drbl.org) might also help you with what you're looking for on a more distribution-agnostic manner. I did have some systems set up like this a few years back so that I could have silent machines in bedrooms (they were old PCs with passively cooled CPUs and silent power supplies) - it does look like the documentation around this sort of setup hasn't changed much since then, so I don't know how up to date these methods are... HTH, Jim
participants (4)
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Adam Bower -
Chris Green -
Jim Rippon -
Mark Rogers