Network Adjacent Question

[u/IDownVoteCanaduh]

Looking to spend some lab budget for my team and one of the items I want to get for our labs to demo for possible remote locations is some sort of compute we can deploy along with firewalls, switches, etc. that we can manage.

For right now, it is just for the lab, but I see potential uses is when we deploy network gear to remote locations without any supporting compute we can piggyback on, a server that would allow us to run local tools (tbd what those would be).

Looking for something like a larger Pi, something like a Mac Mini format, etc. Basically some sort of smaller server that can deployed and managed by us so we can use it to run tools, etc. without relying on our server teams, etc. Ideally I would love something that can rack in a standard network rack and is not a full depth server.

(And before comments about separation of responsibilities, bypassing safeguards, etc. I am high enough up in the company senior management chain that decisions like these rest solely with me. I do not need permission).

[u/Squozen_EU]

An Intel NUC with 32Gb of RAM would be ideal. Just stack it on a shelf, minimal power usage and it’ll run anything you need with ease.

[u/Boozacs → u/Squozen_EU]

Can this also be used as a dedicated serverish to run things like Eve-NG on ESXI?

[u/Intelligent-Bet4111 → u/Boozacs]

nope not the Intel NUC, thats not good enough for eve ng

[u/Senior_Soup9467 → u/Intelligent-Bet4111]

It depends on the images that you're running. I run EVE-NG on my NUC and it works just fine for the topology that I do.

[u/Boozacs → u/Intelligent-Bet4111]

Are any of the small form factors good enough provided atleast 64gb+ ram? I’m trying to move off VMware on my personal computer

[u/Intelligent-Bet4111 → u/Boozacs]

When you say small form factor how small do you want them to be?

[u/Boozacs → u/Intelligent-Bet4111]

I was thinking something like what OP was referring to like a mac mini style

[u/Intelligent-Bet4111 → u/Boozacs]

Also for serious labbing on eve ng you really want plenty of ram, my server has 230 GB of ram and I use all of it most of the times when I lab, especially for bigger topologies with a lot of nodes and if you want Todo ccnp/ccie level stuff

[u/Boozacs → u/Intelligent-Bet4111]

Really? I allocated roughly 48gb dedicated to eve and other than nodes taking roughly 5 min to boot, it’s smooth, and this is running on VmWare workstation. I thought 64gb was enough for CCNP and MPLS labbing

[u/Intelligent-Bet4111 → u/Boozacs]

Oh yeah for general ccnp 64 gb should be enough, won't be enough for sd wan though but not sure if that's part of ccnp, and also my labs are generally much bigger and more complicated

[u/Boozacs → u/Intelligent-Bet4111]

No configuration of SD WAN for ENCOR, just understanding the fundamentals and being able to explain working principles…. I’m tired of this studying lol

[u/Squozen_EU → u/Intelligent-Bet4111]

I did my CCNP on a 16gb mac mini.

[u/Intelligent-Bet4111 → u/Boozacs]

The thing is these Intel nucs are very costly, it's not like you cant run eve on it, you can but yeah for the price you can get better servers like a Dell poweredge that are better for eve (I use a Dell r740 for eve ng, run bare metal on it), but if you really have space constraints then I guess it can't be helped and I guess go for the Intel NUC

[u/Squozen_EU → u/Intelligent-Bet4111]

That’s horseshit.

[u/IDownVoteCanaduh → u/Squozen_EU]

Thanks, something like this is what you mean?

https://eshop.asus.com/us/90ar00a1-m00020-asus-nuc-13-pro.html?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=24275274215&gclid=Cj0KCQjwt9jVBhDXARIsAFSP-6d9_ZZWM7wedd4UdPtpM4KT9OeUUqoHk5lRZmagAuwoNtNX7MQ41nAaAuOnEALw_wcB

[u/Intelligent-Bet4111 → u/IDownVoteCanaduh]

Yeah but try to find something that's cheap and with 64 gb ram if possible

[u/Senior_Soup9467 → u/IDownVoteCanaduh]

They don't seem to have it in stock, but this is another good mini-pc.

[u/fuzzylogic_y2k → u/Squozen_EU]

I have that setup in my living room. 8 thread and 32gb running proxmox with a home assistant VM currently. It's solid. At my company we use them to run veeam.

[u/andre_1632]

We use HP Elitedesk 800 running Linux for such purpose

[u/phantomtofu]

Depending on whether you need x86, the Mikrotik Rose Data Server could work. ARM CPU and 32 GB of memory in a 1RU router. It has lots of connectivity and U.2 storage slots. I envision it as a packet capture box. 

https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/spaces/ROS/pages/259031065/ROSE-storage

[u/CharlesHNetEng]

I like the Protectli Vaults. Run Proxmox on them bare metal and you then have a nice rugged-enough tiny VME.

[u/notFREEfood]

We went through this exercise a decade ago when we decided to deploy performance test boxes everywhere on our network, both on our campus and remote sites. We're replacing that hardware now with regular 1RU servers; it turns out that having out of band management for the box was a critical feature we overlooked, and this is despite all of our remote sites being within a 30 minute drive of our main campus. If you have any hardware with expired support contracts that you wouldn't deploy for anything critical but still works perfectly fine, that's what I'd use.

[u/VA_Network_Nerd]

I'd encourage you to look at the console solutions from OpenGear or WTI before you cobble something together on your own.

[u/IDownVoteCanaduh → u/VA_Network_Nerd]

Not looking for a console server. We have those. Looking for compute.

[u/Inside-Finish-2128 → u/VA_Network_Nerd]

Came here to say the same thing. At $lastjob, the team was using OpenGear to handle zero touch deployments for lots of switches.

[u/HoustonBOFH]

I keep a few business class USFF desktops in my trunk that are pre gen 8 and can't run Win11. They have SSD hard drives and decent ram and cost me practically nothing. I use them for throw down appliances. (Pi Hole, OpenVPN, monitoring, Unifi controller...) No cost, just keep regular backups.

Or slightly better desktops with Proxmox. Cheap, and work well if the moving parts are updated.

[u/ex800]

If you them for remote locations get devices with vPro to have (nearly out of band) remote access. Lenovo USFF usually have, HP only do basic, Dell frequently don't include at all.

And have a vPro management platform of course.

[u/Agromahdi123]

dell/hp mini pc with vpro since they are pretty good on power and intel ME gives you near remote access.