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Raspberry Pi Colocation

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Re: Raspberry Pi Colocation

#121

Post by klyrs »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #117
klyrs wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could usb hubs introduce security issues for the hosts?

For USB power? I don't think there should be any way for Pis plugged into the same freestanding hub to talk to each other, but if so you could prevent that with power-only cables.

Call me paranoid (this is about security after all), but there's no visual distinction between data and power-only cables. While a rogue employee can wreak all sorts of havoc in any data center, it's nice to have as many correct-by-inspection systems as possible.

I don't see why one couldn't get a power-only hub, but I couldn't find anything that appeared to be high quality in a quick search. I did find some pretty nice looking rack-mounted kit, but they all appear to be data hubs.

Re: Raspberry Pi Colocation

#122

Post by zeckalpha »

klyrs wrote: post #121
Dylan16807 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For USB power? I don't think there should be any way for Pis plugged into the same freestanding hub to talk to each other, but if so you could prevent that with power-only cables.

Call me paranoid (this is about security after all), but there's no visual distinction between data and power-only cables. While a rogue employee can wreak all sorts of havoc in any data center, it's nice to have as many correct-by-inspection systems as possible. I don't see why one couldn't get a power-only hub, but I couldn't find anything that appeared to be high quality in a quick search. I did find some pretty n…

The power can go through the header pins rather than USB

Re: Raspberry Pi Colocation

#123

Post by ScaleneTriangle »

husam212 wrote: post #107
sokoloff wrote: post #3

I know that co-location means “customer owned hardware”, but in this case, I think I’d way rather rent data center owned RPis and just pay them money rather than sending in hardware, having to cycle out hardware if/when it fails, etc. It also means the colo is running whatever random power supply I send them, which seems like something they’d want to avoid and means that there’s all the inefficiency of 12 supplies pe…

I would rather renting too, I'm looking for a hosting service that offers Arch Linux ARM, can't find any.

If it doesn't have to be a Pi and just needs to be ARM, then AWS, GCP and Oracle all offer ARM instances and the ability to have custom images. I'm pretty sure they all have options that cost less than .05 USD an hour for on demand, and I know that GCP and AWS have tons of free credit available.

Re: Raspberry Pi Colocation

#125

Post by KennyBlanken »

mike_d wrote: post #72
sgtnoodle wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could power the equipment off the turbine when it's operating, and off an alternative supply otherwise. It seems a little silly to worry about where the specific electrons came from to power the equipment, though. If powering that equipment enables a wind turbine to produce more power than it would have without that equipment, then it seems like the existence of that equipment is "green" whether or not its power…

Wind turbines generate 690v three phase. It isn't stepped down until it gets to a substation near the consumer. The power needed onsite (lights, control systems, energy to start the blades spinning, etc) usually comes from a natural gas generator or a direct feed from a fossil fuel plant if one is nearby. Due to circular dependencies, you can't power them off the energy they generate.

> Wind turbines generate 690v three phase. It isn't stepped down until it gets to a substation near the consumer.

Large utility-scale wind turbines do not have power leaving them at 690V. It's many kilovolts. If they put out 690V, just for the sake of example a 2MW turbine would be generating ~3,000A.

> The power needed onsite (lights, control systems, energy to start the blades spinning, etc)

Self-motoring is only necessary on stall-regulated turbines. Most large utility-scale turbines are pitch-regulated.

Here's video of a turbine starting up, showing its control panel with power in/out indicated:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bYZ14eebFw

> usually comes from a natural gas generator or a direct feed from a fossil fuel plant if one is nearby

That is not how electrical grids work.

If a wind generator is not generating power and goes online, the power for its control systems comes from the grid, which encompasses all the electrical generation devices attached to said grid. Power for control systems could be coming from other wind turbines, solar, hydro, stored energy, nuclear, whatever.

> Due to circular dependencies, you can't power them off the energy they generate.

If the generators are connected to the grid and generating power, all the control systems, lighting, whatever - is connected to the same grid. If it's not generating power, all those systems are still connected to the grid.

Re: Raspberry Pi Colocation

#126

Post by jagger27 »

zeckalpha wrote: post #122
klyrs wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me paranoid (this is about security after all), but there's no visual distinction between data and power-only cables. While a rogue employee can wreak all sorts of havoc in any data center, it's nice to have as many correct-by-inspection systems as possible. I don't see why one couldn't get a power-only hub, but I couldn't find anything that appeared to be high quality in a quick search. I did find some pretty n…

The power can go through the header pins rather than USB

But if you're using header pins you might as well be using something more trustworthy than a USB power bank.

Re: Raspberry Pi Colocation

#127

Post by stirfish »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #114
jagger27 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a bummer. Something like an 80PLUS Platinum ATX PC PSU could do around 40 amps on the 5V rails. Redundant server PSUs seem like an obvious choice here.

So much of a computer PSU is dedicated to 12 volts, though. I can get a 5V 60A supply for $27 and save a lot of unnecessary complexity. Though either way you might be better off with a series of USB hubs.

I use a 40 port usb charging station to power my raspberry pi cluster, but I don't like it because the fan sounds like a hair dryer running

Re: Raspberry Pi Colocation

#128

Post by jcun4128 »

frankjr wrote: post #27

While I completely understand the allure of running on your own hardware, if you just want a cheap server to host a personal page or similar, you cannot beat Scaleway's Stardust VM instances. For less than 2 EUR a month you get 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM, 1 IPv4+IPv6 address, 10GB of storage and unlimited traffic. They claim up-to 100Mbps bandwidth but I regularly get much more than that. This sounds like a commercial but I…

I've been using OVH VPSs for a long time.

Re: Raspberry Pi Colocation

#129

Post by xuki »

randomluck040 wrote: post #34
ringworld wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.scaleway.com/en/stardust-instances/ I am not a fan of the lottery approach and being told you're lucky to do business with them.

The lottery approach pissed me off so bad, I decided to leave Scaleway altogether. They also aren’t upfront about their contingents. I wanted to try out an M1 instance and before registering and putting my credit card info in, it seemed like it’d be all fine, I just have to put in cc info. I did, they told me there are no instances available. The fair way would be to be upfront about it in my opinion.

Hetzner might have M1 mac available:

https://www.hetzner.com/dedicated-rootserver/mac-mini-m1

Re: Raspberry Pi Colocation

#130

Post by trees101 »

elcritch wrote: post #115
xg15 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think local hardware makes sense for LAN-only sites - e.g. a company wiki, a media center or a file storage with web interface. For anything that is supposed to be visible on the internet, I'd always use a hosted server - if nothing else, because I really don't want to open an ingress into my personal home network, even if my ISP permitted that. For use-cases were you have to handle certain incoming requests even t…

That pagekite looks handy! I’ve recently got gigabit fiber at home but my routers ipv6 firewall is crap. This seems easier than just making a custom vpn to a cloud instance.

an Argo tunnel is even easier. You can even get it for free; https://noise.getoto.net/2019/06/15/a-free-argo-tunnel-for-y...
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