Untangle build and advice...

D

Dark Prodigy

Jawbreaker
Joined
Mar 10, 2006
Messages
2,803
Interested in building an Untangle box and have been reading everything I can find about it. I want a setup that has low power, quiet, small footprint and good aesthetics so this is what I've come up with:

This motherboard

This case

The case is small and elegant but has no active cooling and a 60w PSU. Wondering if that will be a problem with 24/7 service. But of course I need the build to be quiet. The mobo has dual nics and an integrated Atom D510 which seems to be ideal for Untangle.

I will be setting it up in transparency mode and will be in front of:

- 2 Airport Extreme routers

And will be serving:
-1 Windows desktop Win7Pro x64
-2 Mac Mini Servers (2010)
-2 Windows notebooks Win 7/ XP


I'm wondering if the Untangle box should do the actual DHCP and run my Airport Extreme's in bridge mode with wireless.
Advice welcome.
 
Other than being resource intensive, no. I'm just wondering because you can get by with a much cheaper and smaller setup if you don't need it. :)

What are you trying to accomplish? I would run whatever setup (entangle, pfsense, etc) you go with do the DHCP and run the AEs in WAP mode (disable dhcp, connect to internet with ethernet, get address by dhcp, etc), but that is just what I have done at home myself so I feel biased.
 
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Chibo said:
Other than being resource intensive, no. I'm just wondering because you can get by with a much cheaper and smaller setup if you don't need it. :)
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Untangle isn't that resource intensive. I've read posts here in this very subforum of other members running Untangle on a P4 and serving up 20+ clients just fine. An Atom D510 should be more than enough for Untangle and 5-6 clients.

For the price, that Supermicro Intel Atom mobo is pretty good choice as it does have two great Intel NICs, a $60 total value. Then there the addition of IPMI 2.0. Sure you can use a cheaper mITX setup but it probably won't have anywhere near the quality of a Supermicro mobo or the features set for a significantly lower price.

EDIT: Though I wouldn't go with that case. I recommend going with the Antec ISK-300 65W since it has a bit more room and better airflow layout than that Silverstone. The better airflow layout of the ISK-300 should help the box last 24/7
 
Danny Bui said:
Untangle isn't that resource intensive. I've read posts here in this very subforum of other members running Untangle on a P4 and serving up 20+ clients just fine. An Atom D510 should be more than enough for Untangle and 5-6 clients.
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I guess it would depend on what you call resource intensive - I run pfSense on an Alix (500mhz geode) with ~15-20 clients. ;)
 
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Chibo said:
I guess it would depend on what you call resource intensive - I run pfSense on an Alix (500mhz geode) with ~15-20 clients. ;)
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LOL! Ahh very different meanings of resource intensive. :)

Well regardless of our different defintions of "resource intensive", that Supermicro Atom mobo is still a pretty good buy.
 
I'm just trying to figure out if he is going for overkill given the information he provided, but hey, if he's looking to do this to learn and buy some new gear for fun then it sounds like a perfect setup. :)
I'd kill to be able to afford that motherboard. :D
 
Chibo said:
I'm just trying to figure out if he is going for overkill given the information he provided, but hey, if he's looking to do this to learn and buy some new gear for fun then it sounds like a perfect setup. :)
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No harm done.
Chibo said:
I'd kill to be able to afford that motherboard. :D
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Same here. :)
 
$220 isn't that bad of a price for an mITX mobo with integrated processor and dual NICs... People on these forums spend that kind of scratch on simply RAM. Besides I tend to like Supermicro products, my dual processor workstation mobo has served me well the past couple of years.

Furthermore, I learned a long time ago that going cheap all the time isn't always the best option. I'm not so rich that I can afford to buy cheap stuff. I need to buy stuff to last me for quite some time.

The Antec case is a good suggestion, I was looking at it as a possibility but I'll be needing a bit more of an aesthetic solution. Since my build seems overkill, what would be good alternatives for my aesthetic/silence/small footprint needs?
 
Dark Prodigy said:
The Antec case is a good suggestion, I was looking at it as a possibility but I'll be needing a bit more of an aesthetic solution. Since my build seems overkill, what would be good alternatives for my aesthetic/silence/small footprint needs?
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Besides the Antec and the Silverstone, not many other ITX cases comes with a decent enough PSU, at least on Newegg anyway. See if any of these cases might fit your needs:
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=3&currency=2
 
Danny Bui said:
Besides the Antec and the Silverstone, not many other ITX cases comes with a decent enough PSU, at least on Newegg anyway. See if any of these cases might fit your needs:
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=3&currency=2
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Nice. Digging the wall mounted mITX cases and that Nexus Psile (even though I don't "need" a case with a slot loading dvd writer :D But it damn sure fits my current setup aesthetics ) Hmmm.. decisions decisions..
 
Untangle will run great for a home setup on that hardware, I've installed and run Untangle on that same exact motherboard. Unless you're someone that pounds the hell out of your connection 24x7 running tons of torrents/p2p traffic...but even then with 4 gigs of the good Intel NICs..I think UT would still stand up fine.

Heavy SMTP traffic is what puts the heaviest load on Untangle when it comes to business environment setups...the spam and AV scanning of non stop mail flow to the mail servers.

You probably found my thread where I use the Supermicro 1U chassis, the model with the front I/O ports, and I used a Seagate Pipeline hard drive...a model designed for use in DVRs and other tight environments where constant 24x7 running, low noise, low heat output, and low energy consumption are desired.

If you're working on your budget, Supermicro also has a similar model motherboard ...either without the "F" or without the "O" in the model number, that still has the dual Intel NICs..but doesn't have the IPMI module, and runs about 30 or 40 bucks less.
 
I just installed Untangle on a Celeron 2.53 with 1.5gb ram yesterday. didn't have time to finish updating or fully set it up yet but once it's booted it seems to run well enough. I dropped it on an ancient Maxtor 200gb that I had laying around but if things work will probably switch to a newer more efficient drive.


*looks under the carpet for DashPuppy as he's usually the first in on an Untangle thread* ;)
 
Hallis said:
I just installed Untangle on a Celeron 2.53 with 1.5gb ram yesterday. didn't have time to finish updating or fully set it up yet but once it's booted it seems to run well enough. I dropped it on an ancient Maxtor 200gb that I had laying around but if things work will probably switch to a newer more efficient drive.


*looks under the carpet for DashPuppy as he's usually the first in on an Untangle thread* ;)
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Lol yup, he usually is. I remember when he started here with the sonics and we opened his eyes to untangle.
 
CiscoInside said:
Lol yup, he usually is. I remember when he started here with the sonics and we opened his eyes to untangle.
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here i am sorry i was surfing PORN, and i had some time to stop LOL!!


Who called me ? what's up!

Untangle, that's the secret word of the day, OH btw,

sale of the day too >>

see sold 2 of these monsters today!

http://www.linuxappliance.net/firew...lutions/untangle-mini-firewall-appliance.html

untangle_mini_appliance_1.png
 
How are those verse untangle appliances? I quoted 2 of the untangle appliance units after talking with the guy. Didn't see much feedback by the linux appliance guy on untangle forums
 
Well my install on my RSA box is working out well so far. bumped it up to 2gb ram and that greatly increased performance. I did note, that regardless of the drive size it still only partitioned 80gb. so keep that in mind when building a box, you dont need a large drive if all it's going to be running is untangle.
 
Hallis said:
Well my install on my RSA box is working out well so far. bumped it up to 2gb ram and that greatly increased performance. I did note, that regardless of the drive size it still only partitioned 80gb. so keep that in mind when building a box, you dont need a large drive if all it's going to be running is untangle.
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You can partition the drive how you want if you select the advanced option during the install, but there's really no reason to. The default install partitions the drive into the optimal partitions for Untangle/Debian, one should only do the advanced install if you're knowledgeable about *nix partitions and special needs of Untangle..and you'd only have a need to if you were serving up an exceptionally large enterprise network with everything running with crazy above default log settings.

We pump over 8,000 mails per day through our Untangle box, even with all of that and the usual 14 day quarantines for them, we're only using just over 30 gigs of drive space.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
You can partition the drive how you want if you select the advanced option during the install, but there's really no reason to. The default install partitions the drive into the optimal partitions for Untangle/Debian, one should only do the advanced install if you're knowledgeable about *nix partitions and special needs of Untangle..and you'd only have a need to if you were serving up an exceptionally large enterprise network with everything running with crazy above default log settings.

We pump over 8,000 mails per day through our Untangle box, even with all of that and the usual 14 day quarantines for them, we're only using just over 30 gigs of drive space.
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I hardly ever mess with default drive options. I'd just thought it'd partition the whole thing into one ~200gb partition. Was surprised that it only made 80 rather than using the whole drive by default.
 
I'm actually surprised at how little it takes up. When we built our rig for Untangle for servicing our mail host clients, we didn't expect to take on a lot of filtering, but as we started to, I did become uneasy about having stuck with the default install and figured the drive would fill up. But she's hovered at just over 30 gigs for a long time now.
 
Untangle is the best!

Just talked to the owner of Untangle Appliances .com I am now a re-seller in Canada.
 
The hardware selection you chose looks good. You're pretty much got all you need right there if you ask me.
 
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