perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Jason Zurawski <>]

Thanks Brian, we can add this into a section on user-contributed reviews. 

-jason

Brian Candler wrote:
> There are some low-cost nodes listed at
> https://github.com/perfsonar/project/wiki/Low-Cost-perfSONAR-Nodes
>
> and a mention of the Intel NUC (but no specific model) at
> https://www.perfsonar.net/deploy/hardware-selection/low-cost-hardware/
>
> I have one to add into the mix, which is the Intel NUC DN2820FYKH. I
> have just bought 7 of these for a project at a client.
>
> They are remarkably cheap: we paid £88+VAT (on amazon.com they are
> $140). On top of this you need a DDR3L SO-DIMM (I bought the maximum
> 8GB at £24, although 4GB would have been £13). Finally you need any
> 2.5" SATA HDD or SSD, of which we had a bunch lying around anyway.
>
> I upgraded the BIOS to the latest currently available (0052). In the
> BIOS settings I set "Dynamic Power Technology" to "Off" to minimise
> jitter, and "After Power Failure" to "Power On".  After that it was
> just a stock PS toolkit install from USB.
>
> These boxes have a dual-core processor at 2.17GHz. Spec says DN2820,
> but /proc/cpuinfo says DN2830. It even supports VT-x virtualization.
>
> Performance-wise, they happily fill a gigabit: using a direct
> connection between two NUCs, iperf3 gave 942Mbps (which is the
> theoretical maximum, once you take into account IP and ethernet
> headers). At the sending side, top shows about 38% CPU used by iperf3,
> and 76% idle. At the receiving side, this falls to 26% for iperf3 and
> 90% idle.
>
> So I think this makes a great node.
>
> Pros:
> * standard Intel hardware and perfsonar install
> * very compact
> * easy to open
> * takes standard 2.5" drive
> * plugs supplied for UK, US, Europe and Australia
> * wifi included, should you wish to test network performance over wifi
>
> Cons:
> * not rackmount; separate wall wart; does not plug into IEC power strip
> * if you disconnect the HDMI cable, the screen remains blank when you
> plug it back in (I had to ssh in and reboot). Maybe there's a fix for
> this.
> * it has been around for a couple of years, and could be withdrawn at
> any time
>
> It is still shown at
> http://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/nuc/products-overview.html
> but not at
> http://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/nuc/nuc-comparison.html
> (even if you click on the "Show more" link at the bottom)
>
> Should this go away, the Gigabyte Brix GB-BXBT-2807 looks comparable:
> Celeron N2807, 1.58GHz. It's even slightly cheaper.
>
> Intel has a couple of other low-end NUCs as well which I have not
> tried. They look to be less powerful, but might still be capable of
> filling a gigabit.
>
> DCCP847DYE - Celeron 847 processor, dual core, 1.1GHz, max 16GB RAM.
> Needs a mini-PCIe SSD?
> http://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/nuc/nuc-kit-dccp847dye-board-dcp847ske.html
>
> http://ark.intel.com/products/56056/Intel-Celeron-Processor-847-2M-Cache-1_10-GHz
>
>
> DE3815TYKHE - Atom E3815 processor, single core, 1.46GHz
> http://ark.intel.com/products/78577/Intel-NUC-Kit-DE3815TYKHE
> http://ark.intel.com/products/78476/Intel-Atom-Processor-E3815-512K-Cache-1_46-GHz
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Brian Candler.
>