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ZL Compute Cluster Restart
Feb. 25th, 2024 04:54 pmAfter a bit of a hiatus due to my 5406zl chassis being full and acquiring a pallet of 5412zl and 5406zl switches over the holidays, I'm picking up the Cluster in a Switch Project again.
My end goal is to have at least a 3-node cluster to host the following
- 2x SAMBA 4 domain Controllers
- 1x Firewall VM (Ipfire )
- 1x Storage VM (TrueNAS or Open Media Vault)
- 1x Pi-hole VM
While I figure out the particulars ( ZFS or Ceph?, Some other abomination), I've been slowly picking up additional ZL compute modules to round out the cluster. While the Advanced Services V2 are natively more powerful with their i7 Quad-cores and 8GB of RAM, I haven't had much luck with the ones I've picked up actually working reliably. The Advanced Services V1 modules use a Core 2 Mobile CPU and cap out at 4GB of RAM from the factory, but upon further inspection they may have one big advantage: A Standard Com Express Type 2 module!
That's right, while the V2 Services modules use a pretty proprietary design, some of the V1 modules appear to be equipped with a Kontron ETXExpress-MC T7500 module adhering to the COM Express™ (by PICMG) “Basic” Form Factor Pin-out Type 2 standard. This means in theory, the module could be upgraded significantly, possibly all the way to a Xeon with DDR4 if I can acquite the right module.
While I'm intrigued by the prospect of a major upgrade to the Gen1 modules, I will first need to conquer them as they are. Firstly, I have backed up the factory loads of all the installed CF cards and HDDs. Second, I'll need to figure out how to get Proxmox or another OS loaded onto each module. Then, I'll need to load and configure the software stack on top of the 3 or 4 modules. It will be an interesting ride, at the end of which I'll hopefully retire a few older or more power hungry pieces of hardware out of my 24/7 home infrastructure.
My end goal is to have at least a 3-node cluster to host the following
- 2x SAMBA 4 domain Controllers
- 1x Firewall VM (Ipfire )
- 1x Storage VM (TrueNAS or Open Media Vault)
- 1x Pi-hole VM
While I figure out the particulars ( ZFS or Ceph?, Some other abomination), I've been slowly picking up additional ZL compute modules to round out the cluster. While the Advanced Services V2 are natively more powerful with their i7 Quad-cores and 8GB of RAM, I haven't had much luck with the ones I've picked up actually working reliably. The Advanced Services V1 modules use a Core 2 Mobile CPU and cap out at 4GB of RAM from the factory, but upon further inspection they may have one big advantage: A Standard Com Express Type 2 module!
That's right, while the V2 Services modules use a pretty proprietary design, some of the V1 modules appear to be equipped with a Kontron ETXExpress-MC T7500 module adhering to the COM Express™ (by PICMG) “Basic” Form Factor Pin-out Type 2 standard. This means in theory, the module could be upgraded significantly, possibly all the way to a Xeon with DDR4 if I can acquite the right module.
While I'm intrigued by the prospect of a major upgrade to the Gen1 modules, I will first need to conquer them as they are. Firstly, I have backed up the factory loads of all the installed CF cards and HDDs. Second, I'll need to figure out how to get Proxmox or another OS loaded onto each module. Then, I'll need to load and configure the software stack on top of the 3 or 4 modules. It will be an interesting ride, at the end of which I'll hopefully retire a few older or more power hungry pieces of hardware out of my 24/7 home infrastructure.
