[Solved] Minimum hardware requirements for deploying Zentyal as a load balancer?

[sikander.blogger]

Hi. Can someone please guide me on the minimum hardware requirements for deploying Zentyal as a load balancer? I don't need to run any other services at all. I want to install it on an old P-III 550 MHz machine which is lying unused in my house, with 256 MB of RAM and a 20 GB HDD. But before I go after purchasing the RAM and the HDD, I just wanted to make sure if this setup is possible.

I've searched this forum and also the web but I couldn't find anything related specifically to my intended setup. This is all I've got:

http://forum.zentyal.org/index.php/topic,1792.msg7447.html#msg7447

http://trac.zentyal.org/wiki/Documentation/Community/Installation/Hardware?redirectedfrom=Hardware

Thank you for reading this.

[christian]

If you don't want to run anything except router:
1 - no need to change your HDD. Upgrading RAM should be enough, especially if you have enough RAM to prevent swapping (as I imagine such small disk is slow but slowness will only impact performance when server boots)
2 - running Zentyal is perhaps overkilling... if goal is only to balance internet connections. Admin interface, DB and other stuff will consume hardware resources for almost nothing.

[sikander.blogger]

Thanks for the reply. I don't know about any other light weight firewall/router distro that can act as a load balancer. Can you please name any alternatives?

And as you mentioned that running Zentyal would be kind of over-kill, still, I am inclined towards using it because of its easy to use web interface.

[christian]

Well, you have already changed your mind as now you introduce firewalling  maybe next step will be to add proxy then to add authentication and you will end up with Zentyal.
However, if goal is firewall and load balancing, something like Zeroshell will do it very well, with GUI too 
This is much lighter than Zentyal but, on the other hand, it doesn't cover same scope.

[sikander.blogger]

  No, I don't need any firewalls. For clarifying the picture, this is my intended setup:

ADSL1 + ADSL2 > Load Balancer > Squid3 Server > LAN

Squid server is already running fine with UFW configured for my needs and it is handling all the authentication and firewall stuff so I definitely don't need another firewall. 

I just need to add another ADSL line to the setup and that's it. I'll take a look at Zeroshell, thanks for the tip.

A bit off-topic, but if you could please answer this one, would Zentyal allow me to configure the load balancing in a way that when one ADSL line reaches a specific limit i.e, 300 GB, all the traffic is directed to the other interface? We've got download limits/month here and they charge more than double if the limits are crossed.

Thanks again.

[christian]

ADSL1 + ADSL2 > Load Balancer > Squid3 Server > LAN

and now you don't need firewall any more but HTTP proxy... well, it's time to think twice about what you really need before selecting the right solution 

A bit off-topic, but if you could please answer this one, would Zentyal allow me to configure the load balancing in a way that when one ADSL line reaches a specific limit i.e, 300 GB, all the traffic is directed to the other interface? We've got download limits/month here and they charge more than double if the limits are crossed.

I'm not aware of such feature with Zentyal but night be wrong.

[sikander.blogger]

Thanks a lot for all your replies.

I would attempt installing Zentyal on the same PC with same specs and post the results. If needed, I might go for a RAM upgrade.

Till then. 

[christian]

Sure, let us know.

FYI, I ran similar infrastructure on the first FitPC (similar hardware size): it was running OK with my own configuration but Zentyal..., well, it was Ebox long time ago) was too heavy. On the other hand, Zentyal has evolved a lot, thus it could be better now.