[Simh] EXT :Re: C9.io

Timothe Litt litt at ieee.org
Fri Dec 1 15:47:16 EST 2017


Xeon etc is probably overkill.

Use a Raspberry Pi.  About 7W under load with a monitor, KB, mouse
w/WiFi active - you don't need a monitor, KB, or mouse once setup.  You
can disable the WiFi. (A couple more watts if you use a magnetic drive,
which I recommend).

One time cost is about $100 once you add a case, power supply & SD card
to the $35 board.

For a reasonable workload, that should suffice and is about as
inexpensive to run as you can get.  Pi 3 is a 64-bit ARM CPU @1.2 GHz
CPU - with 1GB memory, ethernet, WiFi, & bluetooth. (Some  OSs are only
32 bit at the moment.)  You can easily scale up with multiple hosts - it
takes quite a number to reach the price of a Xeon.

If you stick with standard packages, security is pretty much one-time
setup & periodic package updates (which includes the kernel).  As it's
cheap enough to be dedicated to simulation, it's not a disaster if
something bad does happen - as long as anything else on your internal
network distrusts the Pi & its guests.  If you put the emulated OS on
the public network, that's a bigger exposure than the host OS.

If you just provide SSH access, I recommend disabling passwords and
using RSA keys only.  It frustrates the script kiddies, and you don't
have to worry about password quality.

Cloud hosting has its own pitfalls.  I'm not a fan.

Someone mentioned running on a cellphone.  That's tough if you want
remote access because as frequently documented here, WiFi
implementations don't get along with SimH's networking.

Have fun.

On 01-Dec-17 15:09, Hittner, David T [US] (MS) wrote:
>
> You could also look at running a super-efficient 24x7 server at home
> to minimize your electric costs.
>
>  
>
> In my last computer build where I was trying to maximize performance
> with minimal power use, I put together an E3 Xeon Server with ECC
> memory that pulls an average of 35W running a SIMH VM with idle enabled.
>
> It’s all based on buying power efficient equipment. It runs near
> noiseless and cool also.
>
>  
>
> Intel Xeon E3-1275v3 3.5GHz 4C with Integrated graphics (which is fine
> for a server). Max 84W.
>
> 32GB ECC memory (overkill for SIMH, but I do other things with the
> server  :-)
>
> 500GB M.2 NVME SSD
>
> 1TB 2.5” HDD
>
> 5.25” BLU-Ray ODD
>
> 80+ Gold PSU
>
> Windows 10 Pro OS (for host)
>
> VMware Workstation for virtualization, although you could use the
> built in Windows 10 Hyper-V virtualization for free
>
>  
>
> 2.5” disk drives and SSDs pull a lot less power than their rotating
> 3.5” equivalents. So does using Integrated graphics vs. discrete video
> cards if the performance is OK.
>
>  
>
> Your point about having others manage the network security is pretty
> darn valid though !!
>
>  
>
> Dave
>
>  
>
> *From:*Simh [mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com] *On Behalf Of
> *Joseph Oprysko
> *Sent:* Friday, December 01, 2017 2:37 PM
> *To:* Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com>
> *Cc:* simh <simh at trailing-edge.com>
> *Subject:* EXT :Re: [Simh] C9.io
>
>  
>
> Dan, it is easy peasy, but not quite free, as if you want 24/7 access
> to the box, you have to keep the system running 24-7, so electricity
> costs. Plus, I’m planning on having others log in as well, thus I
> don’t want to open up my network like that. That’s why I’m looking for
> a free hosted/Cloud solution. That way someone else can deal with the
> rest of the network security. I do enough of that for work anyway,
> don’t want to have to monitor my home network as thoroughly. 
>
>  
>
> On Fri, Dec 1, 2017 at 1:12 PM Dan Gahlinger <dgahling at hotmail.com
> <mailto:dgahling at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     A Linux box running simh bridged with nat
>
>     Easy peasy and free
>
>      
>
>     Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>     *From:*Simh <simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com
>     <mailto:simh-bounces at trailing-edge.com>> on behalf of Joseph
>     Oprysko <joprysko1 at gmail.com <mailto:joprysko1 at gmail.com>>
>     *Sent:* Friday, December 1, 2017 1:09:37 PM
>     *To:* Ray Jewhurst
>     *Cc:* simh
>     *Subject:* Re: [Simh] C9.io
>
>      
>
>     Well, running from inside a house and making accessible from the
>     outside is easy. But most ot my computers at home generally don’t
>     run 24/7. 
>
>      
>
>     Mainly what’s needed for what we both want to be able to do isn’t
>     really a shell account on a shared machine, but literally a
>     dedicated VM instance, but we need to be able to access that
>     instance through a public IP address.
>
>      
>
>     On a home network, a private IP Address (192.168.x.x, 172.x.x.x
>     ‘actually I don’t think it’s the whole 172 network’, or a
>     10.x.x.x) it’s easy enough to setup port forwarding to make it
>     accessible. But on the Cloud based VM’s, I don’t know if there is
>     a way to do it. Well, I know there ARE ways, usually involves
>     paying for the instance, an external address, and possibly the
>     amount of traffic. 
>
>      
>
>     Actually, I know Bluehost (is it still a thing?) used to  give you
>     a VM with public address in combination with their hosting/domain
>     name service.  But I’m hoping to find one that will not cost me
>     anything. 
>
>      
>
>     On Fri, Dec 1, 2017 at 12:21 PM Ray Jewhurst
>     <raywjewhurst at gmail.com <mailto:raywjewhurst at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>         I have been trying to figure out a solution for something
>         similar to that. I want to be able to run a PDP-11 outside of
>         my house for Fortran development. I would be running it on my
>         Android phone. 
>
>          
>
>         On Dec 1, 2017 12:11 PM, "Joseph Oprysko" <joprysko1 at gmail.com
>         <mailto:joprysko1 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>             Does anyone know if I can use the Cloud9 IDE to host a
>             simh System emulation?
>
>              
>
>             I know I’m able to build and execute it in the
>             environment, but what I’d really like to achieve is to
>             have a system (or several) running on various instances.
>             And be able to connect to them from an external IP
>             address, I believe I am able to SSH into an instance, or
>             access it through the web based IDE. 
>
>              
>
>             An example might be better. Say I setup an HP system
>             running Time-Share Basic. Would I be able to telnet to the
>             TSB instance from various computers?
>
>              
>
>             Thank you,
>
>              
>
>             Joe
>
>             -- 
>
>             Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot.
>             Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do.
>             Normal Person: So you go surfing?
>             Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do
>             with knowing a lot...
>             Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level.
>             Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?
>
>              
>
>             _______________________________________________
>             Simh mailing list
>             Simh at trailing-edge.com <mailto:Simh at trailing-edge.com>
>             http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh
>
>          
>
>     -- 
>
>     Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot.
>     Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do.
>     Normal Person: So you go surfing?
>     Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with
>     knowing a lot...
>     Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level.
>     Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?
>
> -- 
>
> Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot.
> Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do.
> Normal Person: So you go surfing?
> Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing
> a lot...
> Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level.
> Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Simh mailing list
> Simh at trailing-edge.com
> http://mailman.trailing-edge.com/mailman/listinfo/simh

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