[Simh] EXT :Re: C9.io

[Wilm Boerhout]

Raspberry Pi. One to run simh behind my router/firewall, another one to
provide an OpenVPN server for access from the outside. You cannot get more
(performance) for less (money/power)
Op za 2 dec. 2017 om 01:48 schreef Jordi Guillaumes Pons <
jg at jordi.guillaumes.name>

>
> On 1 Dec 2017, at 21:47, Timothe Litt <litt at ieee.org> wrote:
>
> 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.
>
> I’ve got the whole HECNET area 7 running on two ARM machines: a cubietruck
> and an Odroid-C1 that will get soon replaced by a Raspberry Pi model 3.
>
> I just allow HECNET access, no public internet one. Except for an ITS
> machine which responds to anyone trying to TELNET to my network, just for
> the laughs. And I password-protected the thing. If any sixties-seventies
> hacker wants to break into my network I will feel almost honoured ;)
>
> 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.
>
> Please notice the last revisions of KLH10 can run under ARM without
> problem, and can actually idle correctly…
>
> SIMH machines are computationaly cheap, unless you are going to run a
> full-loaded VAX.
>
> 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.
>
> First thing: configure SSH to be key-interchange based and disallow
> password logins. And the rest of the song: keep telnet closed (but you will
> have to keep it open to allow serial logins to your simh instances), don’t
> run anything as root (completely possible with simh 4.0 and VDE
> networking), and so on...
>
> 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.
>
> Absolutely
>
> 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.
>
> An alternative would be to use an old laptop, install a light linux bistro
> on it and use it to host your simh machines. It will run faster than an ARM
> (with a little bit more of power usage) but if the battery is still alive
> you’ll have a free UPS attached to your datacenter-in-a-box :)
>
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