Let's share our farming setup

[zaibon]

Hello Threefold farmers

I created this thread so farmers can share their farm setup.

So you if you have your farm up and running, feel free to share your setup:

• router
• switch
• network configuration
• pictures of your farms
• screenshots of management UI from the switch and routers

The idea is to try to cover as much brand, vendor and hardware as possible so future farmers can have a look here and have a good idea how they should configure their farm.

I will keep track of the post here and try to consolidate them into the official documentation of 0-OS.

Few rules to try to keep this organized:

• Make 1 post per farm. If you have some new info to add, just edit you post.
• Let’s try to keep the chit-chat to a minimum inside this thread itself so it stay as focus on topic as possible. If you have question on a specific, open a new thread and reference the post you have question about.

[andreaspow]

• router
• switch
• network configuration
• pictures of your farms
• screenshots of management UI from the switch and routers

My Farm Setup:

3Node(s): single (Fujitsu PC)

ISP: Deutsche Telekom

Router: Fritzbox 7590

Switch: none

Network Config: nothing specific, changed some setups in the router (see screenshot)

[flowmotion]

Sorry for this huge post sometimes i exaggerate…

ZeroOs V2 Buils is coming soon…

Build with ZeroOs V1 – working well

About the Project

Im a lonely enthusiast who is settled in Lower Austia near Vienna. My Servers are - by now -located in the cellar. I worked hard to have 2 additional Currentcircles as well as a nice Networkconnectivty in this cellar.

Aims

Primary 1: Produce capacity to build a better internet in a better world. For the nature for the humanity and for me and my carma as well

Primary 2: A lot of fun working in this proejct

Secondary 1: Generate money to live and to finance energycosts as well as to upgrade capacity or to build a service around it

Secondayry 2: Want to offer a service for small business and people who want to set something up on the TF-Grid, without thinking about technical stuff.

Secondary 2.1: want to run my own developed Software on the TF-Grid.

Network

Connectivity

Current i have a connection with static IPv4 Address and also an IPv6 60s Network 150/20 mbs

Planned is a second connection with IPv6 and Upload over 50 mbs

If everything is running great, i will rent a flat in Vienna for better connectivity and room-temperature .

Router / Firewall

I use a OpnSense (opensource BSD-based) all in one router where i can configure everything. I can highly recoment OpnSense! There is a huge community around OpnSense and PfSense.

PfSense and OpenSense uses the same ground architecture.

Configuration of opnSense

Dashboard

WAN Interface IPv6 Settings

DMZ Interface IPv6 Settings

FireWall DMZ Interface (all out allowed, all to LAN blocked)

NAT

Farm

Current i have 4 Servers reserved for Zero Os.

Hardware

Each Core has >8GB of RAM.

My plan is to run SSD only servers (for me as small farmer its cheaper than running HDDs)

I have also an HPE-Server and in my opinion DELL and IBM makes better servers in quality and technical-architecture (except Management Software) … but i can only talk about generations in the time of sockets 1567 and 1366… maybe new HPE Servers are better.

2x DELL PowerEdge R910

Each has….

• CPU: 4x Intel Xeon X7560 L – all together 80 cores
• RAM: 44x16GB (704GB)
• SSD: 0TB (current)
• HDD: 0TB (current)

Pros/Cons of this Server:

++ Well done modularity especially the RAM-Modules, where the RAM-Module with error is highlighted with batterypowered LEDs.

++ Very good Management WebInterface

++ Good quality (no plastic parts like HPE)

++ Huge number of PCI slots

++ Silent (for a server)

++ Drivers and documentations are well preserved

– To switch CPU you have to put all RAMs and FANS out

– The RAID-Module „PERC H700“ is hard to manage and Disks doesnt get recognized by ZeroOs V1.

– It needs 4 Powersupplies with 1100W per each. If you use less it gets errors and downgrade the system.

– The buildin Broadcom 5709C Controller is not supported by ZeroOs V1, an additional NIC was necessary.

2x IBM System X3850 X5

Each has….

• 4x Intel Xeon E7-8867L – all together 80 cores (Most efficient CPU für Socket 1567)
• RAM: 44x16GB (704GB)
• SSD: 1TB (current)
• HDD: 12TB (current)

Pros/Cons of this Server:

++ Also well done modularity

++ Good quality (no plastic parts like HPE)

++ You can directly change CPUs without removinmg any other part like FANs…

++ Easy do handle HDD-Backplanes and to manage disks

++ 2 big and in quality good Powersupplies with 1200W per each.

– Poor Management WebInterface whitch runs only in IE (but good enought to work with)

– Commands per SSH doesnt work like it should

– Extremely loud by 30° of CPU temperature…

– Drivers and documentations are poor preserved

– The buildin Broadcom 5709C Controller is not supported by ZeroOs V1, an additional NIC was necessary.

Nodes

Current Zero-Os V1. All Up and running since months

Additional

Debian PXE-Server to host Zero-Os Images

Location

All 4 Servers with ~30kg per Unit are lying on tables in the cellar.

A Rack is planned.

[scott]

Summary

• Farm name: “feorm”
• Nodes: 1
• First node online: July 9th, 2020
• Node hardware: HPE EC200a with aftermarket memory/drives
• Farm resources: 8 CRU, 63 MRU, 7452 HRU, 1907 SRU
• Network: 25 mb/s cable internet link, standard consumer modem/router combo, default settings

Details

Here’s my little home farm, with the first node hanging out by my modem/router:

The server is an HPE Proliant EC200a. I chose it for its small form factor, low power consumption, and excellent value. It boots via EFI from a USB stick (provided USB image did not work), and runs Zero OS v2 without issue.

My guess is that this model (and its hard to find add on storage unit) wasn’t a very successful product, given that the current HPE Gen10 lineup favors the microserver design fitting 4 LFF drives as the smallest option. Mine came from a vendor who was liquidating unsold stock. So these are brand new, though slightly outdated (within four years old), machines that were stripped of the original memory and drives to be sold separately. In my opinion, they are great candidates for running DIY nodes at home, so I bought two Here’s the other one (backup for now, maybe outfitted later), showing my little terminal station for setting up boot configuration:

They came even smaller than I expected, as you can see next to the monitor. Specs are:

• Intel Xeon D-1518 SOC with 4 physical cores @ 2.2Ghz
• Two DIMM slots, up to 64gb memory
• Two LFF drive bays
• One M.2 SSD slot
• Two NICs and one dedicated NIC for ILO
• 120w external power supply

Here’s what an empty one looks like on the inside, and the M.2 spot on the bottom:

The node I have online is fitted with 2x32gb memory sticks, two 4tb HDDs, and a 2tb M.2 drive:

Total hardware cost for this node (all new, enterprise grade components): USD $686
Monthly energy cost: USD $8
Expected ROI: we’ll see, but I’m guessing pretty darn good

Downsides to the EC200a as a node are that it cannot be certified and the fan is a little loud to be running in the living room all the time. I’ll be moving my router and node into a closet to help with noise (wish I had a basement, where it would also be cooler). My router is a standard consumer cable modem with a wifi router built in (Arris SURFBoard SBG10), connected to a 25mb/s Comcast cable internet connection here in Eugene, Oregon. Just default settings on the router, which thankfully includes IPv6:

And apparently some DoS protection too:

Future plans in consideration include adding more nodes, upgrading my internet package (more bandwidth and unlimited data will probably be necessary, especially if any more storage capacity is added and actually used), and utilizing the dual NICs on these boxes to expose them directly to the internet via the router’s DMZ (maybe no benefit for me, but sounds like fun).

I am really excited to be helping to grow the ThreeFold Grid as a farmer. It’s been a dream of mine for a while now to have a little box sitting in the corner generating cryptocurrency, but mining rigs have never appealed to me. Getting my node running was surprisingly easy, and I love that it’s part of a movement for evolving both the internet and humanity.

[VladMurea]

Hello,

I’ll share my first 2 servers that I’ve added to the TFT Network. Both of them have 1Gb Ethernet connection to a Switch Mercusys Desktop 10/100/1000 Mbps.

1st Server:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/7C7FDc

One thing to mention. I managed to find the AMD Ryzen 7 1800x at one of my friends with 120$. Also, some promotions were available at the local market store and I managed to pay around 610$ for the entire build.

TFT Reward (daily/montly/yearly)

CPR Reward: 15

Calculated at the current price: $0.07

2nd Server:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/3s9YDc

TFT Reward (daily/montly/yearly)
CPR Reward: 29

Calculated at the current price: $0.07

FUTURE UPDATES:

1. On the 1st Server I will increase the current storage to:
   8TB HDD and 2.5TB SSD

2. On the 2nd Server I will increase the current storage to:
   8TB HDD and 3.5TB SSD

[iitxsbrian]

Hello Scott, I am planning on replicating your DIY 3Node in the HP EC200a and I have a few questions I would like to ask, I would really appreciate your help as I am a newbie when it comes to servers. Let me know if you have the time to answer some of my questions, Thank you !!

[scott]

Hey! I’d be happy to help, and there are many other farmers on Telegram who can offer guidance too: https://t.me/threefoldfarmers

If you prefer to communicate here, please open a new thread with your questions. We’d like to keep this thread focused on sharing existing farms

[reignmack]

Lenovo M900 Tiny
i7-6700T CPU (8 Threads)
2TB SATA SSD + 2TB NVME SSD
Crucial 64GB RAM CT2K32G4SFD8266 (2x32GB) DDR4 2666 MHz CL19 Laptop Memory
Cruzer Fit USB flashdrive (to boot Zero-OS)
CRU = 8, MRU = 62, SRU = 3651

I used the GoFarmer method to setup my boot disks.

Each node uses around 11.5Watts

[Katatonia]

Hi guys,
Wanted to share my setup and take your guys opinion and any improvement could be done as am building another server with similar components, this is my first time building one my self.
Appreciate the help.

[scott]

Looks like a solid build in terms of RAM/threads/SSD ratio. The CPU is among the fastest on the market which is probably not needed for most workloads and also comes with integrated graphics which the Grid doesn’t currently use. I’d consider shopping for a mid range CPU with the same thread count to reduce cost a bit while maintaining earnings.

[colossus]

Hi all,

I’m very intrigued by this project and have decided to dive in with some beefy spec hardware. Let me know how this build sounds and if there are any tweaks I should make. I will be deploying two of these:

DELL R630

• (2) e5-2630 v3 - 8 core / 16 thread CPU (32 threads total)
• 256GB DDR4 RAM
• (1) Inland Premium 2TB NVME
• (1) Intel DC P4500 2TB NVME

I’m considering adding additional HDD storage, but I’m not sure if its worth it. According to the DIY calculator, it looks like the bulk of value is in compute power and flash storage.

EDIT:

Forgot to mention I’m on residential symmetrical Gb fiber with no data cap.

Also may move the guts of the R630s to R730s. The only drawback of R630 is 2.5" bays while R730 has 3.5" bays. I have 6 spare 14TB SATA drives I would split between the two hosts giving me 42TB of HDD on each host.

[scott]

All looks good to me. CPU/RAM/SSD are well balanced and you have plenty of bandwidth for the storage capacity. SSD will have a much larger impact on your earnings until your CUs are maxed out on CPU or RAM. From there, both SSD and HDD should have similar impact on earnings per unit of cost.

In my build, the HDD represents about an equal share of the hardware cost and the earnings. The 4tb HDDs I used cost less per GB than larger drives, however, so your mileage may vary for a larger scale node.

[Mik]

That looks great. And you have the right ratio of GB RAM and vcores.

Going with R730 is better sound and heat-wise as U2 servers generate less heat and produce less noises than U1 servers. (The fans are small in U1 and must thus spin way more to dissipate heat.)

If you get deals on HDD it might be worth it. But indeed SSD and CU is where the tokens are generally speaking.

[rad]

Hi All

My farm:

No. 1 - HP Proliant DL 580 G7

• 4 x Intel Xeon E7-4870 10 core / 20 threads (40/80 total)

• 656 GB DDR3

• 1 TB SSD Samsung 860 EVO

• 1,5 TB HDD (few SAS Samsung / HP)

• Actual Power Reading 617 W

No. 2 HP Proliant DL 580 G8

• 4 x Intel Xeon E7-4880 V2 15 core / 30 threads (60/120 total)

• 960 GB DDR3

• 5 TB SSD (1TB Samsung 860 EVO + 4TB Samsung 870 QVO)

• 3,3 TB HDD (few SAS Samsung / HP)

• Actual Power Reading 283 W

No. 3 HP Proliant DL 580 G8

• 4 x Intel Xeon E7-4880 V2 15 core / 30 threads (60/120 total)

• 1024 GB DDR3

• 1 TB SSD (1TB Samsung 860 EVO)

• 300 GB HDD (SAS HP)

• Actual Power Reading 269 W

Serwers are in two locations: (1+2), (3) both have 300 Mb FO - no limits internet connection.

In addition I have 6 WD 3,5 14TB HDD which are waiting to be connected, just thinking how …. any suggestions? I’m considering buying HP StorageWorks AJ750A MSA2000 (I can have one used for 150$)

And of course I’m collecting money to buy additional SSD which I need to fully utilize capacities in V3

If someone is considering which server to buy (from those 2), my recommendation is HP DL580 G8. Powerful machine, half power consumption and 4 times more quiet, in comparison to G7.

BR
Radek

[Valentine969]

Hi Threefold farmers, here is my setup:

Internet speed: 600/20 Mb/s
Router: Arris TG3482ER3

Lenovo ThinkCenter M900 Intel Core i7-6700T
Crucial MX500 1TB SATA 2.5in. Internal SSD
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 64GB (2 x 32GB) SO-DIMM DDR4 3200 RAM

It is very quiet and low on power.

Happy Farming!

[Mik]

Hey guys,

Quick update of the farm (I deleted the other posts for clarity).

3x3nodes:
Desktop HP EliteDesk 800 G1
Each with 2x8TB HDD and 1x1TB SSD Sata

2x3nodes:
Dell R720 256GB RAM (16x16GB DDR3 ECC), 2x2TB SSD Nvme with PCIe 3x4 adaptor

[ryan]

My first DIY node is made up of:

Gigabyte Z270N Motherboard
Intel i5-7600K (4-Core)
2x Samsung 960GB SSD
16GB RAM

I’m thinking about adding 4x 4TB HDD and upping the memory to 32GB - any thoughts?

[weynandkuijpers]

You can use the simulator to check this out. It’s at: https://simulator.grid.tf/

Original config:

Output:

Around the $1.0 token price your ROI is approx. 4x

Updated config:

Output:

Around the $1.0 token price your ROI is approx. 11x

And it’s fairly easy to put some other numbers in there to find your sweet spot where you feel comfortable . Happy simulating!

[Valentine969]

New builts for Home:

HP Z800 server
2 x Xeon 5650
194 GB DDR3 ECC ram
3 TB SSD

HP Z800 server
2 x Xeon 5670
194 GB DDR3 ECC ram
3 TB SSD

Quiet, Cheap, low on energy.
Happy Farming!

[pinoygrapher]

My simple cheap set up:

Memory: 16Gb + Bought another 16gb = 32gb total

SSD: change it to 2TB

Saving to add more ssd and/or will built new pc