Sophos UTM Hardware recommendations

[Gaz]

I've decided to build a Sophos UTM (only played with it on a VM) for use at home but I want it to be very low powered and very quiet.

 

For the motherboard I've seen this ASRock C2750D4I Mini ITX Avoton C2750 Motherboard - Scan.co.uk but not entirely sure it'll be up to the job however reviews on websites seem to think it is.

It'll be matched up with a 120GB Samsung SSD in a 1u case.

 

It'll be serving about 5 users with various devices, phones, tablets, PC's and laptops.

 

I'll be ticking most of the boxes, AV scanning, IPS, VPN etc etc.

 

So I'm just wondering if that motherboard is up to the job.

[Blue_Cookeh]

To put specs into perspective:

 

We run one of our primary schools on a Sophos SG105 hardware appliance, which has the following specs:

 

- Dual core Baytrail atom CPU @ 1.46GHz

- 2GB RAM

- 320GB HDD (not SSD)

- 4GE ports

 

Here is our usage graph:

 

Here are the enabled features:

Edited October 28, 2015 by Blue_Cookeh

[Gaz]

Thats certainly food for though, the C2750 could be overpowered then! but nothing wrong with that I guess.

[caffrey]

How about the asrock n3150 ? Cheaper and passive too, I just bought one for a new htpc

[Gaz]

Hi Caffrey, unfortunately thats only got 1 NIC, i'd need 2 as a minimum with 1 for the internet and then 1 for the lan They need to be onboard too because I don't want the added expense of an add in card.

[Blue_Cookeh]

We've been running similar boards to these in one of our servers for a couple of years now, rock solid and very quiet.

 

Jetway JNF99FL-525 1.8GHz Dual Core ATOM Mainboard | LinITX.com | Wireless and Networking (or something else similar)

 

if you need more ports: Jetway Triple INTEL Giga LAN Add-on board | LinITX.com | Wireless and Networking

Edited October 28, 2015 by Blue_Cookeh

[Gaz]

A D525 thats a bit old, certain that wouldn't be up to scratch.

[Blue_Cookeh]

A D525 thats a bit old, certain that wouldn't be up to scratch.

 

You get the idea though

[Gaz]

Yeah I do. Those little daughter board nics look like a good idea. I'll have a browse of Jetways site and see if they have something that is more along the lines of what I'm after.

[RowlandoGloom]

To put specs into perspective:

 

We run one of our primary schools on a Sophos SG105 hardware appliance, which has the following specs:

 

- Dual core Baytrail atom CPU @ 1.46GHz

- 2GB RAM

- 320GB HDD (not SSD)

- 4GE ports

 

Here is our usage graph:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32945[/ATTACH]

 

Here are the enabled features:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32946[/ATTACH]

 

How many users do you have accessing it at once just out of interest?

 

Cheers.

[Gaz]

Gone with the Asrock board. I had a good search on Jetway and some Supermicro boards seemed promising but sourcing them from somewhere reliable seemed impossible.

 

It'll be an interesting (albeit expensive) experiment but I can use the board for lots of home lab type stuff if the UTM doesn't work out.

[caffrey]

Bit late now, but I remembered the itx board with the dual nics I was thinking of Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V Motherboard (Intel Celeron J1900, USB 3.0, DDR3L, SATA 300, Mini ITX, PCI, Mini-PCI Express): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

[Blue_Cookeh]

How many users do you have accessing it at once just out of interest?

 

Cheers.

 

Hitting about 30-40 concurrent devices probably. A mix of Windows, iPads, Android devices. It's also routing between our voice/data/management/dmz VLANs.

[psydii]

For properly small and passive something perhaps something like this: Netgate RCC-DFF 2220 Intel Rangeley C2338 Dual Core Board might be interesting to play with.