[Raion]

For 2022, i want to eventually get the finances of the site as such that I can offer those who cannot afford SGIs a user account instance on a set of modified and secured Origin servers. This will likely be an inexpensive way that will be "pay as you go" meaning you pay only when you need access/usage by the day/week/month. 

I have only begun bikeshedding on the software side, but I have gotten quotes and information on getting the necessary hardware hosted and used:

For 2-3 servers in a private quarter or half rack that are in driving distance, I'm unfortunately looking at between $400-600/month. This is more than me or any of the staff can afford to front on our own, that's more than my car insurance, electric bill and credit cards cost per month combined. I am within driving distance of NC, VA and MD datacenters within a half day, but there's not a lot of options there. At some point, if we start looking for a full rack, that's up to $1200/month, and it almost makes sense to rent an office at that price. 

With all of this in mind, I cannot start this up right off the bat, and I'm not expecting to turn a profit or break even. I'm prepared to put between $100-200 of my own money a month towards such a plan, though. So I'm not begging for someone else to pay for this. 

But the idea is: Make IRIX accessible. We may even be able to offer X forwarding for testing X apps, just be realistic. Even if I get suitable gigabit cards and ethernet, it's gonna be a slog. 

But this can't be accomplished by a home lab or anything, so that's off the table. In my area, both of the homes I have access to both have relatively slow upload speeds (My current home is only with satellite, which has horrific latency) and we lose power, regularly, especially in the winter and spring (the latter due to storms). 

So with that all in mind, I think this is the most cost-effective option. I'm gonna set a new patreon goal of $300/mo. if we can attract enough regular patrons for that, I will start buying hardware for the site and me and Kaigan and others will start looking for the best colocation options. Kaigan, being halfway across the US, may have cheaper options available and I have yet to talk it over with him.

The idea I had was a user shell that would cost somewhere between $0.50-1/day, with discounts to patrons, developers and community repair people such as Weblacky and Jan-Jaap who have written repair info on important systems. 

Unfortunately, emulation, virtualization etc. are off the table. They don't offer a cost-effective usage of our systems.

[weblacky]

Does Irix have the correct process limiting/quota system to corral users? If so you can do what you’re proposing with some confidence someone doesn’t abuse the runtime/slice of CPU power.

I’d also recommend you look into cheap remote power strips with rest APIs, I know I’ve seen one for under $300, that might allow a user portal where after x minutes of inactivity you shutdown the system and then through a portal users check in and you simply startup a server for them. That would limit your power and wear! It’s a bit of a project but not too hard. I’ll see if I cannot find the power management strip I’m thinking about.

[Raion]

Starting up a server and shutting it down puts immense stress on the PSU and disks. I will not be able to run SSDs economically in the system, so I will probably run them 24/7 except for maintenance procedures which can be accomplished with a single 1U server acting as a frontend and terminal server.

IRIX has quota systems, but process-limiting, not so much. It has ulimits (a process limit) and some other methods, but what i'm more worried about is less bad actors, but more security issues from users.

[weblacky]

well if you get one or two users a day it still makes sense to go off when no one's home.

device I was thinking of is: https://dlidirect.com/products/new-pro-switch

[Raion]

I appreciate the input, let me kind of explain I guess what I was going for:

2-3 Origin 350s or 300s running IRIX 24/7 with special sysadmin scripts installed. Someone goes and logs in on a portal. it checks their balance, and unlocks the account for 24 hours. Doing fractionals isn't really possible without complexity/computational expensiveness.

They run the account for 24 hours, then get booted off if they don't go to the portal, or optionally it just tracks the SSH session and rounds it to the nearest day.

DCs in the US don't charge for power if you keep in specific limits.

[Shiunbird]

I am happy to buy one of the Origins from one of you and rack it up at work.

For my work as a video conferencing engineer, I have a dedicated line disconnected from the rest of the network in the office, so I wouldn't disrupt or cause any security issues. Our office has a dedicated server room and I can speak to the network folks to let me hook it up for you.
Someone would take 30ms longer to buy their new Porsche, which doesn't make me cry.

I am also happy to host it at home, if we can somehow build a rack that would filter out the most noise possible (I don't think we would have issues for simple access like we had with the e-mail server - and that e-mail server is now in a redundant setup so I don't know what happened with us when we tried). I have 300/300 with 50/50 backup, and UPS are also redundant now.

[weblacky]

I appreciate the input, let me kind of explain I guess what I was going for:

2-3 Origin 350s or 300s running IRIX 24/7 with special sysadmin scripts installed. Someone goes and logs in on a portal. it checks their balance, and unlocks the account for 24 hours. Doing fractionals isn't really possible without complexity/computational expensiveness.

They run the account for 24 hours, then get booted off if they don't go to the portal, or optionally it just tracks the SSH session and rounds it to the nearest day.

DCs in the US don't charge for power if you keep in specific limits.

Oh, I guess I misunderstood because you were talking about how dedicated colocating would cost too much and that you were going to try to set a low limit on Patreon to see if you could start out. I took that to mean that you were going to start it in your own home. That is, prototype the idea and get the things running and see if you could sort of start from there even though you mention the Internet speed may not be the best. Truth is if you’re dealing with a console Internet speed doesn’t have to be the best thing still work.

that’s why I recommend to the power situation because it seems like you were going to start from home due to cost.

[defaultrouteuk]

Vader: "I find your lack of faith disturbing"

I said I'd do this with you two years ago. I've got an O200 and Onyx2 and an Octane2. I operate as a small ISP and already host your kit in UK and Germanyy and have some kickass fiber into my office in Dubai. If you want to do this then I think I've already made myself clear. I feel like that guy walking down the street offing 100 bucks to anyone and they're like "Nah you're alright" and walking away. It's just weird.

[Raion]

Hey Default route,

In no way shape or form was I trying to step on your toes here. I appreciate everyone giving ideas and offering to help. I have a lot to talk about with each of you I suppose.

[defaultrouteuk]

Not everyone in this crazy world is trying to screw with you, Kaz ;-) I get that a lot of people have fucked around and I suppose trust is hard to grasp sometimes.

Here to help and the idea was always a 'we' and never a 'me'. I don't have the skill or time to manage such a thing. What I am offering is rack space, power, and internet in two of the most connected Tier-3 Datacenters in Europe. I've also got an O2 and Octane2 here in Dubai I can put in a static IP.

It's all for the love man, always was.

Share your idea and let me see what I can do.