My Flent test rig needs a refresh. I currently use two Mac Minis. The Intel with the Core 2 Duo P7550 and forcedeth Ethernet is OK, so I could possibly keep it (but no BQL support which is not ideal for some tests), but it’s time for my G4 Mini with 100 Mbit Ethernet and stratospheric clock drift to go.

So I’m searching for one or two low-cost Flent devices (client or server- which needs more CPU by the way?). Requirements:

- Gigabit Ethernet (1x ok, 2x better) with a reliable Linux driver with BQL support
- PTP timestamp support (http://linuxptp.sourceforge.net), hardware preferable
- enough CPU to accurately do Flent’s higher flow count tests like rrul_torrent or rrul_be_nflows with 64 flows (sometimes I also do these together with one or more instances of rrul_be to test host fairness)

I started a spreadsheet of what I’ve found so far here in Czech:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MVxGsreiGKNXhfkMIheNFrH_GVllFfiH9RU5ws5l_aY/edit?usp=sharing

I’m leaning towards either one of the low-end Intel NUCs or GIGABYTE BRIX mini PCs, to which I’d add some memory and storage. But so many of these low-end devices come with Realtek Ethernet (r8169 driver?). I’m not sure how stable that driver is, if the BQL support is usable (https://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/bloat/wiki/BQL_enabled_drivers/), and I’d have to settle for software timestamp support for PTP. With a higher budget, I might go for a 1U server with well-supported Intel NICs, something like described in this setup (http://www.academia.edu/10312557/DEVELOPING_LOW-COST_NTP_STRATUM_1_SERVERS_WITH_LINUX_PTP_AND_GPS). But I can’t seem to find those cheaply (even <$1000) here.

Any thoughts or ideas on this?