My current system is running on an old 2U HP rackmount server with dual 16-core AMD Opteron-6262HE CPU's and two RAID-5 arrays (fast SSD array and slow 2.5" HDD array). There are generally 5-6 VMs running under a Linux master at a given time but none of them are using a whole lot of CPU cycles.

In general, it's noisy but fairly effective for my needs.

I'm looking at the future and what might be good replacement that offers a blend of power-efficiency, flexibility, and storage cost.

In particular, I'd like to:

• Ditch the 2.5" HDD array in favor of an efficient separate storage system, preferably an attached NAS with 3.5" disks on RAID5 but probably actually networked and not USB based (both for reliability and also so I can potentially provide storage directly to stuff running on separate SBC's etc). A storage system I could drop in now and still use after I upgrade the compute system would be great

• I'd like to keep the SATA-SSD array for stuff that needs faster disk, or possibly move up to a RAID'ed M2/NVMe.

• Move up to a more modern CPU that has a good Power-per-watt balance. 8-16 cores totally is probably good if that can be reasonably power efficient for idle cores etc, but dropping some VM's to run stuff on the aforementioned SBC's is also an option

• Still be rack-mounted for the main system, but not so freaking loud, and actually fit in a standard 24" deep rack

• Potentially be able to add a decent GPU or add-on board for processing AI models etc

Generally what it will be running is a bunch of VM's for stuff like NextCloud, remote-admin software, Media servers (Plex/Jellyfin), a Fileserver, some virtual desktops and various other fairly low-power VMs, BUT it'd be nice if I could add the dGPU or something with the horsepower for AI processing and periodic rendering/ripping/etc

I'm sorry debating on whether might make more sense to move all storage to BAD, then just replace the always-running stuff (NextCloud, Plex,Fileserver) with SBC's so that they're fairly easily swappable if something fails.

(sorry in advance for the long post)

What I'm looking for:

Basically, without a lot of work to setup and maintain a Domain/Kerberos server, what's the best way to provide consistent logins and remote folder/share (from a server) access across various Linux desktops

I've configured domain controllers using Samba. I've also configured Linux systems as domain-joined hosts. Between the two I tend to find that keeping talking - especially for systems that are only on infrequently - can be a bit troublesome. Updates sometimes break the Samba server, tokens expire, etc etc

I've also used NFS of various versions, but found v4 with the Kerberos implementation a bit finicky (for similar reasons to the SMB based implementation). NFSv3 of course is fairly fast and efficient, but lacks the user-level authentication and relies on IP's for access-control.

Now it's been awhile since I've given a shot at this except for some NFS shares between VMs and SSHFS for desktops, it would be nice to have a consistent but easily maintainable way to provided common shares for larger files (videos, albums, 3d models, and projects etc) without having to constantly troubleshoot. Maybe the domain/NFS route had gotten easier but it still seems to be fairly manual at times.

One of the problems with having switched over a number of relatives to Linux is that I'm "the guy" when they have issues, and I can't always get over to help them in a timely manner. A lot of the time most stuff is working just fine and it's just a matter of popping into the desktop and fixing a bad link or a naughty plugin that's slipped into Chrome etc, but it DOES require being able to see what they see.

Windows has a system where you can "request assistance" and then provide a code for access at which point it shares your desktop. There are similar systems where one can get a link in email and click it for support.

I'd like to find a system that I can host myself to allow users to queue up for support at which point I can pop into their system, without needing to open ports on their routers or using something hackish like forwarding a VNC port to an SSH server etc

Does anyone use X11 forwarding with Android devices, so that they can access their UI apps remotely?

If so, what apps do you use and what issues have you run across?

There's a "MobaXterm ssh" app and while I do love that app on other OS's it doesn't seem to be made by the same company so I don't really trust it

Can anyone recommend a good place to get parts for a homebrew system (available to Canada, at a reasonable price).

Full disclosure, I'm actually looking to build a large 3D scanning system but in terms of movement of the camera heads, I've been looking at my printer and thinking that it could use a similar configuration though on a slightly larger scale (rails, with a wheeled+track system for horizontal and large spiraled cylinder for vertical) , but I have no idea where to source these sort of parts.

Any ideas?

Does anyone know where to find some good measurements of performance differences between common distros (with like hardware and config).

I'm interested to see if some perform better than others due to optimization etc

I'm looking for a wall switch that I will take Tasmota firmware (so a ESP82XX chipset generally) but can get easily sourced and aren't a huge pain to reprogram.

I'm totally cool with soldering some serial jump points from the board of the appropriate Rx/Tx/GRND/3.3V and pin0 are readily available, but try to avoid stuff that requires soldering the chip itself.

I used to be able to get Globe etc dimmers from Costco that were flashable via the old OTA Tuya-Convert method, but that seems to be a thing of the past and I just need a regular ol' non-dimmer switch which is easy to find and access the required pins these days.

If there are switches which take 110VAC but don't output power, that's even better as some I'm just looking to supplement devices already have power but are inconvenient to access

Kevin Mitnick - the world's first famous "hacker" - has died at age 59 after succumbing to pancreatic cancer.

Mitnick gained fame for his hacking skills and eventual arrest on hacking and wire fraud charges. After his release from prison, he went on to release various books and speak at conferences on the topic of cyber security/hacking. He is the founder of "Mitnick Security Consulting" which provides cyber consulting and penetration testing services.

Kevin's influence on the world of cyber security is undeniable, as is his almost legendary reputation in the field.