I have 3 Core 2 Quad systems here still in use here for various tasks. One is my kid’s main computer, the second runs Grafana and Pi-Hole as well as being my Linux desktop when I need one and the third is my current Plex system. Over the next year I plan to replace all of them with at least 2nd Gen i5/i7 systems. But I’m then considering re-deploying some of the C2Q’s as storj nodes - particularly if I can get them setup at other locations (like my Mother in Law’s house). The only thing I would need to do is add the required storage. They are reasonably spec’ed with Q9550’s and 6GB ram at a minimum. Some already have SSD’s as boot devices. Given that I’m already planning to replace this hardware is this a reasonable use case in your view? Looking forward to comments.
- I would be careful if a child using your Home server / storj PC
- From personal experience make sure that you have direct link via ethernet
- be careful when deploying it with friends and family they tend to be skeptical and I’m most cases they cannot to much remote support
Personally have a separate PC for storj some kind of low powered pc
It should work, if you plan to manage the nodes through command line you’ll just need to forward the ssh port on the router and you can remote ssh into the system from your place.
I don’t know about security though when opening the ssh port to the internet…
As for the specs of your systems they should work perfectly, I only have 2GB of ram for 3 nodes that have a total of 6TB stored.
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I’m planning to replace the C2Q’s for the current tasks they do. So, the money spent would be on their replacements for my Linux desktop and my kids. This would then leave the 3 old computers free for storj. So there is no hardware except the drives spent on storj directly.
“I don’t know about security though when opening the ssh port to the internet…”
Yeah, I wouldn’t do that. In all cases there would be a Windows pc on the same network used by a relative/friend that I would most likely have remote access to via msp tools like Kaseya and would use that to connect to the Linux machine via vnc.
It wouldn’t be the kids computer after it was replaced. 
It really depends what you are planning to do. What I am saying is that these Odroids are working very well, so hardware requirements for running a node are really really low. So you are probably going to be fine with your old hardware. However you could also even think about selling your old hardware on Ebay and get some of these Odroids instead.
But this I don’t understand. Millions of servers are having their SSH ports open right now. There are many ways to have a secure and controlled access though (Key auth, port knocking, Fail2ban, port change etc.)
Because I don’t have the need to. I already have access via the msp tools which give me more flexibility anyway.
Exposing an SSH port to the internet is not insecure at all. Just be sure to use strong passwords and/or ssh keys for authentication.
Thats not wrong, but i consider it always more secure if it is not exposed. For Acessing afterwards you can also have a VPN Server, and connect to it (eg openvpn, for simple setup use GitHub - angristan/openvpn-install: Set up your own OpenVPN server on Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS or Arch Linux.).
And if you expose the SSH Port this can be done in an secure way as you said. Some things to consider/hardening are:
- Do not allow root Login
- Only use ssh keys fas authentication mechanism
- if possible to add IP whitelistening
- implement some anti bruteforce mechanics (eg. fail2ban, How to protect your SSH server with Fail2Ban on Ubuntu | VEXXHOST)
I won’t explain everyhting, a s there are many good guides on how to hardening SSH Connections, eg:
There has been a number of vulnerabilities found in openssh over the years so it has by no means been invulnerable to attack. I strongly believe in not widening my attack surface and since I need to have the msp tools to manage the windows pc’s at these locations anyway. (e.g. MiL - we manage her laptop for her and provide remote support when needed.) There simply is not the need for ssh to be open to the internet. Yes, msp tools have their own issues. e…g. the recent Solarwinds hack. and are not invulnerable either.
I run 3x 4TB nodes on an old I5 6300U laptop (2 cores - 4 threads) it uses barely no CPU at all on Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 LTS. Your old core 2 quad will do the job for some nodes with no doubt.
Your CPU is 50% slower on single core , but overall It’s a tie. Still it will run
RAM : My laptop uses 1.5GB on average, so there is still room if you have 6GB
Thanks for all the comments guys!
One thing I’d focus on is power efficiency. If I were to deploy my old desktop as a Storj node, electricity costs would only be covered when the node stored at least ~3TB of data.
Absolutely. If i were back in Aus I probably wouldn’t bother running storj at all.
lol, I pay more than 0.22€/kWh in Germany… Still worth it. Whole server needs 65W with 3 disks, which is around 10€/month in electricity so when assuming $2.5/TB is an average earning, I need 5TB to cover my electricity for the whole server. Which is fine, I have 13TB now and parts of that server would be running anyways. Additionally I hope to make more money with future price changes of STORJ and bitcoin.
$1.50/TB → 6.66TB needed to pay off - 