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Hardware Hacking

Server Inside a Suitcase 201

Posted by CmdrTaco from the because-you-can dept.
Spleener12 writes "Andrew Larson and Derek Radke have come up with an interesting case mod concept: a fully fledged server inside of a suitcase (originally designed to hold airsoft guns,) complete with a window, neon lights, and plenty of external ports. The case is a result of a summer's worth of research, design, and construction, and they are planning on constructing a few more to sell to any interested buyers."
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Server Inside a Suitcase More

Server Inside a Suitcase

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  • Yep. (Score:5, Funny)

    by PoopJuggler ( 688445 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:01AM (#11659444)
    This will go over well with airport security.

    • Re:Yep. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by serutan ( 259622 )
      First thing I thought of too. But it would be great for LAN parties and sci-fi con road trips, especially if you hung a WAP off it!

    • Re:Yep. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by randomiam ( 514027 )
      You know what alwayss strikes as completely asinine about airport security?

      They always ask me to turn on my laptop. Like a determined bomd maker couldn't put a bomb in a laptop without breaking it.

    • Server inside a suitcase? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by bonch ( 38532 )
      Ha, I can probably fit four Mac minis in my suitcase. Four UNIX servers! Will that get me a front page advertisement on Slashdot, too?

  • ...for shame.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Psychotext ( 262644 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:02AM (#11659449)
    Slashdot. Adverts for Nerds. Products that matter.
    • I have to agree here. Does this even serve a purpose?

      • Re:...for shame.... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by (H)elix1 ( 231155 ) <slashdot.helix@nOSPaM.gmail.com> on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:28AM (#11659628) Homepage Journal
        I have to agree here. Does this even serve a purpose?

        I think this is intended for a LAN party server. Built something like this, sans neon and the flashy stuff, in an army surplus canister. Tossed a 16-port Ethernet port on the side of the box, a cheap 640x480 LED so you could fire up the game server without dragging a monitor for it, and a padlock to make sure none of the innards happen to walk off. I'd be worried about the big sheet of plastic, as my server was built to make it survive the rough handling boxes get getting shuffled in and out of cars. Normal cases took enough damage from the banging around... That would not last long.

        • Re:...for shame.... (Score:4, Funny)

          by roseblood ( 631824 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @12:14PM (#11660019)

          a cheap 640x480 LED


          I've got a buch of LEDs around, and they're all 1x1. Where do I get these high resolution LEDs you've got?

        • Re:...for shame.... (Score:2, Redundant)

          by sploo22 ( 748838 )
          a cheap 640x480 LED

          That sounds like a really cool idea. Do you know where I might be able to find one and how much they would cost? I did some googling but didn't find anywhere that sells them.
      • Years in pre-sales tell me there is one heck of a good use for it. Head for any customer site to set up a one-week proof of concept. Every time I've done this I've had to fight for space to set up the servers and another fight to make it half-way decent looking so we could make a good impression on the board room golfers. Setup and take down time, when engineers have to be their own roadies. Frankly, I would have killed for one.

    • Re:...for shame.... (Score:4, Informative)

      by rsrsharma ( 769904 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:15AM (#11659548) Homepage Journal

      Not only that, but it isn't even original! You can get a PREMADE acrylic case that is in the form of a briefcase from ClearPC. Not only that, but it fits ATX motherboards. Here's the product page and a couple reviews:

      What a shame.

      • Acrylic may be clear, but it's also brittle - I'd rather protect a "server" in an aluminium case. (Perhaps that's where SAIC went wrong - servers should be locked away in 19" racks.)

    • GAH (Score:5, Funny)

      by Quattro Vezina ( 714892 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:56AM (#11659868) Journal
      Am I the only one sick of all these whiners who complain about the articles on Slashdot?

      If you don't like the articles, don't read Slashdot, dammit.

      You people think you're being cool by complaining about /. on /., but you just come off as crybabies.

      • Re:GAH (Score:2)

        by stor ( 146442 ) *
        Am I the only one sick of all these whiners who complain about the articles on Slashdot?

        *Whiny voice* Shut Uuuuuuup!!!

        Cheers
        Stor

  • A Laptop Anyone? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ErebusNT ( 803738 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:02AM (#11659451)
    Wouldn't a laptop be a heck of lot easier to carry onto the plane?
    • Laptops usually look better than that. Well, not the 2" thick laptops maybe, but even those don't resort to lit acrylic fans (yet). To the unkowledgeable eye, it really would look like a bomb too.

    • Yes, but... (Score:1, Interesting)

      by SECProto ( 790283 )
      A laptop isn't a server. Imagine, you take on a suitcase, and your 5 friends hook their laptops up to your suitcase for some quick LAN gaming on the plane!

  • And... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    the primary benefit of this that makes it worthy of the cost is...?

  • I can see it now.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Xeo 024 ( 755161 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:03AM (#11659457)
    "My suitcase got slashdotted."

  • Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CypherXero ( 798440 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:03AM (#11659462) Homepage
    I can probably think of about 500 different places to hide a mini-ATX board in about an hour, so who cares? I mean, if they did something that not many people can do, that's one thing. But throwing a motherboard and components into a suitcase is nothing to get excited about. Why did this make it to the front page of slashdot?

    • Re:Who cares? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Good point. They should be publishing more horse shit like this [slashdot.org].
    • I agree, there are dozens of suitcase-mods out there... Only difference is that they call this a server... An AMD 2200+ on a motherboard with a VIA chipset... geez...

      Now if it was a 4-way server with SCSI-disks/ECC-memory and stuff, but no... it's some lame hardware in a very lame casemod
      • I thought it looked pretty slick in the main site photo, actually. But when I viewed the "gallery" photos showing it all opened up, I was much less interested. Everything looks pretty much thrown in. Just like a real suitcase, it's much neater and more organized if you take the time to fold the clothes properly and pack everything carefully. I dunno... maybe they needed to construct some inner liner type of thing that would cover/hide some of the cabling and boxes (like the router)?

    • Re:Who cares? (Score:3, Informative)

      by noidentity ( 188756 )
      Why did this make it to the front page of slashdot?

      Read the last linked phrase in the summary, "sell to any interested buyers." Pay money, get your advertisement shown.
  • Guard1: "its a BOMB!"
    Guard2: "Lie on the ground with your hands on your head and legs apart"

    You: "but its just my computer server :("
    • "Lie on the ground with your hands on your head and legs apart"

      Wow, a new sex position...the Bomb Squat, perhaps? "Yeah, sweetie, examine my belongings, oh yeah..."

      (Of course the suitcase-server could serve up the necessary *ahem*aphrodisiacs...)

  • Server in a suitcase (Score:5, Funny)

    by lxt ( 724570 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:05AM (#11659470) Journal
    1. Take MacMini. 2. Place in Suitcase. 3. Turn on.
  • It's a cool mod, but I don't see any advantage to it that you couldn't get adding a handle to a SFF PC.

  • Heat (Score:2, Funny)

    by Primal_theory ( 859040 )
    What if i had this server on my lap the moment slashdot linked to it?
    • You would have to be REALLY overweight to sit it just on your knee.
      This thing looks like it would cover the knees of an entire row of people.
      • Yum, fried fat... i didn't look at the pictures, i heard suitcase, i thought creepy-looking old guy sitting in airport (gman! half life 2! omg!)

  • Uterly Pointless (Score:4, Insightful)

    by visionsofmcskill ( 556169 ) <vision AT getmp DOT com> on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:06AM (#11659482) Homepage Journal
    Athlon 2200. nuf said

    While im normaly quite impressed by case mods and so on, this thing is little more than a very large steel suitcase with an average machine in it.

    I would have been more impressed were it a dual xeon with yada yada yada.... but this thing is hardly anythinbg to gawk at... or care for.

    Hell my laptop is a development server... surely it coudltn stand a slashdotting, but neither could this pathetic mod.

    Bottom line, Grab any off the shelf 1U rackmount server (HP,DELL, IBM, VISIONMAN, etc) ... attach a handle.... and youve got the same thing, but probably at half the cost and better hardware.

    dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

    • I doubt that any of the 1U servers have a built-in network switch, it looks like a 16 port switch there.

      Not all servers need a fast CPU. File servers serving a 100Mbps connection can get away with a slot-A Athlon or a PIII. Database servers are a different matter, but it depends on how intense the work is, and how fast of a network connection it has.

    • Grab any off the shelf 1U rackmount server (HP,DELL, IBM, VISIONMAN, etc) ... attach a handle

      It's hard to get that on a plane - or a standard desktop/tower shape either. Incedible red tape problems associated with lost paperwork on a tower form factor machine in a crate make me seriously consider a tadpole bullfrog dual sparc laptop for the next trip - even a couple of those would have been cheaper than the deposit with customs. In the end, a P4 laptop was adequate, and a cluster of laptops was considered

  • Clearly Bush's Fault! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rollie Hawk ( 831376 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:07AM (#11659484) Homepage
    If it weren't for Bush outsourcing all the IT jobs, nobody would NEED a server in their travel bag!
  • Why not mount the switches so they are flush with the edge of the case rather than having that unslighly mess of millions of cables?

    • Re:Um.. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by v1 ( 525388 )
      and what's the point of placing the computer in a fairly well-protected case and then have KNOBS sticking out the end of the case? Those won't survive even a week's real-world use before getting snapped off. You don't put fragile bits sticking out the ends of a carrying case.

  • nyud.net (Score:3, Funny)

    by GrAfFiT ( 802657 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:12AM (#11659532) Homepage
    Did you notice that all pictures are linked through the nyud.net mirrors system ?
    Someone told him that he was going to be slashdotted. That's not fair ! He was supposed to be melting by now !
    • Perhaps the admin reads slash :)
      Thinking ahead and trying to keep a server running are commendable.

      This is the first time I think I have seen coral work flawlessly. Usually I have problems with routing (I am port 80 only most of the time), or the site is simply too far gone for coral to grab a live cache.
    • Coral cache is the best thing ever. It's official.

  • Smelly slippers? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lispy ( 136512 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:14AM (#11659544) Homepage
    Come on. If you are taking the time to build a server inside a suitcase and post the story on slashdot please take that extra second to remove any smelly slippers and crumbled brown paperbags [nyud.net] out of the way before you take a picture.

    Thank you.
    • RTFA. And I quote from the frontpage of the linked-to site:

      SOMEONE POSTED THIS TO SLASHDOT WITHOUT MY APPROVAL. IT IS AN UNFINISHED SITE....

      [this site] ...WAS THROWN TOGETHER IN 5 MINUTES AS A DEMO. Please be respectful.

  • Oh boy (Score:2)

    by BrK ( 39585 )
    Yet another pointless case-mod story. And it's not even that well executed. The stupid clear window will get all scratched and fugly looking if it actually does any real travel, and those knobs, ports, etc on the end are sure to be broken in short order.

    A decent laptop plus smallish Etherhub or two is more useful (consider that a laptop has an LCD screen and can run of it's own batterY), probably 1/2 the cost, and 2x more portable.

    These fools actually thing someone is going to PAY them to duplicate this

  • Interesting, but not a new idea. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by RoadWarriorX ( 522317 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:23AM (#11659608) Homepage
    About four years ago, I met a gentlemen and his son while attending an InstallFest at Cleveland Linux Users Group meeting. He was carrying an old aluminum case similar to the pictures. It did not have the fancy neon, but it was similar in concept. It strictly has a Linux on it (I think it was Slackware, IIRC)

    Anyway, this person and his son built it because the child frequently visited his grandmother who did not have a computer. So this child would bring the case along with him and have access to a computer.

    I thought it was unusual, but very practical and self-contained. The parts were commodity parts that you can find in any catalog and were inexpensive. Last I heard, the man was planning to have a LCD panel integrated in it. Unfortunately, I lost contact when I decided to move. I wish I could show him this.
  • It's a shame that although the design of the suitcase makes it pleasing to the eye, the website (Which I imagine did not take a year to design and construct) does not have a similar effect. If they want to sell these things, I'd imagine a new slashdot proof server and nice website is in order :)

  • Pictures here! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://sciesnet.net/pics/001.jpg
    babblings
    http: //sciesnet.net/pics/002.jpg
    blablabla
    http://sci esnet.net/pics/003.jpg
    compression filter
    http://sciesnet.net/pics/004.jpg
    less repetition
    http://sciesnet.net/pics/005.jpg
    post ercomment, blabla
    http://sciesnet.net/pics/006.jpg

    http://sciesnet.net/pics/007.jpg

  • Blepp's Briefcase (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by sconeu ( 64226 )
    Their first sale was to SCOX's Blepp, and that's the magic briefcase where he has all the evidence!

  • I did something similar. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by gimpboy ( 34912 ) <john.m.harroldNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:29AM (#11659642) Homepage
    I wanted a fileserver that was portable. I also wanted a backup. So I got two mini itx motherboards, a couple aluminium cd carring cases a few hard drives and I'm pretty happy with the result [pitt.edu]. I just add a new disk when the current one gets full and I rsync them nightly. I think I'll be able to get 8 disks in each eventually. That's 7 data and 1 for the operating system, my personal data, debian mirror, etc.

  • Wow, good job being negative, it makes you cool! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jeremyboxdotcom ( 859052 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @11:30AM (#11659650)
    I like how a lot of you guys are being assholes about this. Maybe you don't realize that they are college students. How is a college student going to afford 8 way opterion innards for their guncase server? Seriously I think the whole point is that it was a relatively new case mod idea, because seriously, no matter how many times mr Larson and I have had this discussion, putting lights inside your computer does *not* make it faster. It's eye candy, plain and simple. Give these guys a break, I mean in real life I hate Larson, but sheesh.
  • A server with neon lights and a window? Id like to see a datacenter that would use this... Disco Datacenter?
  • I have Apache, PHP and MySQL installed on my Powerbook. If I put it in my suitcase with a neon light, do I get a Slashdot story, too?
  • I use luggable PC's over 10 years ago. (IBM PS/2 Model 80, I think) Talk about a royal pain in the ass lugging it through airports. Great excercise but a nightmare to get through security. I can only imagine what it'd be like these days.
  • Now you could carry a nice suit-case with you for your Meetings.Your Boss will be impressed.

    Slashdot-News for Managers around the Globe.

  • We are looking at an initial run of only 2 cases.

    What the heck kind of business model is this? True, they're getting panned in 99% of the comments here, but isn't it a better idea to say "we are looking at an initial run of however many orders we get in the next three weeks" or similar? Talk about slack; it's obvious they're college students whose lives are being subsidized.
  • Ahem: "Wouldn't a beowolf cluster of these things be awesome." Thank you.
  • Looks like the server was running on the suitcase after all.

  • WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sql*kitten ( 1359 ) * on Sunday February 13, 2005 @12:07PM (#11659955)
    "Server" and "neon lights" are mutually exclusive.
    • havent you seen the origin? or various cray's over the years? They look great in neon. ;)

      http://www.sgi.com/products/servers/origin/3000/ ov erview.html

  • Why not a XXXL laptop? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by swb ( 14022 ) on Sunday February 13, 2005 @12:13PM (#11660011)
    That thing kind of reminds me of the old Sniffer cases that in turn reminded me of the old Kaypros; kind of a suitcase-sized (as opposed to this thing's briefcase sized) PC.

    I'm surprised no one has made an actual oversized laptop out of one, including the LCD display and some real hardware expansion capability.

    Done right, you'd have a great on-site server for testing or crash repairs. You need something sized right to match a real server.
    • and they're commonly available. You should be able to find plenty of links with a quick Google.

      The trick with most of them is getting video to the built-in LCD. I'm still not clear on how that's done. Some of the old cases included an ISA video card that was built specifically for the LCD, and you'd just pop it into whatever motherboard you ended up mounting in the case.

      I've also seen some really classy portable CPCI cases, with vertical slots, integrated LCD/keyboard, and everything you'd expect from an

  • Fully Fledged??? (Score:3, Funny)

    by allism ( 457899 ) <alice@harrison.gmail@com> on Sunday February 13, 2005 @12:21PM (#11660083) Journal
    Fully fledged [m-w.com]? WTF? So is this server capable of independent flight or is it covered with feathers?

  • Also cluster in a suitcase (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Door-opening Fascist ( 534466 ) <skylar@cs.earlham.edu> on Sunday February 13, 2005 @12:50PM (#11660336) Homepage

    My boss has a friend who has done tours around the country to high schoool and college CS classes, demoing parallel computation techniques.

    He found it difficult to count on suitable computer resources, so he put four small ATX motherboards in a suitcase with power supplies, hard drives, and a four port switch. He just powers everything up when he gets to his destination and he's good to go. TSA apparently gives him weird looks but not much more.

  • In a case with about the same footprint (though much more depth) I routinely carry 3 Shuttles and all the associated cabling.

    I built the kit for trade shows almost two years ago, but we've used it a lot for conference room demos, as well. The Shuttles are quiet enough to have all three running on the conference room table. Server, network emulator and client, which I just hook up to the projector in the conf. room.

    This kit's been to Europe twice and on countless domestic trips as checked baggage, and I've
  • Reminds me of the time I turned up on a MOD (Ministry of Defence) base in the UK to upgrade a server. After the rigorous security I was escorted to the office block and shown in to an office.

    "The server's in the corner over there", I was told, together with some vague hand pointing. Walking in the general direction indicated, I couldn't see anything remotely PC-like. "Er, where exactly?" I said. "Oh, hang on...", came the reply. The filing cabinet in the corner had a padlock removed and the bottom drawer
  • This is nothing new. Sean Horan [asu.edu] did this in 2001 at Def Con. See the article here [com.com]. Search for "suitcase" or "Horan."
  • http://sciesnet.net.nyud.net:8090/pics/006.jpg

    The desktop-type hard drives don't even appear to be shock-mounted. For this reason alone, I would stay well away from this...
  • Just epoxy a handle on to the Xserve and you're good to go. Screw the mac mini.

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