Tiny computers with 3+ ethernet ports?

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aum108

14 posts

Geek

#296219 31-May-2022 08:39

Hi there,

I'm looking for the smallest possible devices that can run a Linux distro (pref Debian-family), and have 3 or more ethernet ports on board.

(I tried adding ethernet ports to devices like NUCs and Raspberry Pi via USB dongle, but gave that up because it's hard to keep the interface stable.)

At the moment, the only way I've been able to get a Linux computer with 3+ ports is to get an old small form factor desktop with PCI ports, and add gigabit PCI NICs as needed.

The perfect options would be either:

A single-board computer akin to a Pi, but with 3 or more network ports, or
A recommendation of a cheap router with 3+ ports, which can be flashed with a Linux distro

Any ideas?

Cheers

Tinkerisk

4136 posts

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#2920731 31-May-2022 09:05

Banana Pi BPI-R2 Pro …. 5 eth ports?

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BarTender

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#2920940 31-May-2022 14:08

Clearfog Pro - https://www.solid-run.com/embedded-networking/marvell-armada-family/clearfog/

All the SBCs I have seen with multiple NICs are SUPER expensive in my view, the far cheaper way to do it is have an old router or switch you can run OpenWRT on and then plug the Pi into a single ethernet connection and run VLANs through that port. Have used the SamKnowns whiteboxes for this, plus there is hundreds of boxes that you can re-flash with OpenWRT. Then the VLAN setup is pretty easy with tagged VLANs. The only issue is you won't get true gigabit speeds but most times you are using a Pi as a router you won't get much over 200Mbit anyway.

darylblake

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#2920943 31-May-2022 14:13

I went down this road.

In the end didn't need this sort of equipment. Was able to get away with a single NIC and some jiggery pokery.

But you are best looking for boards that connect to SoC chips like R-Pi CM4's (which you can't get) and Nvidia Jetson Nano's.

Some of the smaller cheaper stuff is actually not good...

Stick with R Pi CM4 & Jetsons. The jetsons support Ubuntu. Even though I wanted to use RHEL/Centos on them.

https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-partner-products?t1_ethernet-ports=3

toejam316

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#2920962 31-May-2022 14:31

What goal are you trying to accomplish?

Depending on your intended use case, you could probably get a 5-port managed switch that runs off 5V, like https://www.dlink.com/en/products/dgs-1100-05-5-port-gigabit-smart-managed-switch, and pair that with any SBC of your choosing. Do all your VLANs, etc on the Switch, and have your SBC do the routing itself. You'll likely run into bandwidth limitations based on the power of your SBC, rather than the single ethernet port being used as the trunk.

Anything I say is the ramblings of an ill informed, opinionated so-and-so, and not representative of any of my past, present or future employers, and is also probably best disregarded.

alavaliant

218 posts

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#2920987 31-May-2022 15:34

Do you need video out or is accessing the host via network (or serial cable for initial setup) ok? I personally like the apu2 series of boards for a tiny Linux system https://pcengines.ch/apu2.htm and you can get 3 or 4 ethernet ports on board.

Tinkerisk

4136 posts

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#2920992 31-May-2022 15:42

The question still remains as to what he wants to do with it. He has not mentioned whether he needs a router with VLANs.

SirHumphreyAppleby

2826 posts

Uber Geek

#2921012 31-May-2022 16:08

Your requirements are quite vague, but it sounds like the PC Engines APU2 boards may fit the bill... https://www.pcengines.ch/

I've used both the APU2 and older ALIX boards. Cheap and reliable.

aum108

14 posts

Geek

#2921043 31-May-2022 17:21

Sorry for vague OP. I'm looking to use some tiny multi-port boards mainly as routers/VLANs.

I've got a good home/work network now, but would rather the routers use less power than the old mini desktop PC boxes I'm using.

fe31nz

1199 posts

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#2921158 1-Jun-2022 01:26

aum108:

Sorry for vague OP. I'm looking to use some tiny multi-port boards mainly as routers/VLANs.

I've got a good home/work network now, but would rather the routers use less power than the old mini desktop PC boxes I'm using.

D

Tiny SBCs and even large PCs are generally not the best hardware to use for routing. All the routing is done by the CPU and CPUs (even quite decent ones) often struggle to do full gigabit/s routing while applying all your firewall rules as well. Routers generally have special routing hardware that they offload most of the routing functions to. The CPU basically only sees the initial packets starting the connection, and it then writes a record to the routing hardware to tell it the packets to match for that connection and then after that, the CPU does not see any more packets for that connection as the packets are matched by the routing hardware before the CPU sees them.

So if you want a full Linux router, the best idea is to buy one that is already that sort of router (for example, the Ubiquiti EdgeRouters, where you can bypass their software overlay and do things at the Linux TCP/IP stack level), or buy one of the many routers out there that has the ability to be flashed with OpenWRT. Make sure that the OpenWRT for the router does support the router's hardware offloading. I have a Linksys WRT1900AC router that I used to use as my WiFi access point that I put OpenWRT on. That is pretty old now, but still a full gigabit capable router with all the options you would want. One of its selling points was that it had OpenWRT support and the manufacturer helped OpenWRT do the full hardware offloading support.

VLANs are a different matter. VLANs are layer 3 - they work at the level of Ethernet packets, not layer 2 (IP packets). Good routers support tagging packets with VLAN headers, but they do not support bridging VLANs - that is a function of a switch. If the router includes a hardware switch, that switch will often be VLAN capable and do the bridging needed. So the best idea is to use a router for layer 3 routing, and have a full VLAN capable smart switch to do your layer 2 VLAN bridging. I currently use a EdgeRouter ER4 as my router (it has four routeable Ethernet ports, but no hardware switch). For my switch needs, I have a Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch 24 Lite (24 ports, no POE). That combination does everything I need of it, and my network has significant complexity.