Accounts on my bastion host for test farm access

[Eric S. Raymond]

Really good plans have happy consequences one didn't foresee. But also
complicating ones.

Mark encouraged me to work on the Microserver HOWTO as a recruitment
device for future time-service experts and, implicitly, so I would
learn more about how NTP works from the outside. Those were good
reasons.

Now it's growing another use that Mark may not have foreseen -
benchmarking different ntp.conf setups and measuring comparative
offsets and jitter. For these purposes, having several co-located
machines with identical hardware/software configurations and the
same Internet connectivity is ideal.

However, this also creates an implicit bottleneck.  Hal wants me to
set up a machine with both a HAT and a GR701W and use it to measure
offsets. It's a an excellent idea, but I can't do it in any
predictable amount of time - I'm working as hard as I can just keeping
the project-related backlog in my mailbox from overwhelming me. More
generally, Eric as the only person who can use the test farm is not
going to scale well.

Accordingly, I'll make logins on the thyrsus.com bastion host
available to project developers.  The test farm is accessible from
there. I'll make myself available to plug and unplug hardware
on request.

Current test farm inventory:

au.local - Pi 2 with blue-wired SKU 424254
cu.local - Pi 2 with Uputronics HAT
fe.local - Pi 3 with Adafruit HAT

All three have skyview good enough that they pretty much always have
lock except just after power-cycling. GR601-W or GR-701 USB GPSes
can be plugged into any of these on request.

Soon to arrive:

* an Odroid C2 (ordered)

* 8-port Netgear switch because my existing one is run out of ports -
  going to dedicate this one to the lab. POE capable because that's
  part of the plan for the BeagleBone variant (ordered)

* an Anker 10-port powered USB hub, because Mark turned out to be
  unsurpringly right that el cheapo unpowered hubs aren't stable
  enough (ordered)

* two more Pi 3/Adafruit HAT combinations and a HAT for the Odroid
  (not yet ordered, but I know I have to for the ntp.conf comparisons)

Currently planning for a maximum of 10 test machines and an actual
complement of 7 - 2 Pi2s, 3 Pi3s, an Odroid C2, and a Beaglebone Black.

Sigh. I've spent years avoiding learning enough about network
management to run a server farm this size.  No longer, it seems.

Funniest possibility:  If I need a rack for these systems,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq5nrHz9I94

A functional rack made of legos. That's worth some geekery points
right there.
--
						>>esr>>