hardware capable of routing and NAT for 2500 clients

[rlhs]

Hi there
I'd like to use HP thin client for routing and NAT in our organisation, but I'm slightly concerned whether it will be capable of handling all of the load.

Hardware specs would be as follows:
AMD RX-427BB, quad-core 2.7-3.6 GHz APU
8GB RAM
HP 361T NIC with Intel I350 controller
SATA M.2

It would have to handle up to 2500 wireless clients.

Would it be enough hardware wise or should I be looking at something more substantial?

I do have a Cisco 4431 I could use but I'm really rusty when it comes to Cisco hardware.

[Greg_E]

To me that hardware seems low, but it might handle it if you don't run things like Suricata or Zenarmor. What kind of connection do you have to the outside world, that might be more important. I doubt that processor will route much higher than gigabit. I think the total throughput and number of other services needed are going to dictate the load on the processor a bit more than 2500 users. The users would need more ram.

I'd also increase the ram to 16gb if I were going to try it, I might even go 32gb if the hardware can take it. Price difference will be low ($20 vs $35 maybe), it's old ram (DDR3?). I just bought 2x8gb of DDR4 for my HP T740 for like $35 shipped.

Amd v1756b would be a better bet in similar energy usage. Intel n100 would also be an improvement over the 427bb.

[vinet]

did you had allready possiblity to test your nat performance with more than 1000 clients?

[ruuskil]

HP thin client with a CPU that was introduced a decade ago? I'm confused and curious.

I would assume an organisation with 2500 clients would be running very high-end hardware for their internet gateway/firewall. Something like DEC3862 or maybe even two for high availability. These cost something like 2k$ per unit, which is nothing compared to a situation when your decade old HP decides to quit and 2500 clients lose their internet.

[Patrick M. Hausen]

@ruuskil this!.gif  :)