Skip to content

Hardware

Jump to bottom
Alexander Elchlepp edited this page May 7, 2023 · 8 revisions

Possibilities

Basically, there are the following ways to use the pension administration:

  • Installation of the entire software on the same work PC.
  • Use of a web server on the Internet
  • Installing the software on a separate server that is not located on the Internet.

Since the security of the data and the application is of primary importance, it is recommended to run the application on the same network as the PC(s) currently managing the accommodation.

If there is only one work PC in the accommodation, it is also possible to install the application on this PC. The preferred variant, however, is to purchase a separate piece of hardware on which only the application runs. This has the following advantages:

  • Should the work PC ever fail, all data is still available and not lost.
  • Access can be from any device PC or smartphone, the application is not tied to a specific device.
  • Central administration and maintenance of the application

Hardware setup separate server

Attached is a diagram of how the application is currently used by myself:

PVE Hardware Setup

On the right side of the picture you can see the server where the necessary software (web server, database server and PHP) and the pension administration itself are installed. In this constellation the access to the device is only possible in the "home network". Access is not possible from the Internet (unless this has been explicitly enabled in the router).

Some will probably think now, such a separate server is big and expensive. This does not have to be in the today's time any more. The pension administration was developed from the beginning in such a way that it gets along with as small resources as possible. The installation therefore requires only a small computer, such as the Raspberry Pi 4 or Odroid C2/C4, which are already available for under 100 euros. This is a full-fledged computer (without monitor) that is only slightly larger than a normal smartphone. Some of these small computers also have the same hardware (e.g. processor) as modern smartphones.

I currently use the Odroid C2 and Odroid C4 from hardkernel. As operating system the Linux derivative Armbian is used in the headless variant.

To keep the installation effort low, I have provided the required software (see Requirements) preconfigured in the form of Docker images and docker-compose see: Docker setup.

Clone this wiki locally