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Looking for a kernel dev & build machine
I'm doing some part-time kernel dev and looking for a build machine since my laptop is too slow on that. I would like to have a machine that:
- build can be as fast as possible (which means SSD (60G should be enough), many cores (4+/8+) and large RAM(1G/core))
- better to support nested virtualization (so that I can run it directly on that machine)
- has low cost when I don't use it (only perform devs in the evening for ~3h/d)
I was wondering about the best option: should I rent a dedicated server / VPS or buy some hardware?
Comments
Our hybrid servers support nested virtualisation and have unlimited internal bandwidth running on Dual Xeon Gold's. Cores and RAM dedicated.
For your use case however, I think a dedicated server may be better.
Hetzner has cloud vps with dedicated vcores and hourly billing.
https://www.hetzner.com/cloud
EDIT:
Another option:
Used Xeon quadcore workstations on ebay.
I guess your best bet is something like @eol suggested: Going with a provider, that has hourly billing available.
You could setup a simple setup script, that runs after booting up a new instance and then pulls your repository and performs the build.
Using Hetzner's instance with dedicated 8 vCores, your 3h dev session will cost you only about 0,45€. Afterwards just destroy it and start over again - no costs in the meantime.
As a plus: Using the APIs most providers have, this should be fully automatable.
/EDIT/
In the same way, you also could make use of the CPU optimized droplets from DO (slighty more expensive) or even boot bare metal servers with hourly billing at Vultr (i.e. E3-1270v6 for about 0,16€/h)