This document is a list of hardware that has been used for development and home use as a ROCK sensor. The first option would be to repurpose a machine if possible (minimum specs below). If your budget permits you can build a powerful system in a small form factor for under $1000.
Some of the more important aspects to look for are IPMI for baremetal remote management, dual Intel NICs, quiet, and relatively low-power. You don't want to have to wear hearing protection while sitting next to your infrastructure.
- minimum specs: 2 nic / 4 cores / 8G RAM / SSD if possible
These are merely starting points as hardware capability and price points are a moving target.
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~$900 Slim Xeon Build:
- case - Antec ISK 300-150
- memory - CRUCIAL TECHNOLOGY 16GBx2 32GB Kit, DDR4
- storage - SanDisk Ultra II 960GB SATA3
- motherboard - ASROCK E3C236D2I
- [processor](Intel® Xeon® Quad-Core CPU E3-1230 v5 @ 3.40GHz Quad-core) - Intel Xeon E3-1230
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Intel NUC 8I7HVK - newest i7 with dual gigabit NICs
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Shuttle Barebones Systems (dual NIC)
Some routers and firewalls have "port mirroring" options as well. Here's some budget options. I recommend getting at least a gigabit device if you can afford it. There are much cheaper options for 100M Ethernet.
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TP-Link TL-SG108E ~$28
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Netgear GS108Ev3 ~$55
- Dualcomm ETAP-2003 ~ $220