I plan on building a file/web server in the next few months or so and I was sondering if anyone had any suggestions for hardware/software.
First off, I want this computer to be used for backing up home computers, backing up remote computers, be a webserver (for messing with) and FTP server.
Right now I plan on going with Fedora Core X and buying a small case (a shuttle?) and parts that are highly compatible with Linux. I plan on doing everything in shell, so it’d only need a basic video card I suppose.
I think I’d want some sort of RAID setup and a way to back up the stuff on that computer (to tape I think, but maybe there’s a better way).
I want to have this setup so I can freely reinstall OSes on my desktops without having to think about… anything really.
I’ll be googling about it for some time, but thought I’d ask the Forumosa tech squad as well.
Miltown,
Fedora is a good choice. The distro already includes most of what you described, downloading the rest should be no problem.
Web - Apache
file server - Samba (windows), nfs - linux
FTP - many
tape backup - Amanda
RAID - can be configured during setup. Don’t need special software or hardware.
Multi-linugal- easy to configure more than one language.
Add to this Webmin, a downloadable web administration package, and you should be able to make it do what you want.
Cheers
The tutorial is a little dumb (half of it consists of SuSE installation and “click OK, Next, Next, OK, Next, Next…”), but maybe you can find some useful things in it.
Shuttle’s XPC’s are sweet little machines. Knoppix wouldn’t run on mine (nVidia chipset) but Morphix would – Klaus Knopper refuses to put the nVidia drivers in for political reasons. Anyway, you should have no problems, (unless the power supply explodes and takes out the motherboard, memory, and CPU).
Roc is a good resource for Shuttle, if he is still around. (He hasn’t been on since I got back.)
For backup, I would suggest just getting a DVD burner. 8.5GB is enough to back up damn near anything, at least for your core OS. (Even a 700MB CD is plenty for most stuff, as long as you compress the disk image.) Norton Ghost is useful for that, but may be a Windows-only solution. For Linux, though, everything is in the open so you can just use tar or dd or mkisofs/cdrecord or whatever.
Video, Shuttle’s integrated stuff is fine, or you can buy one with an AGP slot (or whatever’s hot nowadays).
RAID might be an issue with the XPC, since there is only space for one or two hard drives inside, and no onboard RAID chips as far as I know. I’ve never fiddled with that stuff (at least not in the modern era), though.
I’m also planning on building a server soon. I may wait. I don’t really need it but it would be nice.
I thought about a shuttle PC and linux. I’d be mostly happy with it. The main complaint I’d have is PC noise. I’m all for quiet and completely silent computers. If I had a real server, there are a few racks that will pretty much silence even servers.
So I’m going with a Mac Mini. It has all the unix stuff I need. And I can use Firewire RAID. If a few hundred gigs is enough for you, you can find a external drive that uses an external power supply (so there’s no fan) like the LaCie’s.
Quiet. sshh.
The stuff I’d probably use are:
apache
ssh/sftp
samba / afp (mac)
Adobe Version Cue (photoshop, etc version control and web access, mac/pc only)
perforce - source code control
iTunes - I can keep tons more on the server and copy stuff to my powerbook when I want
