Home Server

spud17

cuppajoe wrote: »

Yeah, was looking at Ubuntu Server and think that it might be the path I'll go down.

I've played around with Ubuntu server, but as a relative newbie, and also a latecomer, I struggled without a GUI.

I have managed to install the Lubuntu desktop over it, and plain Apache2, and currently use it to host my own website.

Adapted from,

http://www.ehow.com/how_7541477_stepbystep-server-can-access-internet.html

I found FreeNas to be really easy, once you grasp the simple basics.

I've got another low spec (2.4 GHz Celeron? and 512Mb RAM) PC running FreeNas, to which I back up personal stuff.
I just run it once a week.

But it easily streams music via rhythmbox on my Ubuntu desktop.

closed

Why not use one of the pc's, and the nas, a server adds complexity and cost.

banger9365

been running a WHS system for years using a
AMD 630 cpu
4GB ram
and a old gpu nv 6200lt
and i biostar motherboard in a old case and a old h50 to cool the lot
intel network card 1Gigalan x2 teamed up
got 2x 2tb hdds and 2x 1.5tb hdds (all samsung drives)and a old laptop 111GB hdd for WHS
all run using a 500w silver power psu ,
its been running now 2 years ,on the setup ,the one before it, it was an old intel cpu E6600 and asus board and ram ,
i also use lights out to turn it off and on when the other pc's are not in use ,
and use SABnzbd on it has well ,
i think it 's only cost me £200 for the board cpu and ram and the cost of the hdds ,at about £60 each
i also have my printer running off it has a print server too ,not worked out how to get the scanner to work the same way yet ,

it backs all the pc up every night and it takes 15 minutes to restore the main pc's operating system ,but it takes hours to restore the the games hdd on the the main pc ,350GB of games,

and mine is a little system on whs ,seen some big systems using 24TB off hdds
and can have 10 pc's running of one(can have 10pc's connected to it )

paddyrg

Look at the pogoplug systems too - sharing, streaming, shared printing etc all there for a one-off purchase.

Phillh_2

I've been considering going the linux route due to the features dropped in the new version of WHS.
I've been looking at Amahi which looks promising as it uses a feature called Greyhole which can be set to show all disks as one as well as keep as many duplicates of your files as you set.

Begize

Personally I'd look at a NAS box. I've got a Netgear ReadyNAS that does media streaming, remote backups and remote file access. It's only the small 1TB version - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143121 but it suffices for our uses. There are loads of plugin apps for doing other stuff too. There's no VPN as far as I am aware, but my router does that if I need to use it.

A WHS box is a great toy and building a Linux equivalent out of an old PC is good fun (I've done both), but from a money saving point of view, the electricity costs to run them are high. Most PC's / WHS boxes will be around the 200W mark whereas my NAS uses between 8 and 15w, a significant saving if you are leaving it on all the time.

gaming_guy

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S0litaire

+1 for Ubuntu server or FreeNAS
Both are both Free OS's and are more economically better choices than WHS (they tend to use less resources when idle than Windows, so you'll use less power) might only be a few pence per hour in power saving but if it's on 24/7 it all adds up!!!

There's a lot of help for setting up Ubuntu and FreeNAS either in here or in dedicated forums for each OS..

Linbox

gaming_guy wrote: »

The microserver is good - i have VMware ESXi installed on mine and it runs several windows and linux VMs comfortably.

The micorserver's CD drive bay could be used to hold another HDD with the use of an adaptor and also has an internal USB port which will allow you to run something like ESXi (or freenas, not sure) from a flash drive freeing all the drive space for data storage.

What microserver are you talking about?

gaming_guy

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