File server 1 oh 1
What is necessary for a file server, what are some recomendations? It needs to be affordable but still have some quality. What are good processors for them. Exactly how do you set up a server, I have never done this before.
And just to let you know why I would want one is simply instead of having lots of data on my 2 desktop pcs wasting space on both, I could put all stuff on just this one machine and have cd backups or something of certain stuff. It would be good if I ever expanded later on as well, because I could just get a couple raptors or something and be all set for a normal pc.
hmm... not very important, but what are differences (if any) are between file servers, game servers, and web servers?
And just to let you know why I would want one is simply instead of having lots of data on my 2 desktop pcs wasting space on both, I could put all stuff on just this one machine and have cd backups or something of certain stuff. It would be good if I ever expanded later on as well, because I could just get a couple raptors or something and be all set for a normal pc.
hmm... not very important, but what are differences (if any) are between file servers, game servers, and web servers?
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Although if you want a little more speed I'd prolly get a P3 or a Celeron. I'm setting up my own web server right now w/ a 733MHz celly, 256MB RAM, 13 gig HD running linux / apache. 733MHz is really overkill tho for my own personal site.
The only differences in the types of servers you mentioned is the server service its running. For a game server, you'll usually just run multiple games. For a webserver you just run IIS, PWS or Apache, etc.
Of course hardware could be slightly tailored differently for the types of services you want to run. For a file server you'll want massive storage; for a game server maybe you'll want a dual-proc, etc.
In the end, however, it's all about the services man, the services....
I was looking into a very good price vs. performance on a processor, because I want it to beable to fold as well, I NEED MORE FOLDING CPUS! I just didn't know which way to look exactly. I was thinking of either 2 raid o or raid o+1 or somthing like that (4 max hds), possibly dual processor if they were like 1.6 xeon or somthing (dual cpu would be mostly for extra folding without having to buy a whole new computer setup, even if it doesn't quite give 200% more speed than 1), needs to be fairly cheap, but good enough to fold. I know that would be overkill though. I guess I probably could just get a cheap p3 or something, passive cpu cooling, yay! no noise! Things I would need to buy are a case, psu (maybe), mobo, cpu, harddrives (kinda everything
Is there an os that you think would be best? Maybe Win2K? I am not interested in buying expensive os that are unneccessary, but I am curious if you know what makes the windows server os and different.
In regards to a web server, what programs are free and easy enough to use/figure out for a newbie? Does anything have to be bought to make a website on your server and run it? One of my friends has a website like that, but I don't know if you have to buy a name or something, or just name it something unique and it be good. I was just wondering because I could create a little website for it and make it into a low demanding file server and extremely low traffic website, as well as a folder machine.
How much memory is needed for somthing like this?
Also, I have a 750mhz amd duron laying around, maybe I could go by that as a start, and take the mobo out of my working computer and upgrade for the desktop, I'd need a raid card though, darn, I don't know what I'd do.
If you went with Windows tho for serving, I'd say you'll at least want 256 megs of RAM.
Windows Server is different than workstation becoz it includes other services, ie. - DNS, DHCP, routing, remote access, etc.
With 2K how about would you do this? I had a hard time getting both (previous) 2K machines to like each other and never resolved a password issue, should it be straight foward to get xp to communicate just with the harddrives, without a blink?
Also, how much can domain names cost anyway?
If you are going to run a propper windows server you really do need win2k server edition. So you can propperly set up a domain and IIS and DHCP and domain name sharing and all the important stuff. You can do it on win2k or XP Proffesional but you are limited in what you can do if you want to go beyond your home network. They also aren't as stable or secure as a propperly locked down version of 2k s.e.
For a game server you can also run one fine on a linux box but it does require more tinkering to get the games running propperly. However most major Multi-player games coming out now usually come with a linux game server software
Hardware specs baring your need to fold P2 586 with at least 256 ram (though I'd recomend 512) and as much hard drive space as you need. For harddrives scsi is the way to go because they opperate independantly of the cpu processes. However for your environment they aren't really needed any ide or SATA drive will be fine.
i have red hat 9 personal ed. and suse 8 personal ed.
this can all be hooked to a router then? even with a little website?
Yup this can all be hooked up to a router. The real way to do it though would be like this
Modem -> Server -> switch -> computers
The server acts as the firewall/gateway/dhcp server for the computers hooked up to it. Also because it's the first thing the modem is connected to you don't have to worry about setting up your firewall in your router and passing things through to it for everything you want to do. The server acts as the firewall and you can lock down and right whatever sort of traps and things you want for it. it also works more efficiently if you want to have it accessible from the outside world as a web server.
Ideally you could do this modem -->router w/firewall ->server 2nd firewall -> switch -> computers
What is dbain? Something free to download?
So a Switch over a hub is the way to go there. A router is essentially a switch that has the ability to handle an external network connection. They have switching capability and can act as a switch. Usually they'll have an option in there saying "do you want me to work like a Gateway or a Switch".
So a switch and a router with all else being equal the switch will be cheaper. Now you can also get managed switches but that's another story all together and not really needed until your network starts to scale up beyond your bedroom.
Sorry Debain. Is just another linux varriation but it doesn't have all the flashy stuff that Redhat, mandrake, suse(from what I know about it) have. So because of that you can make a more stable more compact install. It also does a few things differently because of some of the library's it uses. Now you can pretty much get any version of linux to work like any other just be adding librarys and recompling kernals so in the end it's all a wash. But depending on what you want it's easier to get there depending on where you start. So in this case if your end goal is a stable secure server, starting with Debain is a better place.
For me at work my server is Debain. Workstations I set up are usually redhat for those users that don't go beyond the applications on their desktop. However for my station I use Debain because I can trim off all the crap I don't want much easier.
I'm not saying Redhat or Suse are bad just that I've found Debain to be better. I've also run mail servers that were done on Redhat though 7.2 as beyond 7.2 they started to really compete with Windows in the GUI and ease of use battle so some of the security and installation options started to drop off.
Oh and Debain is a free download.
And would it be best to use a switch or a router? Which programs, linux distributions would be best for it - and hopefully not too hard to configure?
Now what do you want that server to be doing? If you just want it for file storage and don't want it to be accessible from the internet that is going to be a different set up.
So if you want it acting as a web/mail/file server then modem -> server -> router(acting as a switch) -> computers.
Some of the best guides believe it or not are the linux for dumbies guides they are awesome. I'm serious, they generally give you the main information you need without getting bloated down in a tone of crap that isn't needed at this level in the game. So those are a really good start. Those books and other linux books are where I go to for my info. I always find it easier to work reading from a book then reading through the internet. Plus if your inet connection is down there goes your resources.
The whole switch or router question is moot. Since your router would be acting as a switch anyway. If you already have a multi-port router don't waste your money on a switch. If you have neither then buy the switch.
As for distro's I'll still push Debain. However I've used Redhat and Mandrake in the past and they are fine distro's also. I just prefer Debain because it doesn't have all of the helpful features that Redhat and Mandrake have so you can do a far more custom install. Also whenever I've been trying to add-in other software that didn't come with it I've just had less trouble getting it to work on Debain then on the other 2. Redhat's RPM system is nice (it's been replaced now by something new) but the problem with the RPM's if they don't work it's a bitch to get them going. Where as when working with source code if it doesn't work it's often easier to get in and fix the issues.
In linux and 2k server for sure you can set it up to span the drives. That means it looks at all the drives in it as one big drive. The advantage is you have one huge storage space. The dissadvantage is if something goes wrong you are in for a hell of a nightmare to recover data.
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I just noticed some cheap xeons (400 and 667 mhz), how much do you think they are worth? The 667's are completely brand new sealed in package. the 2 400s (1mb cache) are 15 bucks total, the 667s (256 cache)are 42 bucks total
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Anyone know of any boards anywhere that would work with the sub gigahertz xeons? Dual boards.
As for your xeon's that's overkill for a home file server. Hell it's overkill for most business file servers. Generally the only time you need huge processing power is if you are running an Exchange or a database server on it.
I just wanted a dualie so badly! Plus it needs folding power, although it probably wouldn't come around complete for sometime now.
For hardware, i disagree with many of the other posts. It needs to be scaled to what you want to do. You could put dual Opterons in a simple file server with no databases and it could max the processors out at peak times runing SMB with authentication or FTP, given it would take thousands or hundreds of thousands of simultanius users and your network might die before it reaches the processor limitations... but theoreticly it is slighlty possible. But for a home file server any thing you can bare the time it takes to install a small linux distro on will be fine, this includes pentium 1 and even lower, but i would personaly suggest staying in 586-686 processor families. Memory is almost irelivent, 32mb, if you aren't runing ftp or any other similar services and only runing samba or nfs.
I would suggest scrapping the dual xeons and only use 1, boards will be easier to find as most older pentium boards of the same class support the xeonsbut make sure. If you absolutly have to have dual go to ebay, if they aren't there you probably wont find one except possibly at a sidewalk sale like First Saturday. Ecc ram shouldn't matter, if the board doesn't support it it just wont use it, the registered and buffered or unbuffered is different though. Mother boards usually are specific to what they support, and if you cant find a baord scrap the ram, its cheap.
If you want easy easy easy, check out E-Smith, www.e-smith.org. It is a linux distro loosly based on RedHat with a Web Interface for control. It does firewall/routing, dhcp, proxy, ssh, mail, webmail, apache , ftp and smb/file services and requires almost nothing to run or setup. To my knowledge the setup allows configuring kernel raid that will be almost as fast as any onboard controller you might have. I use it on a small corprate network for all the services it supplies and it works fine on a 700Mhz P3 with 256mb ram. But i ran it for a while on a PII 233 with 128mb ram at home with no problems.
If you want to roll your own i would suggest Suse or RedHat/Fedora Core 2 for a nice server and Open/FreeBSD for a hardcore server. If you are only looking for a file server for windows only network, any NT based windows will do fine. If you try to run IIS you MUST, and i cant stress enough, MUST, use a well configured firewall or you will be hacked and serving more warez then you could imagine in no time flat, of course this is IMHO as always. I have a intranet IIS server that sits behind an e-smith server i mentioned above.
For firewalls/routers, there is nothing better then IPCop, www.ipcop.org for cheap and dirty protection.
If it can be done, there is a linux distro specificly designed to do it. If it can be served, there is a linux distro specificly desinged to serve it. If it can be dreamed, there is a linux distro that will be designed to do it. And if you have troulbe, as i said, google is your friend, and when it fails you, IRC is your friend ;-)
sorry if this is rambeling, been up awhile.