Best/Simplest Distro For Home File/Print/FTP Server? 1

[kjv1611]

To start off, to date, I have only stored everything on my "main" computer at home. But I have found that it would be really best if I setup a separate box with older hardware for storing all of my files - home pictures and videos, documents I want to keep for various purposes, and also church audio files - I keep audio files for our church backed up at home, as well as at our church.

Most recently, I kept it all in a RAID 3 configuration using a PNY S-CURE card. That was all in my "main" computer.

Now, after a hardware updgrade for myself, and doing some other computer upgrades for others, I have some older hardware just sitting there begging to be used. So, I took that hardware, and have built my new home-made NAS or file server - no OS installed yet.

Here is the hardware:
Old AMD K62 500MHz processor and associated Mini-ATX motherboard - no AGP, no onboard LAN, USB 1.1. It does have onboard video. I think the chipset and all is VIA based if I remember correctly. And it has 3 DIMMS with a total of 512MB PC100 or PC133 SDRAM installed - I forget which.

I do not want to go out and buy Windows Server 2003, so I'm thinking of using a Linux Distro to setup a file server.

My linux experience:
I've used one copy of Red Hat, and I've used Ubuntu 6. I have Ubuntu 7 - Feisty Fawn burned to a CD, and I have a few old linux distros, as well as one that's probably 2 years old all sitting around. I have used both Red Hat and Ubuntu just to tinker around some. I did once use Ubuntu (live CD) to recover files from my personal laptop when Windows had crashed - I had to do a couple of different things to enable Ubuntu to copy files out of the Windows partition, and then transfer over the home network.

I have done a wee bit of work within the Console in Ubuntu, but that experience is very limited. I'm sure I can follow directions to run it, but I'd rather just stick with the GUI for now for the purpose of the file server if possible - but if convinced otherwise, I'm sure it won't be too much trouble to just do console commands.

Currently, this is what I want to do, in this order of priority (1 being highest priority):
[ol][li]File Server/NAS for sharing files at home[/li]
[li]Print server to share printers at home[/li]
[li]ftp server to be able to access the files remotely - and allow maybe at most 2 or 3 other people to access files via the same method.[/li]
[li]web server to allow for some to be able to read certain files, but not be able to have write access. This one may not really be something I want to do, to ensure no problems with my local ISP - Cable Broadband.[/li][/ol]

I've seen so many different articles, forum postings, and all in various locations from Google searches that it seems overwhelming to know what would be the best.

Here is what I am looking for in a distro if possible, as far as what I want to actually do with it:
[ol][li]Be able to run with very little involvement/input from me - I'm thinking of just sticking it in a nearby closet, away from everything else, and connect via CAT5 - but, I may have it a little closer, if I do the print server.[/li]
[li]Because I want to put it away more or less, I want to be able to control it remotely from any of my home computers if possible - basically any machine on the local network side - not WAN side.[/li]
[li]Be able to easily setup the network shares from within Windows on other machines.[/li][/ol]

Also, by the time I make another attempt at this, I'll have a total of 6 hard drives in the machine - one older 15 gig PATA hard drive for the system, and 5 WD 500GB hard drives in a RAID 3 configuration on the PNY S-CURE card.

Any thoughts/opinions/information greatly appreciated.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Oh, one other thing I forgot to add:
I would like to be able to setup an automatic update routine in this manner: When a particular device is detected as being attached and powered up (external hard drive), THEN the update program should run. But I don't know whether that's even possible.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[retsila]

Most distros come with Apache (web server) Samba (windows file shareing) & an FTP server of some description. if not they are quickly added.

if you do want to host your own web server PHP & Mysql will also be usefull ( & give you far more flexibity than your ISP provides)

personaly I am using fedora 7 for exactly your scenario (minus printer server & without auto updating of hardware, if that is posible it is beond my current skills)

Ubunto should be just as usable

 

[geirendre]

As retsila points out, most distroes can be used
to this, so your choice of distro should not depend on this.
Rather I think availability of documentation for setting up
such solutions should be.
I always like to recommend the

http://www.howtoforge.com/

web-site
for those new to setting up such services.
If you go with a mainstream distros like Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora, and follow the tutorials there, you should be
well on the way.

Have a look at Webmin when it comes to remote
administration of your server. It's a web-based admin-tool
that lets you controle your whole server from a browser.

http://www.webmin.com/

Personaly I prefere Debian for servers like this, it has
tons of good documentation, lots of people use it
and security is second to none

http://www.debian.org/

http://www.debianhelp.org/

http://www.debianadmin.com/

 

[kjv1611]

I'll take you guys' advice, and see how it goes. I'm going to give it a try probably tomorrow night or Friday night. We'll see if I have time one of those nights.

When I mentioned "update", I actually meant "backup."

So here is what I most specifically want, in order from most to least important:
[OL][LI]File sharing across home network[/LI]
[LI]Remote Access to the server from other networked PCs[/LI]
[LI]Auto-BACKUP routine to only backup to external hard drive when it is connected and powered up[/LI]
[LI]Print Server[/LI]
[LI]FTP Server[/LI]
[LI]Web Server - only for sharing files, not an actual website[/LI]
[/OL]

And the last 3 items on that list are not necessarily in the correct order - I don't have a specific preference of one over the other just now. That may change, once I get the initial parts working, though.

All in all, I can simply say that I am very excited about the possibilities with setting up this Linux file server. It'll be my first, but hopefully not my last - well, hopefully the last for myself for a good while, but hopefully I'll get to do similar for others down the road, if/when so desired.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

I'm looking over that

http://www.howtoforge.com/

website right now. Looks like TONS of options out there, using Debian, Ubuntu 6, Ubuntu 7, and probably anything else.

Does anyone have any experience here with the MintOS yet? I did see one setup for a server using that, and it's actually using the Ubuntu distro as a base.

But all this about (so and so is built on so and so) stuff makes me wonder: wouldn't the "stripped-down" versions - such as, I suppose, Debian, be the most stable, being they don't have all the bells and whistles?

Well, regardless, I suppose I can start with one, and if I don't like it, try another, until I find what I like. :0)

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[geirendre]

That's probably what most of us have done.
Startet with one distro, testet it moved on to the next,
moved to the next, and to the next...and so on
until we got a feel for what each has of weakness and strengts.

I will also advice you to surf over to the

http://www.linuxreality.com/

podcast site. It's a podcast aimed
at the Linux newbie, and The host Chess Griffin, does an excellent job at explaining
things in an easy understandable way.
You'll find a series of episodes on setting up home-servers,
partitioning of harddrives, the Linux filesystem etc.

BTW planning your partition-layout should be one of
the most important things you do before you
start installing anything.
;-)

 

[kjv1611]

Thanks for the further information and links there.

At the howtoforge site, I found this tutorial that looked interesting:

http://www.howtoforge.com/fileserver_with_sme_server7.1

It says it's for small and medium businesses, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for a home user as well.

Of course, I just glanced over the first couple pages so far, so we'll see after that.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[geirendre]

I'd say start with one service, get your fileserver
up and running first (samba if you have Windows clients
on your net). Then when it's working OK, move on to the next.
Take notes as you go along, when you mess it up (and like all
of us, you will...) you can use your own notes to rebuild
your server back up again.

 

[kjv1611]

Ah, that is excellent advice: taking notes. It seems whatever I do, if I actually make the effort to notate everything, I remember the steps better, and also put more thought into what I am doing - thanks a bunch!

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[geirendre]

Glad to help
Good luck.

 

[kjv1611]

Well, as an update on this project:

So far, I got all the hardware together (will be adding a 5th storage hard drive to make a full 2 TB RAID 3 ARRAY w/in a couple days), and installed Linux SME Server 7.

I like the way SME Server installs, and how it's setup with a low-end graphical interface on the server end, and 100% fully remote control capable from a web browser - like a router.

However, I cannot seem to get it to recognize the storage hard drives (SATA IN RAID 3 on PCI-based PNY S-CURE SATA RAID card). It sees the 15 GB IDE hard drive just fine, but not the SATA drives.

I am really hoping I can use this server at least for a while, but if I don't find a solution, I think I may just give Ubuntu 7 a try, so I can at least get things working.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

If I don't come to a conclusion on this matter pretty soon - like possibly today or in a couple days - I might just give FreeNAS a try:

http://www.howtoforge.com/network_attached_storage_with_freenas

Then, if that fails as well, I can always try MintOS or Ubuntu 7, I suppose. SURELY one of the distros will work out okay with my storage drives.

One thing I did like about FreeNAS is that it has the web interface display showing how much of the storage is actually used! I may very well give that one a shot this evening if I can get around to messing with this stuff at home - been busy with other items of interest.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

For anyone interested, here is a walk through for installing an Ubuntu 7 "Feisty Fawn" server:

http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_ubuntu704

I am thinking I may just up and do this, and see if it has better hardware support. It will be this evening before I can make any attempts whatsoever.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

And this link tells how to install Webmin on the server:

http://www.howtoforge.com/installing_webmin_ubuntu_feisty

But that may already be included in the overall walk-through.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Most current update:

SME Server apparently does not support my PCI SATA RAID card. So, it is possible it just will not work. However, with running Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn from CD on the server after swapping out for a newer el-cheapo Biostar motherboard and AMD Sempron CPU, I was able to see an old partition that was on the now 5 disk RAID 3 configuration. But I did not see the 2 SATA drives which I configured in RAID 1 in the onboard bios RAID.

So, I plan on doing some more testing hopefully this evening, or else maybe Saturday evening as I already know I won't have any time from tomorrow morning through Saturday morning.

I may try to load SME server and install it on the RAID 1 configuration of 2 SATA drives via the onboard RAID, and then if that works, see if it does see the RAID 3 installation via the PCI card. I'm thinking that the newer motherboard may have enough built-in "helps" to make the RAID 3 on the PCI card show up to Linux. I sure hope so. I know with Windows XP, it just looks like a standard IDE drive. And the motherboard BIOS even showed it in there just the same.

By the way, for anyone reading this and wanting a really cheap motherboard/CPU setup, I think I am really liking this one. It's a cheap Biostar Micro ATX motherboard and an AMD Sempron 2600+ processor. It seems to run really snappy, and it runs really cool - so far I saw it running between 21 and maybe 26 degrees Celsius I believe.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Update again:
I did attempt to run Ubuntu 7.04 server a few different ways to get the things up and running, and here is what I have done so far (all Friday evening):
[ol]
[li]I first went ahead and used the newer hardware - AMD Sempron 2600+ and a cheap Biostar Mini-ATX board that has onboard RAID for 2 SATA2 ports. So, I also put in 2 80GB SATA hard drives that I had lying around instead of the 15GB IDE hard drive - the newer board only has one IDE connector, so I just kept that open for the optical drive.[/LI]
[LI]My first attempt was installing the server installation on a RAID 1 setup of the 2 80GB hard drives (onboard BIOS RAID). That installation went correctly, except after the initial reboot, it said it couldn't find the disk.[/LI]
[LI]Next, I took the 2 80GB hard drives out of BIOS RAID, and just installed it on a single drive. It installed fine (saw all the hardware), but then I got stuck on the next part, as I was supposed to edit text files using only the shell environment. I must say that at this point, I've been fairly lost.[/LI]

I ended up trying twice with the last install attempt - both times, installed ok, but I got stuck at the editing of text files part. So, I'm starting a separate thread on that subject.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[kjv1611]

Does anyone have any opinions on how Mandriva Linux would compare to Ubuntu 7.04 for a file server?

I found this walk-through, and thought it rather interesting:

http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_mandriva_2007

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[geirendre]

Mandriva would do just as fine as Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, SUSE etc.
The kernel (that does the real job) is basiccaly the
same on all distros, and you can install the same software
on them all, so there's no big differense between them.
The biggest differens between them, I think, is in
documentation and support.
If you need help/support/howto's etc. check for available
documentation, forums etc. and go with the one you find the best.

 

[kjv1611]

Thanks. I just thought I liked the setup so far from the GUI interface that was shown in the screen shots. Although, once it's up and running, I guess I'm not terribly concerned with the GUI vs SHELL interface. I just want it to work.

This brings up a question I've been thinking about, but I suppose I'll start a separate thread for that one since it is not technically related, though it is loosely related for sure..

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me