Server suggestions?

calerid · #1 24th June 2012, 12:09 AM

Hello,

I have seen quite a few posts and recieved a few emails on creating a personal server out of an older computer or a spare. In view of this, I have been planning on creating a small server out of an old netbook that I no longer use. What I want is to make it mount my sd cards that I use for photography automatically and store them on an external disk while it is still running as a server. I don't want to have to interfere with a gui to store pictures every time, unless I buy an external card reader it is the only computer I have that mounts fullsize Lexar cards. Does anyone have any ideas on how I would go about this?

stevea · #2 24th June 2012, 02:56 AM

I thought this question would tend in a different direction ... which distro for servers.

My OPINION is that you are gonna be eventually unhappy using Fedora for a server since it revs all the time.
The thing you DON'T want on a soho server is spending a day every 6-12 months rev'ing configs.

So I have to suggest RHEL6, ScientificLinux6 and Centos6 in that order.
The RHEL workstation version is (IIRC $39) and includes upgrades and support for 1yr (like a Sunday in TJ - it's cheap but it's not free , that I'm not what I used to be, and that love's not a game for three...)

Once you've selected a distro that is LT supportable - do a MINIMAL install without a GUI. You should get a login prompt at the head. Configure the network (preferably using 'network' service' and disabling 'NeworkManager' *** unless ** you need wifi in which case I'd advise using NM. Then configure sshd to accept only KEYS (no passwds) and make a good key and copy the priv half to your other systems.

To get the 'server' to copy files to the 'music repository' I think you should look at the udev config files in /etc/udev/rules.d/ and the man page. You can cause a script to fire off whenever a device (class) is installed. ANd he script should be spart enough to mount the device, copy the contents and mount it, then send a msg to the console or beep or something. Disable ALL services except the few yo need.

To share the files - I'm enjoying glusterfs among Linux distros. You'll still need to downgrade to samba to support windows.

jpollard · #3 24th June 2012, 02:57 AM

Use CentOS. That is what it is designed for.

Fedora changes too much and is always unstable.

stevea · #4 24th June 2012, 04:44 AM

Use Scientific Linux or pay a few $$ for RHEL_WS, Centos is dead-last.

Centos is 5 guys in a garage who have had public falling-outs and recently demonstrated their inability to dup RHEL6 in a timely fashion (5-8 months late) - IOW amateur hour. They took 8 months to get CentOS6 out.

SciLinux is used by Swiss ETH, Cern and others for internal production across a broad range of physics projects, and has been available in a very timely manner. SL6 out in <4 months.

Both are clones of RHEL. I used to like Centos - but they lost my support.

jamielinux · #5 24th June 2012, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevea

Use Scientific Linux or pay a few $$ for RHEL_WS, Centos is dead-last.

Centos is 5 guys in a garage who have had public falling-outs and recently demonstrated their inability to dup RHEL6 in a timely fashion (5-8 months late) - IOW amateur hour. They took 8 months to get CentOS6 out.

SciLinux is used by Swiss ETH, Cern and others for internal production across a broad range of physics projects, and has been available in a very timely manner. SL6 out in <4 months.

Both are clones of RHEL. I used to like Centos - but they lost my support.

Actually, 2 of the Centos developers have now been hired to work full time on Centos:
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/it...e-1613861.html

Centos have indeed had problems, which resulted in some users moving over to Scientific Linux, but I think those problems are behind them. Scientific recently lost one of their main developers to Red Hat.

Both are great. If I had to pick I'd go with Scientific Linux, but now that Centos have 2 full time developers, the two distributions are pretty much on equal terms.

mmix · #6 24th June 2012, 11:30 AM

FreeNAS seems interesting, because of zfs, nas.

http://www.freenas.org/

http://www.freenas.org/features/feat...egory/features

http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=07296

calerid · #7 24th June 2012, 07:42 PM

Okay thanks guys. I guess I will see about getting a script setup for it. As far as a distro I was most likely going to use freeNAS or configure a Debian/Chrunchbang build to do it. It has one gig of ram and does not play well with heavy resource use, so I would like to make it light. I guess my main question really was about the script or program that would be able to auto-mount and store files for me. Thank you for your time.