Okay, I’ve been using openSUSE on and off since version 10.0. I have enjoyed it quite a bit. It still hasn’t taken over as my main OS, but I have installed 11.3 on my netbook and it is the primary there.
Here’s the issue though. I have recently acquired an older HP fileserver. It has a 1ghz PIII, 756mb ram, three SCSI hard drives, as well as a tape drive back up. All in working condition. The motherboard is even a dual socket (multi-processor) motherboard, and I can get a matching processor for around $20 - $30.
I would like to turn this into a server of some sort that I can use at the house to share photos/music/documents/movies etc. Now, I am assuming that if I was using linux completely for all the computers in the house it would be easier to network all this. However, this is not a reality. My wife’s computer uses XP Home and this is what she wants. My desktop dual boots Win 7 Ultimate and openSUSE 11.3, and the netbook dual boots XP Home and openSUSE 11.3.
What I am looking for is some advice. How would you go about setting up the HP as a server. I plan on adding a couple of 500GB hard drives for the storage and possibly purchasing the second processor. I have a linksys router, a zyxel wireless router (set up as a wireless switch) and a 5 port workgroup switch. So attaching everything should fairly simple.
I am a network newb, but do have a little bit of a grasp of command line.
You need to run nfs (for Linux clients) and samba (for Windows clients) on the fileserver.
So you will have to install the packages nfs-kernel-server and samba.
I don’t connect to windows machines but from time to time I do use my Sons PC (XP) to drag a file up for him from my Linux Box. I use filezilla for that with ssh.
I expect you could use a fairly stripped down Linux distro for the server. If you prefer SUSE and need a UI, I guess install LXDE.
I would not even install GUI like LXDE, but use the most simple UI: CLI. At install go for a “Text only” (when it comes to choosing the desktop, choose “Others” and there it is IIRC).
I would install LXDE, just to have it and because installing in GUI will probably be easier and more fun for you. But I won’t use it later (there is no need for that) and boot in runlevel 3 while using this computer as a fileserver. With that quantity of RAM, I would use the default kernel (not desktop or PAE) … but adding some RAM wouldn’t certainly hurt either.
As your and mine “I would” in indicate, there is a lot of personal preference in there.
I would certainly not install anything “just to have it” (I am to security conscious for that, do not run what you do not need and when possible, do not even install it).
And for me the real “fun” is in using the CLI where there is allready enough to ask yourself how it is working, then adding a further confusing GUI interface where one can learn still less.
But I am an old Unix hand, thus I am geneticaly predestinated rotfl! rotfl!
And yes, such a system would allways run in runlevel 3.
Thank you all for your response. I may have come across swerdna’s site in my searches, but can’t remember. I have looked at a lot of sites, but none had really (at least I though) covered the topic in a way that I really understood. Many “how to’s” seemed to assume certain things about Linux networking that I didn’t feel I understood fully. I have some experience with Windows Server 2008 and XP Pro running in a domain configuration and so some of the ideas seemed a little foreign to me. This is really a project for me to learn more about Linux and networking in general, but also is of practical use in the house, as no one is currently backing things up on a regular basis (thus the dual 500gb hard drives).
I can tell you now that I will most certainly install a GUI. Reason being that I can run a terminal inside of the GUI and use the GUI as a back up until I am completely comfortable with the command line. I will also be using openSUSE. I am very happy with its performance so far and am most familiar with this distro.
Again, thank you for your assistance, and as I move through this, I will likely be back asking for assistance tackling some hurdles I am bound to encounter.
First things first though will obviously be more reading.
Well all, thank your for your input and caf4926 for directing me to swerdna’s site and tutorials. Worked like a charm. I have yet to purchase the 500gb drives, but I am using the 18gb drive as a test for now. Working well. I have access to the network from all computers (both linux and windows). The plan is moving along fine, just need to save up for the drives. I will be setting them up in a RAID 1 config. Actually, my brother has a SATA RAID card that he is giving me, so it should go fairly smoothly (I hope).
Even managed to set this up as the print server for the system as well, however, due to the printer, I cannot print from XP home installs though I have googled it and tried all of the suggested solutions that I could understand.
