making a home sever question

edited December 2016 in Hardware
What it system requirements for a home sever? I downloaded ubuntu server. I just want to use it for saving files on it. I have few types of computer. I have a pentium 1,2,3 and 4. I like to set it up and just have it running and take the monitor off if i can. Thanks for the help.

Comments

  • You can use any piece of hardware you like. I myself would recommend something modern, low-power, and capable of virtualization. (Virtualization is a game-changer for servers. You'll definitely want a hypervisor like ESXi.)
  • There are almost no requirements other than what you decide you need. You can use just about anything with storage of some sort and a network connection. I have a celeron 366 with 64MB of ram that I still use with FreeBSD. Just install your os of choice, google how to set a static ip so you always know where it is in your network, and install and configure samba-server to have its storage show up in the "network" section of the file browsers on other computers. the configuration file for samba can be intimidating, but you can find examples on the internet of a basic public file-share. it only takes a couple lines.
    for what its worth, i always recommend FreeBSD. a lot of the configuration is condensed into one file, so its easier to understand and manage what services are running.
  • Just about everything will work for just saving files to... especially if you don't care about throughput. But from what you've listed, I'd recommend the P3 or the P4.
  • I generally concur with the previous comments.

    If it was me I would:
    * Use either the P3 or P4.
    * Possibly replace the ATX power supply with a newer decent quality one (for reliability and power efficiency) - I personally run 2 desktops all the time and the power consumption isn't much anyway.
    * Max out the RAM or at least 256 MB (not required, but doesn't hurt and should be cheap).
    * Buy a PCI SATA adapter card or two - that way you can grab say a couple of 500 GB or 1 TB drives on the cheap to plug into
    * Buy a couple of those cheap 4-pin to SATA power adapters to power the SATA drives
    * Any OS of your choice (not familiar with Ubuntu Server personally, but I don't believe it's a bad choice). If it had been Windows prior to Vista or Server 2008, I'd recommend blocking the MAC address of the server's network card at the router, to remove Internet connectivity but retain the connection to the home network for sharing files.
    * Use a static IP address.
    * Again not sure with Linux, but set up and allow RDP connections to the server to access the machine remotely.
  • I have a old dell computer running at 2.4ghz with 1gb of memory. It's a p4 cpu. I was thinking about using the dell. I was thinking how to set it up since i never setup a home sever before.
  • I'm inclined to agree with @BlueSun on this, since I've got a Pentium 233MHz hosting a home media server off some SCSI drives in Windows 2000.

    If you want decent throughput, I'd recommend a Pentium III or 4 as well, but you're going to need at least a 486 to get decent performance with ~20MB files I'd say.

    However, it is your decision on what system to use, and if you can find a network adaptor for it, even an 8088 can serve your purpose (or at the very least try it's best) to some degree.

    Depending on your expenses, a nice Pentium II or III will get the job done well enough, and if it's just small things like locally stored MP3s and Amiga MODules and such, you should be fine with a simple Pentium.

    The faster the better.
  • You might get AMD computer
  • As far as the OS goes, Ubuntu Server probably isn't the easiest for a beginner to learn... but I do recommend it. Just know there will be a learning curve and as long as you learn it, you'll be fine.

    For sharing files, you'll be looking at setting up Samba. If I recall, it's even an option during the install... make sure to select OpenSSH server as well so you can have remote access to the server. Since Ubuntu is one of the more popular distros, you'll have no problem finding tutorials to get you up and running.

    Windows is definitely easier... right click the folder, share it... but less fun :)
    * Buy a couple of those cheap 4-pin to SATA power adapters to power the SATA drives

    Definitely do not cheap out on these. I've recently learned of a phrase that's becoming common among data hoarders, "Molex to SATA, Lose All Your Data"

    Apparently some of the cheap adapters have a tendency to catch on fire.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgor ... _adapters/
  • For a home server, I think you may want to consider something that uses a much lower TDP, like one of the AM1 AMD processors. Well, that's what I'd do if I had a home server.
  • BlueSun wrote:
    Definitely do not cheap out on these. I've recently learned of a phrase that's becoming common among data hoarders, "Molex to SATA, Lose All Your Data"

    Apparently some of the cheap adapters have a tendency to catch on fire.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgor ... _adapters/

    Were those made by Samsung? :)

    Anyway that's news to me - maybe I've just been lucky with the ones I have.
  • BlueSun wrote:
    Definitely do not cheap out on these. I've recently learned of a phrase that's becoming common among data hoarders, "Molex to SATA, Lose All Your Data"

    Apparently some of the cheap adapters have a tendency to catch on fire.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupportgor ... _adapters/
    There are SATA Hard drives with Molex power connectors in addition to SATA. I remember that being common on some Hitachi and maybe Western Digital, I don't know how common those are anymore but I think it would be better to use a power supply with enough SATA connectors to power the necessary drives, Since you don't know how long an old PSU will last.

    This is feasible on the OP's Dell PC since it should be from when they used standard ATX, Although he may need to case mod the back to make room for the I/O switch depending on what PSU he plans on using.

    This was sent on an iPad since my main internet is out so I apologize if this didn't come out right.
  • Anyway that's news to me - maybe I've just been lucky with the ones I have.

    It was news to me as well. I used them for years and never had any issues... but maybe I just got a good one. These days, I'll only use them as a last resort... like for my file server and backup server, I used the adapters temporarily until a new modular cable arrived for my PSU so I could add more SATA power connectors.
    There are SATA Hard drives with Molex power connectors in addition to SATA. I remember that being common on some Hitachi and maybe Western Digital, I don't know how common those are anymore but I think it would be better to use a power supply with enough SATA connectors to power the necessary drives, Since you don't know how long an old PSU will last.

    It's pretty rare to see a SATA hard drive with a molex power connector these days. I do remember seeing these during the early years of SATA, but anything remotely modern will have dropped it by now. So it's much better to use a PSU that has SATA power connectors...

    Of course, don't cheap out on the PSU either.
  • Personally for me, I would go for your P4 as a home server. Just because it is a tad newer and has sufficient ram to handle processes that may take place. Although It's entirely up to you. I made a web server from a 633Mhz machine, although I had to replace it with a less noisier one, it still does the job just fine. It's max amount of memory usage was 129MB out of 300MB out of the months time that it was up.
  • It's just a P4 is slow, sucks up power, runs hot, and likely (some do) doesn't have virtualization.
  • ampharos wrote:
    It's just a P4 is slow, sucks up power, runs hot, and likely (some do) doesn't have virtualization.
    Well you gotta work what you have. I don't know about you, but some of us don't have $200 to $500 to throw at a brand new pc. Besides, if the OP knew what he was doing. He could install debian or Ubuntu 16.04 LTS server edition and make use of Containers. As Containers are the way of the future. You can run a whole different linux distro and still have the same kernel operating the entire system together, you could make a Container just for an application. There for there will be no conflicting dependences. Although the bad side is that you will have to have a lot more disk space.
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