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Building a cheap fileserver
 

offline giginger from Milky Beans (United Kingdom) on 2007-03-12 12:48 [#02061398]
Points: 26326 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



Does anyone have any tips?

What's the best options etc? Just a link to a good online
guide would be appreciated.


 

offline sheffieldbleep from Sheffield (United Kingdom) on 2007-03-12 12:54 [#02061403]
Points: 2466 Status: Lurker



Plently of RAM. If you're building from scratch check out
Maxtor Maxline disks.


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2007-03-12 12:59 [#02061409]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Followup to sheffieldbleep: #02061403 | Show recordbag



Why plenty of RAM?

If you are just after network storage take a look at the
Linksys NSLU2 with a couple of externals.


 

offline giginger from Milky Beans (United Kingdom) on 2007-03-12 13:05 [#02061414]
Points: 26326 Status: Lurker | Followup to ecnadniarb: #02061409 | Show recordbag



Damn, that looks pretty sweet.

Can I daisy chain USB items onto it? I suppose not but it
would be sweet. I'll just buy an enclosure for the 500gig
and I'm sorted. Cheers mate.


 

offline sheffieldbleep from Sheffield (United Kingdom) on 2007-03-12 13:07 [#02061415]
Points: 2466 Status: Lurker



it helps with multiple requests, also a file server usually
runs other services. But a NAS would be better for a home
network.


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2007-03-12 13:08 [#02061417]
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It allows you to connect two USB drives. The only thing you
should be aware of before you buy is that you have to format
your drive before you can use it with it (ext3 file system).
I started with two fresh drives so it didn't affect me but
dunno whether the 500gb you are on about already has stuff
on it.


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2007-03-12 13:10 [#02061418]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Followup to sheffieldbleep: #02061415 | Show recordbag



Nah, you only need a lot of RAM if you are running a dbms or
web server with server side processing etc. SMB has only
modest requirements.


 

offline sheffieldbleep from Sheffield (United Kingdom) on 2007-03-12 13:13 [#02061420]
Points: 2466 Status: Lurker | Followup to ecnadniarb: #02061418



NAS


 

offline sheffieldbleep from Sheffield (United Kingdom) on 2007-03-12 13:16 [#02061421]
Points: 2466 Status: Lurker | Followup to ecnadniarb: #02061418



a cheap system say a PIII, would you be happy with just
64MB? Even basic SMB would be sluggish. I'd say 256MB at
least.
But it depends on your definition of a 'cheap' system.


 

offline redrum from the allman brothers band (Ireland) on 2007-03-12 13:17 [#02061422]
Points: 12878 Status: Addict



low spec

use debian

or go the easy route and get a NAS


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2007-03-12 13:41 [#02061427]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Followup to sheffieldbleep: #02061421 | Show recordbag



haha 256MB isn't "plenty of RAM"...maybe 5 years ago it was.
Plenty of RAM these days is 2GB up. In any case 64Mb would
probably work just fine depending on the OS you are
running.

The benefit of the Linksys and the externals is that the
NSLU2 are a)you get to choose the drive b)if anything fails,
just that component needs to be replaced c)it is an embedded
system with a 266MHz Intel XScale running Linux which means
it's nice to piss about with.


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2007-03-12 13:41 [#02061428]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



Ignore the grammar.


 

offline giginger from Milky Beans (United Kingdom) on 2007-03-12 13:47 [#02061429]
Points: 26326 Status: Lurker | Followup to ecnadniarb: #02061417 | Show recordbag



The 500gig hasn't even arrived in the post yet.

This is definitely looking like a good option. Saves me
building something myself and all the twatting around with
OS's as well.

Doing a google on it there appears to be a firmware upgrade
allowing your to use FAT32 and NTFS formatted drives now.
Also custom firmwares available. I'll investigate that
more.

I might pop the 500gig into my computer anyway and buy a
separate 500gig external. the 1TB ones are too expensive
right now.


 

offline big from lsg on 2007-03-12 14:21 [#02061440]
Points: 23727 Status: Regular | Show recordbag



http://xltronic.com/mb/93998


 

offline xf from Australia on 2007-03-16 03:26 [#02062849]
Points: 2952 Status: Lurker



sheffieldbleep: dude, you're seriously giving really bad
advice. ram means pretty much sweet f* all with a file
server. many cheap NAS's usually are embedded linux
machines with perhaps 8-16MB RAM max (sometimes less). mind
you, they are embedded OS's.

you'd easily get away with installing a modern linux on an
old pentium III or something with 64MB ram, and ensuring
only the services you need run. the biggest thing to worry
about is disk I/O latency, so if you're using older
equipment, it's probably worthwhile sticking a cheap PCI
SATA or IDE card into it along with some new hard drives.
RAID isn't a bad move (you can do this in software, no need
to buy expensive RAID cards).

you're probably best using a Linux that comes with a nice
web interface to install this - all you need to do is get an
old PC, stick a CD in, and follow the instructions.

there's a bunch out there...

SME Server is the obvious one that comes to mind
(http://www.smeserver.org/). I haven't used it in years
though.



 

offline xf from Australia on 2007-03-16 03:27 [#02062850]
Points: 2952 Status: Lurker



also: the NSLU2 as an appliance solution really isn't a bad
idea - if you just want a basic, no frills, reliable file
server, it's worth looking at.


 

offline sheffieldbleep from Sheffield (United Kingdom) on 2007-03-17 02:40 [#02063109]
Points: 2466 Status: Lurker | Followup to xf: #02062849



I disagree completely. My experience has led me to believe
otherwise. Although I’m talking about a working
environment with real demands which may not be relevant in a
hobbyist/enthusiast situation.



 


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