Linux Server

[ozvenison]

Hi

We are looking at installing a linux server running something like 'samba' to handle windows clients.. upto 15 clients in all mac/windows/linux..

What we require is some advice on the following

1. Which version of linux should we use (free)... Slackware, CentOS, OpenSolaris???

2. Where can we get the relevant hardware to suit... raid 3, tape backups

3. Where can we obtain support to configure the machine as well as onging day to day support.. IT companies?

4. Network configuration, security, vpn access etc all required

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

[RKASA]

Any of the larger linux distribution can run samba and apache servers without a problem even on large scale.  I use both but not in a business environ.   Check out business edition linux or the BELproject it comes with everything and the linux will always be free its just the services you might pay for if you need them or books etc. 

[nisboy]

Perhaps something like eBox would be helpful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBox

http://ebox-platform.com/

[sha22]

hello

Great stuff man.I have more useful to your tips.

thanks for sharing.

[dave_boo]

Seems that CentOS is the perferred 'server' OS out there. Of course if you plan on purchasing support, go with a real Enterprise Level system.

I can't comment on where to buy hardware, especially server grade, in Thailand, but do you really want to run RAID 3? Nobody uses that any more. Best bet, if you're running 'real' RAID controller (I.E. it has its own XOR engine) is RAID 6, which has dual parity. The massive increase in storage density raises the possibility that a failure during a rebuild is likely; the trashing of the disks during the rebuild could push another drive, which is usually from a similar lot and most likely the same age as the drive that failed, over the edge. RAID 6 helps mitigate this problem.

Another thing to consider is running XFS. RAIDz2 is built in, meaning no specialised hardware required (I'm a cheap bastard!) but it won't be much, if any, faster than running a single hdd for small random reads; the type you'll be looking at for serving up documents, mp3s and pictures of little Somchai's bar mitzvah (or whatever the Thais have). Going with something like RAID 5+0 (where you have two pools that run RAID 5 each and then stripes across both) is the best idea in my book if you're looking for some peace of mind with a minimal amount of impact on overall storage. Note that you 'lose' space from 2 drives going with RAID 5+0 though and need at least 6 drives to do it right.

There is one more option; going with mdraid. A mirrored mdraid will only write as fast as a single drive (perhaps a bit slower), but read nearly as fast as a RAID 0 array. Linux intelligently 'splits' the reads up across both volumes of a mirrored mdraid array. You do lose 1/2 of the disks totals though due to the mirroring, so the choice comes down to you; how much space do you want to lose for peace of mind? If you feel like you really need major speed, and back up RELIGIOUSLY to your tape drives, go all out with RAID 0....but serving only 15 clients doesn't warrant that in my book.

[Crushdepth]

We are looking at installing a linux server running something like 'samba' to handle windows clients.. upto 15 clients in all mac/windows/linux..

For 15 people you could just buy a couple of network attached storage boxes off the shelf, one to use as a file server and one as backup. They are relatively cheap and come with simple web based management interface, so you don't need much technical support to operate them. I have a couple of QNAP TS-639s at work for a similar number of people. These offer a high degree of redundancy including:

* Dual embedded Linux operating systems

* Dual power supplies.

* Dual gigabit ethernet with fail over and load balancing.

* RAID 6 (or whatever other flavour you prefer).

* Email and SMS alerts to warn you when there's a problem.

For backup check out rsnapshot, its an amazing piece of work, easy to set up and will run on just about any Linux system. It gives you an automatically rotating time series of backups while only taking up the space of 1 copy + changes. It can also backup remote file systems over SSH. I wrote a small guide on installing rsnapshot on the QNAP, available here.

We use it to backup our work file server every 4 hours over SSH. We discard snapshots after 24 hours, but retain one each day for the last week, one each week for the last month, and one each for the last three months, so we have about 23 recovery points where we can drop in to recover a specific version of a file if need be. It also backs up our website - I used to download all 2 gigs of that manually once a week, which took 12 hours. Now its done automatically every day in about three minutes because only the changes are being copied. All automatically.

For VPN access, if you're office has an ADSL connection you could just buy a D-Link WRT54GL router (2,000 baht) and install Tomato firmware (there is a variant that includes VPN). If you get internet via some other means, an old machine or one of those tiny ASUS EEE PC boxes (the 10k ones) running IPCop firewall with OpenVPN should be fine.

Edited September 3, 2009 by Crushdepth

[ozvenison]

We are looking at installing a linux server running something like 'samba' to handle windows clients.. upto 15 clients in all mac/windows/linux..

For 15 people you could just buy a couple of network attached storage boxes off the shelf, one to use as a file server and one as backup. They are relatively cheap and come with simple web based management interface, so you don't need much technical support to operate them. I have a couple of QNAP TS-639s at work for a similar number of people. These offer a high degree of redundancy including:

* Dual embedded Linux operating systems

* Dual power supplies.

* Dual gigabit ethernet with fail over and load balancing.

* RAID 6 (or whatever other flavour you prefer).

* Email and SMS alerts to warn you when there's a problem.

For backup check out rsnapshot, its an amazing piece of work, easy to set up and will run on just about any Linux system. It gives you an automatically rotating time series of backups while only taking up the space of 1 copy + changes. It can also backup remote file systems over SSH. I wrote a small guide on installing rsnapshot on the QNAP, available here.

We use it to backup our work file server every 4 hours over SSH. We discard snapshots after 24 hours, but retain one each day for the last week, one each week for the last month, and one each for the last three months, so we have about 23 recovery points where we can drop in to recover a specific version of a file if need be. It also backs up our website - I used to download all 2 gigs of that manually once a week, which took 12 hours. Now its done automatically every day in about three minutes because only the changes are being copied. All automatically.

For VPN access, if you're office has an ADSL connection you could just buy a D-Link WRT54GL router (2,000 baht) and install Tomato firmware (there is a variant that includes VPN). If you get internet via some other means, an old machine or one of those tiny ASUS EEE PC boxes (the 10k ones) running IPCop firewall with OpenVPN should be fine.

Great advice from EVERYONE.... many thanks

Those QNAP servers look fantastic and very cheap...

Anyone know if local linix support company? Would like to have assistance to setup and ongoing support...

[somchaiq]

Hi

We are looking at installing a linux server running something like 'samba' to handle windows clients.. upto 15 clients in all mac/windows/linux..

What we require is some advice on the following

1. Which version of linux should we use (free)... Slackware, CentOS, OpenSolaris???

2. Where can we get the relevant hardware to suit... raid 3, tape backups

3. Where can we obtain support to configure the machine as well as onging day to day support.. IT companies?

4. Network configuration, security, vpn access etc all required

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

Here my Answers;

1. Ubuntu 9.04 Server, We use it and it is working perfect!

2. Panthip Plaza, or any other IT Department Store. My Company could assemble also one, special for your needs.

3. and 4. My Company is doing this. Send me a email: [email protected]

[OxfordWill]

Ask yourself if you absolutely need to own the hardware- and if not, do not. And if you absolutely do, do not buy it here, buy it from a datacentre in America or europe. Have that company set it up and configure it. I strongly suggest CentOS unless you have the budget for the Red Hat enterprise and will require corporate level support.

[Crushdepth]

Outsourcing webservers to a VPS in the US is an excellent option, but its not practical to do that with a file server. At least, not in Thailand. You need that locally.