Pentium's Server

[pentium]

I had problems sharing files on computers all over the house so I set this server up last year as an attempt to fix the problem.

Over time it has gone through many upgrades and changes.
First to go was the single 10 gig hard drive with 4 partitions in exchange for four 5 gig scsi drives which are all monitored over a tape backup and each are removable.
Right now it's in pieces, waiting for a new dual cpu pentium pro board. I'm also digging deep and getting a copy of 2000 server to replace the useless 98SE that's in place right now.

I hate precut engths of network cable.

[willawake]

Re: The Rackmount and Servers Thread

why would you use 2000 server on a pentium pro board?

that is only for a linux server without gui. i installed centos without gui on a 300 PII with 512mb ram and dual 120gb ide with software raid-1. its pretty ok and administered via webmin or ssh its nice.

i think you can configure a samba.conf no probs which is what you need.

i compared 2000 server with rhel on the dl380 and i could not live with the file browsing it was greatly slower in 2000 and so i started on the slipperly slope of learning linux. honestly i have not learnt that much, once it is setup its just serving 24/7 or i need to restart cups (print server) once in a while.

i am sure there is a tape backup solution for you there also although i am not familiar with that. i dont implement tape solutions anymore, it is easier to backup to a hdd on another computer. use rsync or even a windows app grabbing and mirroring directories.

[pentium]

Re: The Rackmount and Servers Thread

why would you use 2000 server on a pentium pro board?

I don't have a bottomless pocket.

I saw a copy of 2000 server for $5 at a second hand store and I don't even want to dare start using ubuntu as a server. I have enough problems with rights as it is and with only half a year of using linux, I have only scratched the surface of what it can do.

[willawake]

Re: The Rackmount and Servers Thread

its gonna be slow as shit
i compared ubuntu and fedora once, with fedora the comp was ready immediately, ubuntu had some driver issue.

go check out centos.

[pentium]

Re: The Rackmount and Servers Thread

its gonna be slow as shit

Better than what I have now.

A pentium 166 with 96 mb ram and a 128k cache and running 98SE.
I'm amazed that the thing even runs stable.

go check out centos.

Ok. The only thing that holds me back is just driver support.
I don't know if all my hardware is supported and if it is, can it be used?

[willawake]

Re: The Rackmount and Servers Thread

and rights?
well you have to learn that stuff anyway whatever you use. unix rights is not too much problem. if you have rights issues then its a samba conf problem or the user is not logged into samba

the only issue i have had was with office under win2k with the files on samba. i set the office installs to use a folder on each local machine for the autorecovery files and no more problem.

[Spacedye69]

Re: The Rackmount and Servers Thread

I have more of a problem with rights on Windows server(damn IIS). I'm installing CentOS on my P2B-DS as we speak.

[willawake]

Re: The Rackmount and Servers Thread

i have evaluated active directory and i am sure its of use to manage lots of clients but for small business i dont need something so integrated. like to keep it seperate and take servers offline and bring new ones up without any other concern. still it was waay easier to install an active directory solution than learn linux but in the end i am happy with my linux choice. also i cant see any webserver i am running working off anything but centos and cpanel or whatever. its amazing how it can just happily serve (even with occasionally a few things wrong with it) and services can be restarted etc, i can think of a few times if it was windows it would have bluescreened or needed restart.......

[Rainbow]

Re: The Rackmount and Servers Thread

Ok. The only thing that holds me back is just driver support.
I don't know if all my hardware is supported and if it is, can it be used?

What driver and hardware? Does the machine have anything more than a network card? Almost all network cards work fine in Linux - even those that don't in Windows.

[pentium]

Re: The Rackmount and Servers Thread

What driver and hardware?

Tape controllers, scsi, X10 controls...pretty much everything that was migrated from several other computers. I think I have like four different tape drives with different levels of capacity. For a while it was also used as a bridge between token ring, bnc, cat5e and wireless.

Anyways, I seem to be hogging the spotlight. I just wanted to show what works for me, not get opinions on what I can do better with the system.

[willawake]

Re: Pentium's Server

oh please dont go
from tomorrow we'll have a whole year to get you running linux on that thing

[Spacedye69]

Re: Pentium's Server

WOOOO! New thread, just like magic! I have not had any driver issues with Red Hat stuff since the days of Winmodems. Ubuntu sucks BTW.

[willawake]

Re: Pentium's Server

i love redhat
and centos is what....well its red hat enterprise linux for free. they will be a little slower on the updates but actually its what most webhosts offer for linux.

[pentium]

Re: Pentium's Server

Title:
Re: Pentium's Server

You guys are mean.

[Spacedye69]

Re: Pentium's Server

I still have my Red Hat hat I got with Red Hat 6.0!(LOL, Red Hat hat)

[willawake]

Re: Pentium's Server

urg now i am jealous
i wanna red hat hat

[pentium]

Re: Pentium's Server

So we wanna go the linux route huh?
I looked around and found my inventory sheet (I like to keep track of everything)
It might be incomplete due to unavalible parts or pats in mail but here is a rough sketch over what i'm up against:

Cards:
-Adaptec AHA-2940UW PCI scsi card (supports both Ultra Wide and the old 50-pin)
-Colorado FC-20 ISA Tape controller card (for qic-80 drive)
-Iomega Ditto Dash ISA tape controller card
-3Com EtherLink 10/100 PCI network card
-Standard USB 1.1 PCI card (for battery monitoring)
-Everex ISA tape controller card (pending, topcat might have one)

Motherboard:
-[URL]http://www.ari-service.com/support/summary.asp?pn=202845-001[/URL]
-[URL]http://www.ari-service.com/support/summary.asp?pn=202844-001[/URL]
-Using 256MB ram (Possibly more, I once got 512 into a computer where specs set the limit at 256MB)
-Dual Pentuim Pro cpu's running at 200MHZ each and with internal 256KB cache's

Archive/Backup:
-Everex Excel 250 external streaming tape drive (needs controller card, see cards.)
-Wangtek 5100HT Internal scsi tape drive
-Colorado 250MB QIC-80 tape drive (uses FC-20 controller)
-Iomega Ditto Max internal tape drive (uses ditto dash card)

Boot Drive:
-Seagate ST32151N 2.5GB scsi hard drive
-Standard 1.44MB floppy drive

File storage:
-Four Ultra wide 5GB (or more) scsi drives each with removable drive bays and keyless hotswap control (toggle switch bank with status panel) **not yet in service, Funding unavalible**
-Four drives stored in second case, connected to server via scsi cable to Adaptec scsi card

Optical storage:
-Stock IBM internal scsi cd drive (slow)

Power source:
-Nexxtech 1000VA battery backup with power conditioning and interfacing to server with software and usb cable (linux version avalible on cd)

Misc.:
-IBM Home director for X10 modules (uses software and interfaces with serial port)
-Lexmark 4039-10R Laser printer shared over network to all computers.

Sadly, I can't find space for a minisink

[willawake]

Re: Pentium's Server

what ram does it take?

[pentium]

Re: Pentium's Server

sdram dimm's
I have a bag of the stuff.

[willawake]

Re: Pentium's Server

i was concerned about the 96mb but i see thats the old one. you will need to max it out whatever you choose. 256 would be good.