Anyone having a home file server? share your experiences

[naro]

Hi guys,

I know some of you guys have file server at home. Would you mind sharing your configuration? like what type of hdds, controller cards, OS and networking tools u use?

thanks

 

[naro]

thats cool.. running installation over LAN..

 

[naro]

I'm using the following:

Config:
Pentium M 725
AOpen i915Ga-HFS

Storage:
Hitachi T7K250
Seagate 7200.10 320gb

using Win XP Pro cos i'm not gd with Linux..

 

[naro]

anyone tried FreeNAS before???

 

[naro]

dell poweredge 1600sc dual xeon with 6 sata 200gb drives & an lsi 300 sata raid card running w2k3. Runs 24/7 in a cupboard as it toooo noisy

wow.. in a cupboard?? would'nt the ventilation be bad for it??

 

[naro]

no but I'm thinking of giving it a whirl now as I'm in the middle of setting up a temp fileserver for NAS useage, while awaiting RMA on my NAS enclosure.

not sure if I can get my old PC to boot off it... but if so I have an old MP3 player (that I don't use any more) that I could use as USB storage for the OS (saves having yet another noisey HDD)

can we boot off USB storage??

 

[naro]

sure if your motherboard and BIOS support it...

i see... i remember seeing that in my BIOS..

 

[naro]

Hi Naro,

My headerless media server is running WinXP Pro, and I use the remote desktop function for access.

However, I've been experimenting with FreeNAS, with a view installing it on my media server. My first impressions are that it is easy to install, free of economic cost and works great. Best of all, it will run on nearly any CPU and only needs a tiny amount of system memory, ideal for any ancient PC!

Regards,

Michael

by headerless, i presume no display? haha..

I'm wondering if FreeNAS will be able to use it as a BT server and print server?

 

[naro]

Naro,

Yep, no monitor, keyboard or mouse! Just a gigabit network connection!

Not sure if it provides print server features, you'd have to check at their website. What do you mean by BT server?

Regards,

Michael

BT = bit torrent

 

[naro]

Mine is a P4 1.6 with 1gb ram, a 4gig laptop drive and a 200gig ide drive. I built the whole unit from scratch and has just one 120mm fan on top running at tick over. Very very quiet.

Running XP Pro on it and VNC to remote desktop in. No keyboard, mouse or monitor. Just a box in the corner.

I'm currently using it as a security camera server and general file sharing.

after trying VNC, i think i would also wanna try to follow u and just let it run by itself without keyboard, mouse and monitor.

your laptop drive is only for OS?

 

[naro]

is 40gb enough for a file server??

 

[naro]

My file server is my old main rig, its also got a rather large number of hard drivers

p4 3.2c undervolted on a 9500
ga8knxp with zalman passive thing
1gb corsair
fx5200 with zalman passive thing
tagan 330w psu
thermaltake xaserIII
2*80gb
2*160gb
2*250gb
2*120gb
1*400gb
windows server 2003 enterprise edition

also broadcasts tv to the network and acts as a game server.

Was easy to setup and works very well, not quiet though

nice setup..

may i know how you broadcast TV to the network??

 

[naro]

I was going to post a similar thread a few days ago...

My file server...

Intel PIII 733mhz
Modded Akasa Socket A Cooler with 14Db Coolermaster 80mm Fan
512mb SD-133 Ram
20Gb 7200rpm Hard drive / Soon to be replaced.
24mb o/b Riva TNT Vanta Graphics Card
1.44 Floppy disc Drive
8x BTC DVD-RW Drive
250w Enlight PSU
Creative Sound Blaster Live! 1024
No keyboard and monitor is hooked up to the second port of my Hyundai N91.
Windows 2000 Pro SP4

Pretty low spec to everyone else, although it does everything I want. Its been on since the start of December and is so quiet. Just has two fans in it both very low speed.

The server is used for...

24/7 Ventrilo server for me and 5 other mates when playing Battlefield 2142 (Which is a lot )

FTP Server, uploading/downloading personal files.

Download rig, I use VNC to access it from work or round my parents.

Been using it everyday now for almost a month, the hard drive will probably be upgraded soon but other than that its great.

nice... may i know how to set up a FTP server?

 

[naro]

Any decent FTP program will work.

Im using ServeFTP, about £25. There is a 30 day trial of it on there site here

i'm a poor student, so i think i'll stick to the free Filezilla

 

[naro]

I'm using:

Case: Chyang Fun 7989CM (came with 200w PSU iirc)
Motherboard: Epia M6000
CPU: Built-in VIA Eden 600MHz (fanless)
RAM: 1x512Mb PC2700 Crucial DDR
HDD: 1x120Gb Western Digital (IDE)
FDD: 1.44Mb Sony
Opt: NEC ND3500A DVD+RW (IDE)
O/S: Debian Sarge 3.1 (2.4.x kernel)

Due to the nature of the Epia M6000 I use the on-board network/sound/video as it's only doing file server duties. I run DNS/Samba/LAMP/SSH and streaming audio through GNUmp3d, which I hope to test tomorrow to see if I can listen to my music from work. I've run a Ventrilo server for a few friends off it with some success as well. The system is pretty much silent with only slight sound from hard disk access or the cases power supply fan. Might look into making it completely silent with a new case/external brick.

I'd hate to think about the cost of running these servers 24/7 though.

this mini-ITX mobo with a VIA cpu should not be using a lot of power. Furthermore, you're using onboard gfx. So i don't think its gonna use up a lot of power.

 

[naro]

ehh? why you email me asking for a keygen then?

huh?? i din e-mail anyone..

 

[naro]

House aerial lead > ati theater 550pro tv tuner > pci slot

It came with some included proprietary software software that allows you to broadcast the set channel or allow users to tune in and change the channel.
Windows media encoder can do the same sort of thing but with more latency and preset channel watching only.

ATI Theatre chips are cool!!! I wonder if the Hauppage HVR's can do that..

 

[naro]

My file server is actually a Virtual Machine with Windows 2003 Enterprise R2. It's serving about 3TB of files. I'm using VMware ESX 3 running on Dual Opteron 275's, 16GB of Ram, 10TB of disk space.

This ESX box also houses my DC's, Exchange, BES, Sharepoint, etc.

OMFG!!!

your server must have cost a bomb!!