home server/server 2008

hellarda

hellarda

hellarda

Soldato
Joined
4 Mar 2008
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Location
Guildford
hi,

at the moment i have an old dell dimension 5000 (upgraded CPU to support EM64T and also runs a lot cooler now) and 2 pc's and a laptop. i have over 200,000 songs and hundreds of movies. the router i am using at the moment is a netgear dg834g. i am hopefully getting an 'IBM E SERVER X SERIES 336 - 8837-45Y, DUAL XEON 3.6 CPU' which comes with 4gb ram and 2x 36.4gb ultra 320 15k SCSI drives. i am also going to purchase 2x 2TB HDD for main storage.

right, i am a 15 year old with limited money and knowledge in this area and really want to know more.

basically what i want to do is to have a centralised storage space for all music and DVD's in out house. i know it would be easier to just not use the IBM but i really would like to develop my knowledge in this field and (if its possible) to be able to set it up and understand it. what i would like to be able to is have the storage drives in the Dell, and then somehow link this storage to the IBM, which would either be running Windows Home Server Vail or Server 2008 (i do not know whether this would be possible on WHS) if i had to use server 2008, i really need to be able to access the files over the internet and media streaming would be nice (which i know WHS comes with out of the box) would this be possible? would i need to install WHS on one and server 2008 on another? would this work?

has anyone ever done anything similar? if its not possible then fine because i really have no idea, i am a complete beginner in servers.

i may also try and get some other servers as well and they're fairly old so nice and cheap, would other servers be able to be incorporated into this?

if it is possible a nice simple guide to follow would be great. if any other info is needed just ask :)

thanks in advance

ali
 
Firstly, I emplore your keeness at your age to get to grips with this kind of stuff. It can only be a good step.

If the funds allow, I would simply run Windows Server 2008 (R2 - if you can get it) on your IBM server. As it's been out a while now there are gazzilions of guides to help you set it up how you want. IIS server, FTP server, File Sharing, even Active Directory if you want to puch your learning boundaries.

Alternatively, use the built in HyperV features (to really stretch yourself learning wise) and virtualise either both Windows Server 2008 and WHS, or just WHS.
 
thanks for that,

i would have just installed server 2008 R2 (and i do have a copy of it already which my uncles kindly gave me :) ) but as far as i know the IBM has only SCSI controllers so the two SATA 2tb drives i have literally just ordered, wouldnt fit/work? (or support 4tb?) sorry if i didnt make this clear :)

the other thing is a lot of my mates use it at the moment for storing all their work on (dont worry all is backed up), and they use the nice user friendly web interface that comes with WHS would it be possible to set something up like this in 2008?

the hyper-v stuff sounds interesting, would this work on the ibm? im not sure how old it is. these are the specs:

Processor: 2 x Intel Xeon 3.6 GHz
Memory: 4 GB (installed) / 16 GB (max), DDR II SDRAM, ECC, 400 MHz
Storage Interface: Serial ATA-150, IDE
Form Factor: Rack mountable, 1 U
Graphics Controller: ATI Radeon 7000M, 16 MB
Networking: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet

IBM xSeries 336 8837 3.8 GHz Serial ATA-150 Server Features
Features:
The latest 64-bit Intel Xeon Processors provide exceptional 32-bit performance and support Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel EM64T).
Integrated system management processor and optional Remote Supervisor II SlimLine simplify administration with flexible levels of control.
New high availability features help improve system and application uptime.
Up to 16GB of PC2-3200 DDR2 RAM memory.
Up to 600GB Ultra320 SCSI or 500GB simple-swap SATA storage capacity.
Integrated RAID-1, -1E, and optional RAID-5 Raid support.
Dual integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet Network Interface.
1 PCI-X (64-bit 100 MHz) and 1 PCI-X (64-bit 133 MHz) or 1 PCI-Express x8 Expansion Slots.

also as i will be using the server as a download machine and media server, would i need to get a gigabit switch so i could copy files across from machines quickly?

thanks again

ali
 
Are you buying this server or inheriting it?

How many client licences do you have with the 2008 r2 distro?

I am in the process of building a vail client, also with little to no experiecne of server configuartion or building, built the box, installed vail, and will twiddle with it over the weekend. Simply a learning testbed for now.
Interested to hear how you get on.
 
i am hopefully buying it off ebay.... they go quite cheap.

its for 15 CALs i think not sure tho.

ive bin running vail for bout a month now, no problems so far.

EDIT: ive just been outbid on the IBM will be trying for either a dell powerdge 2650, an HP proliant dl360/dl380 or an Intel SR2300

still if anyone could help would be much appriciated :)
 
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I may be completely wrong, I have no experience of this particular server however I'd check if I was you that you can just put SATA drives straight in. A lot of servers advertise as being compatible with this and that but you need to alter / buy different expansion cards, back planes etc... to give the correct connections.

Its worth checking out in the least that it comes with everything you need as often the expansion cards / back planes etc... cost considerable amount for what is simple but specialist kit.

I've run servers at home, but I've come to the conclusion its just not worth for a home environment.

I work in managed hosting - the operating systems now getting further and further away from physical hardware in favour of virtual instances, in that I'd say its much more important / better learning curve to understand various hypervisors than a specific physical hardware venders 5 year old kit.

10 years ago, understanding RAID, SCSI, ethernet teaming etc... was important. This is now all within the virtualisation product that when you get to the OS it's extremely simple in terms of configuration.

If you consider a 2003 install on vSphere is built with MS released media, then vmtools installed and the OS is complete. Compare to physical installs whereby you're required to boot of venders media, swap with MS media then when in the OS you're required to install HBAs, configure teaming, backup agents.

So in summary, either learn MS products or virtulisation not 5 year old out of date physical hardware. Unless you want to become an infrastructure type bod replacing components in failed hardware IMO.
 
your going way too complicated. Rackable systems Duel AMD optoron, Wack XP on there, set up some nas disks and then your on your way. simple as poop. if you need help just drop us a trust/email (in sig)
 
thanks for the responses guys.

i am trying to learn about virtualisation etc but im also interested in the hardware side

and yes i would just stick xp on there if i wanted to make it easy.... but i dont i want to challenge myself and to get hands on experience in using server 2008 and apply to a real world situation (letting users being able to stream audio/video files from the server and to be able to access files from a remote location)

again thanks

ali
 
hellarda said:
thanks for the responses guys.

i am trying to learn about virtualisation etc but im also interested in the hardware side

and yes i would just stick xp on there if i wanted to make it easy.... but i dont i want to challenge myself and to get hands on experience in using server 2008 and apply to a real world situation (letting users being able to stream audio/video files from the server and to be able to access files from a remote location)

again thanks

ali
Click to expand...

that's fair enough, why don't you try Linux? that's a good place to start! and assessing files from a remote location is a protocol called FTP/SFTP that's easy to set up on xp too :)
 
for the gui your going to have to go third party with that. Ive got to say going the server 2008 route will be a major project with lots to do but fun non the less. Going the WHS route will be much easier its pretty much install the software on the box assign the hard drives and copy the files. Done. WHS really is that simple. I use it at home to serve out music, films, photos, backup PCs and a file store. It really is a fail safe system.

So personally if you only have one box to play with i would put us a vm solution to have WHS as your main system serving out your files and doing the ftp with the nice consoles. Then using a virtual 2008 server to play with take your time getting just how you want it with all the services you want to use, once youve done that bin off WHS and make the 2008 your main box.

Hope that makes a little bit of sense.
 
cheers thanks for that, ive bin fiddling around with SBS 2003, and setup a domain and joined my pc to it. and it decided to delete my local account, luckily i had a backup of everything because id just restored win 7. any ideas why that happened?
 
hellarda said:
thanks for the responses guys.
i am trying to learn about virtualisation etc but im also interested in the hardware side
Click to expand...

If you are buying/have bought a 'proper' server, then I highly recommend downloading VMWare ESXi 4.1 (it's free) and installing that.
As it's going to be a lab for you to experience server management, admin and the like, the ability to snapshot your server before you try something that might wreck everything will be invaluable.

Just check the vmware server compatibility list first, just to make sure the hardware you have will work.
 
thanks i will try that, although the server i just won on the bay is quite old, 2 x single core xeons with 4gb ram so might not work :/ not even sure its 64-bit let alone support vt
 
the admin account was still active, and mine was still active, but i just had no documents or music or desktop shortcuts, it had all been deleted as the free harddrive space had also increased :/ weird
 
Right, server now has arrived :D, it is an Intel SR2300 chassis, with 2 single core (but with HT) xeons in it and 4gb ram, it appears they do not support 64-bit or VT which is a bit annoying but meh, also one of the hdd is dead which im a bit annoyed about as i now only have 68gb of formatted space :(

anyways, what i thort id do is install whs v1 and see wat the serves like. then use virtual box (if i can) to install sbs 2003 on it, and then install multiple virtual win 7 clients on my dell dimension which is currently running home server vail.

the main thing im wondering is does anyone know if there is any way to put SATA drives in my sr3200? or is it impossible? server board is an SE7501WV2

also can a 2u rack be run on its side?

cheers
 
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