which Distro For File Server+Streaming

smogsy

smogsy

smogsy

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I'm looking for a Distro for the following tasks. i know its mostly down to opinions but i'm looking for a few recommendation that will narrow down my search once i have a good list each one i will be trying in Virtualbox before the install.

the Server will be on 24/7 so needs to be lovely an stable.

The Hardware it 99% be on will be
AMD Athlon X2 240 2.8GHz Socket AM3 2MB Cache Retail Box Processor
Kingston 2GB DDR3 1066MHz i5 Memory Module CL7 1.5V
Seagate 80GB OS
Samsung F3 1TB Disk DATA
more HD will be added.

Uses:
Streaming HD Video across network
Streaming Music Across network
Access from OSX/Win
Allow Access From the Internet.

Requirements
Itunes Server (dunno if its needed to stream to itunes client on another desktop)?
Easy To Use OS (first real Linux dedicated box)
Stable
Get Updates to the OS easily

Current List:
Ubuntu 64bit - Sean111
Fedora 9 - Colleague said this was most stable version of Fedora
OpenSuse - Downloading At the moment
 
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I'd say kubuntu then, uses KDE instead of gnome, you might find it a bit easier. prefers an nvidia graphics system however!
 
i would suggest FreeBSD as a very good and stable server OS.

however, its not the easiest, and defaults to console rather than a gui, which i personally prefer for servers.

however, as you want a gui and its your first attempt, then an easier distro with gui as standard would be better.

how do you plan to stream, do you want it to act as a media server to stream, or just access them from your pcs ?

is the main perpose of the server to stream media ?

i would suggest something like mythbuntu or mythdora.
these are distros that are intergrated into mythtv. You can install them as a backend which allows streaming of all media, and even shows up in windows networks as a media server.

They are pretty much configured and ready to run out of the box, and can enable vnc access during the install, which allows you to access the gui remotely, either on your local network, or accross the internet if you wish.

There is also the mythweb module, that you can access all your media via a web browser, again this can be setup to be viewed via the internet. You can download, or stream direct from the webpage as well.

And if you ever have a htpc, you use a frontend version on it which will give you access to all your content and can play it to your tv using a nice media center style interface.

As they are just like another linux distro, just with mythtv intergrated, you can also install and run any other stuff you can on other distros.

access them from windows works in all linux distros anyways
 
My idea was to put all the Music files on the Linux Box.

then somehow tell Itunes on my Mac's/windows to point to that Folder.

dunno if it can be like that but that was my plan.

so for example DATA\Music\

video would be fine with just folder access.
 
i dont use itunes tbh, so i dont really know how it works.

just having file access is easy enough in any distro really, just set share points in samba and u can access it on any windows pc.
 
I'd recommend having a go at ubuntu. My current ubuntu box has all the features you need except access over Internet, as I've never needed it.

If you go for ubuntu, it's default music player RhythmBox has iTunes sharing built straight in. Just enabled the DAAP music sharing plugin in its preferences and all machines even windows and osx can play your music from you machine in iTunes.

Then to stream videos over the network you could set up samba. I stream 720p .mkv videos over my network no problem, and samba works with windows machines too.
 
As much as it may not be what you want to hear, if you have not got the hardware already (i.e. the 99% sure comment above) then how about looking at a NAS box.

I have a DLink DNS-323 which runs Linux as standard, is very easy to open up so you have command line access as well as the DLink web gui, it takes 2 drives (1 and 4 drive versions are also available).

I has an iTunes server, media server, torrent clients, ssh, sftp, samba for direct sharing folders with web based security restriction by share/account. I share 1080p movies over wifi to my WD HD Live box connected to my living room TV without issue. It has a Gbit network port built in by no WiFi as standard.

There is a great community over at the 323 hack forums with a number Linux applications already ported over to it.

Being it is a shoe box sized device it is easy to store and uses low power for 24*7 running.

There are a number of other NAS boxes that are also good for this task, the DNS323 is the only one I have personal experience of though.

If you are set on a Linux install then take a look at CentOS. Based on Redhat and having Gnome / KDE installed out of the box (off of the CD :)) it is quite easy to start off with. It is a server flavour rather than desktop and so is more geared to what you want. I also find the RedHat 'way' a bit more intuitive if you need to get down to the command line and start hunting for config files and starting/stopping daemons (services).

Regards
RB
 
zinc said:
I'd recommend having a go at ubuntu. My current ubuntu box has all the features you need except access over Internet, as I've never needed it.

If you go for ubuntu, it's default music player RhythmBox has iTunes sharing built straight in. Just enabled the DAAP music sharing plugin in its preferences and all machines even windows and osx can play your music from you machine in iTunes.

Then to stream videos over the network you could set up samba. I stream 720p .mkv videos over my network no problem, and samba works with windows machines too.
Click to expand...

That!

I do what you plan to do from Ubuntu. Its just so much easier than anything else.
 
Originally Posted by zinc
I'd recommend having a go at ubuntu. My current ubuntu box has all the features you need except access over Internet, as I've never needed it.

If you go for ubuntu, it's default music player RhythmBox has iTunes sharing built straight in. Just enabled the DAAP music sharing plugin in its preferences and all machines even windows and osx can play your music from you machine in iTunes.

Then to stream videos over the network you could set up samba. I stream 720p .mkv videos over my network no problem, and samba works with windows machines too.
That!

I do what you plan to do from Ubuntu. Its just so much easier than anything else.
Click to expand...

unfortunately doesn't rhythm box doesn't support Apple lossless would that matter?

if not i just got find a way to let My Mac/Win to see Ubuntu Box as a Drive Volume or Drive

that way i could just put \Data\Music\ in itunes and it should pick it up fine?

after trying
Fedora
Opensuse
CentOS
Ubuntu

i think im going for ubuntu. Fedora/Opensuse was buggy in a VM environment possibly the VM but doesnt fill me with confidence where as Ubuntu just Worked
 
smogsy said:
unfortunately doesn't rhythm box doesn't support Apple lossless would that matter?

if not i just got find a way to let My Mac/Win to see Ubuntu Box as a Drive Volume or Drive

that way i could just put \Data\Music\ in itunes and it should pick it up fine?

after trying
Fedora
Opensuse
CentOS
Ubuntu

i think im going for ubuntu. Fedora/Opensuse was buggy in a VM environment possibly the VM but doesnt fill me with confidence where as Ubuntu just Worked
Click to expand...

You need SAMBA.
 
yeh i got that installed on my VM just got find a decent idiot guide on how to create the config file? then i'm set i guess?
 
smogsy said:
i think im going for ubuntu. Fedora/Opensuse was buggy in a VM environment possibly the VM but doesnt fill me with confidence where as Ubuntu just Worked
Click to expand...

I'd blame the VM, I generally use Fedora for most of my servers and dev stuff these days because the Kernel on CentOS/RHEL is too old for my liking now, even the Fedora 13 alpha is rock solid for me. I wouldn't choose Ubuntu for server purposes myself (if you like debian based distros there's actual debian) but I'll acknowledge it's easy to use and painless to install (though then again, I'd say the same of the fedora 13 alpha on one of my workstations at work...)
 
If you decide to give Fedora another shot, you might also like to have a look at Amahi, which is purpose-designed as a media server - interestingly, the latest release incorporates something called "Greyhole", which is a drive pooling/data replication feature along the lines of WHS's "drive extender" concept.

I keep meaning to check it out myself, although I can't seem to find the time at the moment - in the meantime I'd be interested to see what other people think. :)
 
I live in hope that one day somebody will write a foolproof frontend to ZFS and build a NAS device based on it, it's so obviously powerful and stamps all over WHS but I just can't be bothered admin-ing my home storage from the command line...
 
CaptainCrash said:
If you decide to give Fedora another shot, you might also like to have a look at Amahi, which is purpose-designed as a media server - interestingly, the latest release incorporates something called "Greyhole", which is a drive pooling/data replication feature along the lines of WHS's "drive extender" concept.

I keep meaning to check it out myself, although I can't seem to find the time at the moment - in the meantime I'd be interested to see what other people think. :)
Click to expand...

Amahi is really good, spot on for a file server / streaming and built upon the rock solid Fedora 12. I still prefer WHS, but it keeps getting closer. I am about to replace a FreeNAS box in work with it for the Greyhole functionality, just waiting for it to come out of beta (Greyhole that is).
 
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