Wolvers' Home Server Build

IIRC it's 44 pin, as opposed to 40-pin for the desktop version, because the extra pins carry power. I suspect that an adapter will need the power connecting to it?

Windows server sounds like a bit of a hog for a small home server.
 
NickM said:
Case came today, which screws did you use to connect the drives to the hot swap trays? I tried the ones with the larger heads but they wouldn't go over the plastic on the sides. Smaller ones work but there are only 8 them. There are some holes in the bottom of the drive which can fit the larger screws, are they ok to use instead?
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I used the small headed ones in the sides of the HDD. TBH I never noticed how many there were.

NickM said:
I'm guessing the unlabelled cables are Front USB (black) and Reset Switch (red&black) since those are the only two things left?
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Yep, that's it. make sure you get the USB one the right way around because the plug isn't labelled IIRC.

NickM said:
Never actually built a system from scratch before, when the motherboard arrives do I just screw it straight on top of the 4 riser screw holes?
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Yep, just don't forget to fit the motherboard panel in the back of the case first. The screws with the largest heads and coarse threads are for the mobo. Also, you'll need to fit your 2.5" drive first.

Apologies If I'm telling you stuff that's obvious.
 
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Well, I'm pleased that it's useful info for people. :)

Someone on another forum asked for a picture that had something in it to show the scale, so here it is with the 2-bay DS210j and a small box of Weetabix. :D

cimg4193i.jpg
 
Well, it's all going really well (I hope I don't speak too soon!). I've set up the recycle bin and it's working brilliantly, albeit it takes ages to empty the content of especially if I do it from my laptop over the wireless network, so I just need to add a script to delete the content locally. Shouldn't be too difficult now that I'm beginning to get my head around the command line stuff.

I've also managed to set up my USB backup drive and get rsync sorted to incrementally backup my shared folder to it, and in NTFS so that I can always plug it into one of my windows machines should anything happen to the server. I then added a scheduled task to run the backup script all on my own! :) This is the guide I used, although did not follow completely;

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=820425&highlight=rsync+guide

I still have a few things to sort out/decide on;

1. Find that missing disk space. Reported used space is 1.23TB but the total size of all folders is 1.14TB. When I set up the HDD, I selected an option to build the RAID array with a missing disk so that I can add it later, because I want to run RAID1 but only have 1 disk at the moment. I'm hoping that when I add the second HDD it will sort itself out, maybe!

2. I've been considering whether I should install an anti-virus onto the server. I'm keen to hear what people's thoughts are on this?

3. I've noticed that the server does not shut down when I press the power button, and I would like it too do so. I'm guessing that I need to run some kind of command so that the OS knows what I want it to do when I press the power button (and reset button as well I suppose). I haven't had a chance to research this yet so if anyone has any ideas that'd be great (jon, where are you?:p).
 
Right, I get you.I have a USB DVD drive so I did it from that. Hopefully that link will get you sorted. I'm keen to find out if Ubuntu Server is faster than Windows Server. :)

Edit, did you make the USB drive bootable? I think that's probably the key to it.
 
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NickM said:
it just hangs on Verifying DMI.
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I think that is when it's looking for a bootloader.

Sounds like it won't work though if it's always looking for a CD drive to copy files from, unless you can change that. Might be worth asking in the Ubuntu forum, it's brilliant. They are very helpful. :)
 
I forgot to say, I've ordered one of these low speed 40mm fans to go on the Atom board;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-004-FD

I'm happy with the noise levels of the server (it's the quieter than my HTPC, Sky HD box and projector) but I was ordering some stuff anyway so I thought I'd give it a try. I noticed, when mucking about in the bios, that the standard fan spins at 5000 rpm which seems a bit excessive. What can I say, I can't help fiddling! :p
 
Quick update, I've fitted the Fractal Designs 40mm fan and the results are very good. It runs at about 3500rpm (the original one ran at 5000rpm) and now makes the whole system virtually inaudible. Temps have gone up a degree or two but are still perfectly OK.

Also, I decided to keep the 1.5TB drives that I had in the DS210j and have added them to the Ubuntu server. It took blooming ages though as I couldn't get the system to recognise one of the drives, which turned out to be a faulty SATA cable. Who'd of thought.

Anyway, for some reason I'm missing about 5% of the available space that I should have, on both arrays. :confused: Even when they are empty it is reported as having some space used which is odd so I just need to find out why.
 
I think you are right jon, most of it is the 5% that is reversed for the superuser by default. I believe that this isn't so necessary for storage volumes so I'm going to remove the reservation to get the space back.........I hope! :p

From the link that you added;

So, in short, if the drive doesn't contain /var or /tmp, then there's not much point in having space reserved for root.
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This doesn't account for all of the missing space so I think that the other 1% may be the journal space?
 
I don't know what the 12v speed of that 120mm fan is but if you plug it into the CPU fan header the speed will be reported in the BIOS. The 40mm fan was simple to change and the screws are just long enough for the new fan. Be careful not to put too much pressure on the heatsink, it can tilt sideways and that could damage the chip underneath.
 
Yeah, I'm using the system status section of Webmin to monitor temps, it will email me if they get too high. There is a package called 'lm-sensors' that is used for this that you should be able to make use of.

Thanks for the info on the 'acpid' package, I will look into that. :)
 
Maybe there's another package then that it's using, I'll have a look later for you.

I installed the acpid package and the power button shut down worked straight away, thanks for that. :)
 
I followed this one here;

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-howto/30573-build-your-own-atom-based-nas-part-2

It's slightly out of date now but it's only a slight variation in the way the options look in webmin that has changed so still OK to follow.

For everything else I needed to know/learn I went to the Ubuntu forum. For anything you can't find there just ask, they're very knowledgeable and always happy to help. Of course there's lots of people like that in the Linux section here too. :)
 
slylittlefox said:
Great thread
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I'm looking at doing something similar, but using it as my HTPC (with an appropriate mini-itx Atom board with HDMI out). How much did the system cost you all in?
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Thanks. :)

From the OP (I think I've listed the cost of each component at the time I bought them);

wolvers said:
So the total cost of the build is £225 (without HDDs), a big saving on the off the shelf units. This is helped by the OS being free
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