The result of the server build thread

[mapes]

I posted a while back that my linux box had a power issue and since it was a proprietary Dell I wanted to swap it out for something more industry standard. The end result is

Antec p183 case
Intel Core i3-530 2.93 Ghz
Intel DH55TC MB
4 GB ram
Antec TP-650 PSU
Dual WD caviar blue 500 GB drives setup as a a raid 1 pair for data storage.

Also I had two 40 GB WD sata drives that I setup as a raid1 pair and used to install the OS onto as well as a DVD drive.



Problems.... The first problem was that when the Dell system went the on board raid controller (which I've never used) somehow wrote something to my OS drives. This made the drives not boot into the old OS. I ended up having to take the OS drives into work and mount it in one of my work linux boxes. I then had to zero out the bits the Dell raid controller put on the drive. I was still unable to get them to boot but, I could read them from the other system. Thankfully I was able to salvage

Mysql databases
Apache config
Virtual hosts config
Bind/DNS config
Samba Config

The next step was installing a new OS. Well initially I wanted to use Ubuntu 9.10. However the ability to create a raid pair at install time was broken in Ubuntu 9.10. So I said screw it and went back to Debian Lenny...Which worked flawlessly. Installed the OS onto a 40GB raid1 pair and configured a 500 GB raid 1 pair for data

Once that was sorted it was time to hook up my old IDE raid1 data drives and transfer data. So I grab the old raid pair and went to plug them in uhhh hmmm where the heck is the IDE ports on this MB?? Oh crap it doesn't have any Doh!. So I had to grab my wifes machine. Hook up the one of the IDE raid drives and a spare sata drive and boot in to a Linux live CD. I was then able to mount the raid drive and transfer the data to the spare sata drive. I then had to plug that drive into the new server and transfer the data onto the new raid data pair. Whew...thats all done. The only issue I have now is that Debian doesn't recognize the onboard NIC. Currently I have an old 10/100 card in there and thats something I'll look at later. In any event here are the pics



A blurry pic I was trying to show the fan controls on the backside/top of the case




The cool thing about that case is it's very quiet. The drives are rubber mounted and they're in these handy pull out enclosures.

[Duke{CLR}]

Looks good Mapes.

[juneau]

What are you planning on using it for again Mapes?

[mapes]

What are you planning on using it for again Mapes?

It runs a couple of things

DNS for inside of my house
Apache with five virtual hosts
1. Wifes wordpress blog
2. My DnD groups blog
3. Gallery 2 picture server <<<<---- main use
4. phpmyadmin
5. Web site to control home automation (thermostat and some x10 modules)
PHP and MySQL for above sites
Samba (CIFS/Windows) file sharing
NFS (Unix) file sharing
Squeeze Center music server for Logitech squeeze box hardware <<<<---second main use
Subsonic Java tomcat web music streamer for outside of the house
Home automation control ...cron jobs etc..
Data storage
Whatever I'm hacking on ATM

[juneau]

It runs a couple of things

DNS for inside of my house
Apache with five virtual hosts
1. Wifes wordpress blog
2. My DnD groups blog
3. Gallery 2 picture server <<<<---- main use
4. phpmyadmin
5. Web site to control home automation (thermostat and some x10 modules)
PHP and MySQL for above sites
Samba (CIFS/Windows) file sharing
NFS (Unix) file sharing
Squeeze Center music server for Logitech squeeze box hardware <<<<---second main use
Subsonic Java tomcat web music streamer for outside of the house
Home automation control ...cron jobs etc..
Data storage
Whatever I'm hacking on ATM

It's pretty busy then. I really need to get some form of a server running soon. Starting to feel the need for a central hub for all my media rather than the storage being local to each PC.

[{CLR} ObiTroy]

It's pretty busy then. I really need to get some form of a server running soon. Starting to feel the need for a central hub for all my media rather than the storage being local to each PC.

That's what I am doing with my old gaming rig now. Mostly a central backup server... have about 80GB of stuff backed up on Carbonite. Play music/movies just through a UNC fileshare. I really want to get into the Squeezebox thing, I've read lots of good things about it. The x10 stuff too, that stuff is so cool. A co-worker of mine is into it.

Just not a whole lot of free time. Wish there were about 4 more hours in the day.

[mapes]

Yep the home automation is control via a firecracker type serial interface. Although I just upgraded to a new USB interface that can receive signals too. This will let me do stuff based off of events. Like for example
Motion detector senses movement, send signal turn on porch light and play dogbarking.wav and snap a picture

The media side I store everything on this box. With for programs that I download or other binary type data with Samba I can access it over the network via a windows or a mac box.

For pictures and movies I use Gallery2. It's a php based picture gallery. It has a ton of functionality. If you want to check it out look here Matt and Corinna's Photo Gallery Basically its a local photobucket.

The squeeze box stuff is rad. Not only does it serve up all of my music to any of the three hardware players I have it also will stream pandora or lastfm or internet radio or podcasts to any of the players. There is also a java based player emulator. It's called softsqueeze. I can run this on my laptop. In fact if you want to check out what the system can do you can download the squeezecenter server and softsqueeze for free and play with it.

[juneau]

How does Gallery2 work for movies?

[mapes]

How does Gallery2 work for movies?

It works fine on movies. I would point you at one of mine but, I've converted them all to divx and for some reason it dosn't work. I think I need to tweak my apache configs. I swear it does work fine though . Gallery2 uses ffmpeg to create the thumbnails of the movies. So you'd have to install that too.

[Hammy]

Im sorry....I fell asleep...what did you say?

[juneau]

It works fine on movies. I would point you at one of mine but, I've converted them all to divx and for some reason it dosn't work. I think I need to tweak my apache configs. I swear it does work fine though . Gallery2 uses ffmpeg to create the thumbnails of the movies. So you'd have to install that too.

Any chance of a screenshot? Just looking for Media Center alternatives is all. Currently using that with a mix of Media Browser.

Tried XMBC and Media Portal but i didn't like them at all.

[Colonel_Tighlon]

Windows + PS3 + TVersity = media serving heaven

[Zantheus]

Yea my wife and I are talking about using the money from our tax returns to build a NAS with 6-9TB of storage to thread into our home network and add a networked media PC as well to our TV

Nice setup Mapes

[mapes]

So I just solved my slow 10/100 nic problem with..

01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82571EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation PRO/1000 PT Dual Port Server Adapter
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop-

I uhh acquired this adapter. It's funny it's a PCIe network card with dual ports. The funny thing is my MB has one PCIe slot.. Usually for a graphics adapter. Not in my caase it's all about the network! The cool thing about this adapter is it has two ports. Because Linux and my switch (Cisco 3750) can do link aggregation (the combining of multiple Ethernet ports into one virtual one) I just might do that. So in effect my server will have one 2GB interface(not really but, close enough)

As for gallery it's basically photobucket. It can handle movies fine and even music media. Although the music stuff it's not really setup for that no id3 type support. To be honest it's not a HTPC type app but more of a picture sharing site. I would say most picture sites that sell images online use gallery2. You can make it do whatever you want. It even supports working in various CMS and forums. Check out Gallery2:About - Gallery Codex for more info

Why I don't like using a Xbox or PS3 for media. I prefer just a web interface. That means anyone anywhere can view it and I don't need to turn on my gaming rig. The other problem with those type of media sharing apps is that it's tied to your TV. With the Logitech Squeezebox stuff I can stuff a player anywhere. They do both wifi and wired networking. I can then control the player through a web interface or even and iPhone app etc.... Anything with a web browser. Ontop of that I can sync all the players even the java emulated player together and have them all play the same stream. Again access is through a basic web interface

[juneau]

Thanks Mapes. Looks like i'll be sticking with Media Browser for a little while longer. Not complaining though as it's a great little app.

I'll probably just build a NAS and locate my media there.