| [Servers] Building and configuring a server I would like to know how to build a server out of old spare parts.
Are servers CPU dependent or do they depend on the amount of RAM?
I have 4 IDE hard drives (10gb - 80gb), tons of IDE cables, 4 CD-ROM's, 5 10/100 network cards, 1 10/100/1000 network card, and also I have full sized tower.
The motherboard only supports Primary and Secondary IDE (max 4 devices.)
How could I put all these spare parts to use? What would be the best server role for me to use?
Right now my home network is made up of 2 desktops (wired gigabit), 1 laptop (802.11n), 1 printer (802.11g), 1 10/100 router that acts as a switch (dhcp disabled), 1 bluray player (10/100 wired). The 10/100 router is connected to my main router via the LAN port. My main router is an 10/100/1000 and 802.11n router. The internet connection is connected via the WAN port.
I still haven't figured out an operating system for the server. |
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 shdesignsPowered By Infinite Improbabilty DrivePremium
join:2000-12-01
Stone Mountain, GA
 ·Atlantic Nexus
| Use the best parts for the server: biggest drives and fastest net card.
Almost anything will work 100mbit.
"Server" is to generic. A file server, terminal server, web server; not to mention domain controller or active directory server?
The OS will dictate how much RAM and CPU speed needed. My current file server runs linux and uses about 100megs of RAM (It has a gig installed.)
For a file server, there are things like freenas that make it easy.
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Scott Henion
Embedded Systems Consultant,
SHDesigns home - DIY Welder |
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| said by shdesigns:For a file server, there are things like freenas that make it easy.
FreeNAS would give me software RAID. Looks like the system should run the 2 80gb drives.  |
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| Something I would recommend you to consider is virtualization from the get go. You can cram many servers on one piece of hardware that way so it gives you a degree of flexibility in the future when it comes time to, say, upgrade the OS, versus if you put one installation on one box. On the flip side, it can make the hardware requirements more stringent.
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Scott Brown Consulting |
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 SoonerAlOld enough to know betterPremium,MVM
join:2002-07-23
Norman, OK
kudos:5 | reply to robman50
In addition to the other suggestions you might consider Windows Home Server 2011 presuming your running 64-bit hardware. I ran the original WHS (32-bit) and my brother runs the newer 64-bit OS.
»windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind···e-server
Here is one source of the software...
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···r%202011
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"When all else fails read the instructions..."
MS-MVP Windows Expert - Consumer |
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| reply to robman50
Right now I just toss in 2x 80gb hdd's on the secondary ide channel and a 20gb hdd and a dvd burner on the primary channel.
20gb is the boot drive,
the 2x 80gb's are in a software RAID 0 setup.
I tossed on Windows 2000 Server because I all ready head the drivers for the hardware.
Once I'd try out Windows 2000 server for a bit, I might try a Linux server.
I tried FreeNAS 7 32 bit and installed it to the 20gb hdd but I couldn't figure out how to use it. Is there no GUI? |
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shdesignsPowered By Infinite Improbabilty DrivePremium
join:2000-12-01
Stone Mountain, GA | AFAIK, FreeNAS is configured via web browser. |
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| Oh okay. So that 'FreeNAS Console' list is normal for after the o/s as booted and I would just leave it alone at that screen and use another system to configure the server?
I wonder if could I run FreeNAS with out an monitor? |
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| reply to robman50
After I install an O/S how do I connect the server to my home network? |
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shdesignsPowered By Infinite Improbabilty DrivePremium
join:2000-12-01
Stone Mountain, GA Reviews:
·Atlantic Nexus
| said by robman50:After I install an O/S how do I connect the server to my home network?
You mean other than plugging the network card into teh switch or router?
Depends on what you want to do with it.
--
Scott Henion
Embedded Systems Consultant,
SHDesigns home - DIY Welder |
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| I have figured out how to setup these services:
Active Directory (Domain Controller)
DNS Server
Remote Installation Service (remote installation of 2000 professional)
Windows Media Service
File/Print sharing services for Macintosh and Unix
I have it plugged in to the router that has DHCP enabled and it sees the new Win 2000 server. |
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AsherN
join:2010-08-23
Thornhill, ON | said by robman50:I have figured out how to setup these services:
Active Directory (Domain Controller)
DNS Server
Remote Installation Service (remote installation of 2000 professional)
Windows Media Service
File/Print sharing services for Macintosh and Unix
I have it plugged in to the router that has DHCP enabled and it sees the new Win 2000 server.
I'm truly confused.
What are you trying to acheive?????
Unless you have Macs or *nix, the F/P service for Mac and Unix is not needed.
RIS is used to image PCs through PXE. Unless you do that a lot, it's useless.
AD for a small home network may be overkill.
Ditto DNS. |
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| reply to robman50
Another thing you want to think about is Windows 2000 reached end of support life in July 2010, which means while you can run it if you want, you can't run it securely.
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Scott Brown Consulting |
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| reply to robman50
I'll be honest here, I have no idea what I am trying to acheive.
Maybe some one can help me figure out what I should do with this spare system? It's about the same as an high-end Pentium 3 and a low-end Pentium 4. I think that is where the Athlon 1000 stands but anyway it only has 384MB of RAM and I don't have any more spare PC100 sticks.
Windows 2000 Server with Active Directory does slow it down a lot. Alost made me think I should have put NT 4 on instead.
So what could the average home user use? Something like FreeNAS for streaming media and downloading torrents? |
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| An old box like that, if you don't want to give it away and get something newer, maybe you put a server distribution of Linux on it and teach yourself LAMP development and Unix system administration, or use it as a print server, or a firewall, lots of things you can do.
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Scott Brown Consulting |
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 billaustinthey call me Mr. BillPremium,MVM
join:2001-10-13
North Las Vegas, NV
kudos:2 | reply to robman50
The first thing to do is define your Need(s), then proceed from there. You could load pfSense, add a second NIC, and use it as a router. You could get a pair of Hard Drives, load FreeNAS, and use it for network storage. You could load CentOS and use it as a File, Web, Print, Mail, FTP, or DNS Server (or any combination of those). |
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Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
 ·Charter
| reply to robman50
said by robman50:It's about the same as an high-end Pentium 3 and a low-end Pentium 4. I think that is where the Athlon 1000 stands but anyway it only has 384MB of RAM and I don't have any more spare PC100 sticks.
My little company has two of those with some clients still on it serving web pages for their businesses. It's the first system I ever put together when I got started eight years ago. They run FreeBSD with Apache. I used to use them for development and I'm sure they both still have Firefox 2.x on them which I surfed with. |
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| reply to billaustin
pfSense - The system has 2 NIC's in there all ready. One is an 802.11g card and the other is an gigabit card. Could I use attach my main router to it for internet access?
FreeNAS - I was thinking about this one. Two 80gb hard drives are on the primary ide channel so I can set up RAID. Not sure about the RAM requirements for if I should get the latest version or not.
CentOS - I would try it but I can't figure out the system requirements for it. The RHEL HCL says the AMD Athlon 1000 (Thunderbird) is compatible with RHEL 2.x, so do I get a copy of CentOS 2.x? |
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| FreeNAS is FreeBSD. |
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| So FreeNAS 8 should work no trouble with 384MB of RAM?
Considering FreeBSD 5.x needs a 486 and 24MB RAM I think my system should run fine, correct? |
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