Linux File-Server need help...

[Bonez]

I currently have a small home file server running windows 2000, it's nothing much but it does its job.
Since I’m going to college (moving to Europe) in about 3 weeks and thus moving to T1 heaven I’ll be in dire need for a better fileserver (for local networking ftp and security), *Eh not that I’m gonna be downloading any warez or anything *, this because I’ll need to share tons of files (mostly anime and some *other* stuff) with my m8’s here in Suriname (eh yea it’s a country….yes really… go- google it)

On the hardware side I’m actually rebuilding the whole damn box,
Sys Specs (As is custom to the [H]) :
MB: ASUS "A7N8X-E Deluxe (in part for its dual LAN and onboard sata raid)
Mem: 512 3200 DDR ram (some value stick)
Pros: some 1800+ I have lying around
HD: 2X 250GB WDC caviar's and 1X 120GB caviar (which will hold the OS) <- All IDE
Case: Coolermaster Stacker (damn thing is sexy)

Ok but of course hardware alone won’t cut it, so after a couple of days of experimenting with knoppix V3.4 I have decided that Linux is the best solution for what I have planned.

* It should be noted that safe for these past 5 days and 4 more days, 5 years ago.. I’m a total newb to Linux, this is also one of the reasons I decided to go the fully Linux way, Cus I know that forcing myself to use Linux is the only way I’ll really start to understand and *fully* appreciate this OS.

But not long after deciding that I will use Linux as my next fileserver, the questions started to arise.. So here I am asking you some of these questions..

First of, I have decided to go for the SuSe Proffessional V9 distribution, this because of its relative easy (so I’ve red) and because I can get this one easily&#61514;.

-So the first question is simple, is this a good choice? If not what distributions do you recommend? Keep in mind I’m not really looking for anything other that file-serving (local and ftp) and security. Also I’m planning to use this box as a router (this is where the Asus’s dual LAN comes into play) for all other pc’s on the local network (questions as to how this actually has to be done will be posted on a later date )

Ok now for my second question,
I have around 250Gig of stuff on my current file server and this is all on 2, 120Gig [NTFS-formatted] harddrives, Now if I was moving to a other windows solution this wouldn’t be a problem but since I’m not...

-my question is can these destro's read NTFS and if so, is it a good choice to go with this non-native filesystem for long term data storage?

-And also the 2 new 250GB hard disks I’m getting to what filesystem should I format them, the main reason I used NTFS and not FAT32 on my win2000 box is that I need to be able to store files bigger than 2GB, thus this new file system should also be able to be able to do this.

-Also I’d really like to use a filesystem that is recognized on Microsoft Os’s also, since I’ll be swapping hd's between different systems allot... If I could simply use NTFS things would be a lot easier, but again if it's not a good idea to store data on NTFS while on Linux plz recommend me a system to use.

Also if there are any known compatibility issues with onboard Sata raid please tell me because I’m planning (once I get the cash) to use the Asus's onboard SATA for a 400GB raid array.

These are all hardware related questions, but be sure that once I get this thing running, I’ll be back with tons of Linux/network related questions -- so stay tuned


ack .. din't notice this becoming so long ..ohwell I’m sure that if read this you weren't scared of by the length...


Bonez

 

[nonsequitur]

i agree that SuSE is a great distro, and i'd never try to talk anyone out of using it. YaST is a great gui set-up tool, and while the system update tools aren't as hardcore as emerge on gentoo, there's plenty of packages on there that can be updated easily (or installed new).

if you have a hard drive partition that is going to be viewed in both windows and linux, unfortunately the only real solution is to use fat32 on the partition. while technically possible to write to an ntfs partition, i can't say i've seen anyone trust it (if you do anything that changes the filesize, you are likely hosed).

i'd read up more on sata controller used on that mother board. my general impression is that software raid with onboard controllers isn't nearly as worthwhile as hardware raid.

good luck!

 

[Bonez]

Ok so Suse it stays .. Unfortunately being able to store files bigger than 2 gig is a must (doing allot of DVD editing etc) , I take it the normal Linux filesystem (Ext2,Ext3?)is able to handle files of this size, right?

Also are you saying that I’ll have to copy my 300+GB of saved data (on NTFS in win2000) to a Linux formatted harddisk if I want to be sure of its "safety" so to speak.
And if so how do I go about doing this because I wont be able to place a hd with ntfs and a hd with Ext3 in a pc and just transfer the data since no operation system can handle this without seriously risking data corruption (I hope I concluded that correctly from what you said) I also wont be able to use Fat32 as a "hop" because allot of my files are bigger then 2 gig, so I take it the only way for me to safely get my data from my ntfs system to the Ext3 system is by setting up a network and transferring the data over Samba from a WinXp/2000 machine to my Linux file server..?

---

On the hardware side
Since I don’t have the new motherboard yet I can still change it. I'm actually thinking of doing this since I’ll need dual Gigabit and not one gigabit and one 100/10 LAN like the Asus one is offering. Are there any boards you'd like to suggest again I’d like to have as much as possible on board (except video) and it should be a socket a board.
Also since you feel that software raid with onboard controllers aren’t worth the hassle, what do you recommend (also should be fully Linux compatible of course) and what are the prices of these raid controllers.
I'll actually be looking for two one to handle Ide (since I have allot of these drives laying around and this will be the one I’ll most likely purchase first ) and one to handle Sata (gotta get with the times eh )


Bonez

btw thanks for the reply

 

[nonsequitur]

doublechecking the fat32 file limitation, it looks like the limit is almost 4 GB
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q314463

the other thing to consider, and i can't say i've read up much on the situation, is that software raid might be out of the question for a multi-os partition. the way the linux kernel sets up the harddrives may not be the same as the way windows would set up the partitions. this may be another reason to go with a hardware raid card. the peeps who troll the disk storage forum here might have more insight...

here's an excellent summary of the sata chipsets and linux support: http://www.linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

and you shouldn't need to go thorugh the hoops of using antoher partition to copy over the data from ntfs to a linux partition. the linux kernel can read ftfs partitions just fine (if the support is compiled in). it's the writing to ntfs that's a bitch.

 

[Bonez]

Thanks for that info.. I could’ve sworn the limitation was 2GB.. Are there any other reasons why I should still go for the Ext3 filesystem.. Maybe something like options to lock folders etc ala NTFS (of course locking folders alone wont be enough for me to switch to Ext3).
Think I'll format the Os disk(120GB) to Ext3 and the two 250's to normal FAT32, unless of course you tell me that using the Ext3 filesystem is the best for long term data storage on Linux, because I can live with not swapping harddrives, but I can't with lost data ..

Thanks for the link gonna check out now

Ohyea a simple question:
In my recent days of experimenting with Knoppix I came to love the "command prompt" (eh sorry, for the live of me, I can't remember its name.. DAMN you Microsoft). But expect for running simple ,ifconfig, ping ,ntstat, dig and add route I don’t really know how to open files with the "prompt".
Like for instance if I were to want to change my ip configuration I could use
"ifconfig eth0 192.168.39.X netmask 255255.255.248 up" and need to add that line to the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file ok.. now this is where the problem starts how do I open this rc.local file via the "prompt". Because every time I type the file name in the directory it says "no such file or directory" but when doing a simple "dir" I can plainly see that the file is there. Now I CAN open it with konquerer (isn’t there anything better, I dunno but it feels so cramped to me ) while using KDE but that doesn't feel "right" I just want to know if it is possible to open and edit simple text files like those from within the Terminal (<- yea that's what it's named hehe). Also do you know of a site or something with a list of useful terminal codes they look allot like the "dos" "command prompt" codes but they are not quite the same, if not don’t worry the "man -k X " command is helping me out allot.

Damn it .. I Can't seem to write short replies

Bonez - Thanks again

 

[ameoba]

FAT32 is easily corrupted & file systems are kinda limited to about 40GB.

Ext3/Reiser (I prefer reiser, myself) are journalling file-systems, which means that, if the system crashes while writing to disk, you won't lose much data (only what you're actually writing at the time; no filesystem corruption) and when the system comes back up, the drive scan goes real quick.

 

[XOR != OR]

Ext3/Reiser (I prefer reiser, myself) are journalling file-systems, which means that, if the system crashes while writing to disk, you won't lose much data (only what you're actually writing at the time; no filesystem corruption) and when the system comes back up, the drive scan goes real quick.

That is the theory, but as recently as last month, on FC1, I had a problem with reiser corrupting the file system.

Not pleasant, and it's a good thing that it was on a test system.

Stick with ext3. It's not quite as fast as reiser, but it is tried and true.

 

[nonsequitur]

I just want to know if it is possible to open and edit simple text files like those from within the Terminal (<- yea that's what it's named hehe). Also do you know of a site or something with a list of useful terminal codes they look allot like the "dos" "command prompt" codes but they are not quite the same, if not don’t worry the "man -k X " command is helping me out allot.

the program i prefer is vim, it uses the terminal buffer to create a notepad like interface. the problem is that the commands for vim are really counter intuitive until you learn them. emacs and nano are terminals that are closer in function to notepad in windows.

to use them from the command line, just type "vim /etc/rc.d/rc.local", replacing vim with your preferred program.

i learned vim (well i learned the commands i needed) from this gentoo doc:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/vi-guide.xml

 

[ItsSoLARGE]

for editing i use nano or mcedit... whichever you like the most.. vim is a bit weird just because of what was said before ... the commands

 

[Zlash]

FAT32 is easily corrupted & file systems are kinda limited to about 40GB.

That is a windows xp "format" limitation of 32GB because they want you to use NTFS and not a FAT32 limitation. If you use a different utility to format fat32 it can go to 2TB and 8 in theory.

 

[Bonez]

Thanks for the replies guys..

I have 2 fat32 120GB harddrives so I know they are not limited to 40 GB (just use partition magic). But the fact that they are easily corrupted as was stated above made me change my plans yet again .. Think I’ll go the full EXT3 route with a small 40GB external (fat32) for swapping guess that should work..

Thanks for the different editing progs I’ll try them out later.. So if I were to want to edit a file like /etc/resolv.conf - I would type mcedit /etc/resolv.conf ....

Also if one where to change the -default editor- in /etc/rc.conf , to say, Mcedit I take it you wouldn't need to type "mcedit /etc/resolv.conf " to open the file.
You ask yourself why it is i'm asking all these questions instead of just trying the things out myself...but the thing is I’m still running from a live cd (knoppix) and most of these files are thus Read-only so I can't change them and see what happens.

Is there a reason for me to learn vim expect maybe for the fact that I can brag about knowing vim , looks kinda hard to learn but I’m up for the challenge. I'm adding the cheat sheet to my favs gonna try it out after I have this server up and running, gotta take these things one at a time .

Oh yea while I’m at it,
Since i'm new to linux i don't know how big a change from kernel 2.4 to 2.6 is, cus i just noticed that Suse 9.1 is out and it has kernel 2.6 and the one I can get V9.0 has kernel 2.4
Is it worth it to buy 9.1 proffesional just for this update ? or is it to little a change to bother with ..

Thanks again
Bonez

 

[puck]

the difference between 2.6 and 2.4 will mean little to you, especially since it's just a fileserver. I would use 2.4 becuase it would be more stable. The default editor option is for programs that need to know what editor you use. In the CLI you still have to type the command then the file you want to edit. nano or pico would work fine for you. Also make sure you setup a SSH deamon on the server so that you can easily login and change settings when you need to.

 

[Bonez]

Sorry for not replying earlier was busy with exams Done now so I finally have some time .. I’ll be installing SuSE on a test machine tomrrow or the day after so I hope everything works well..

Ok about SSH I did some reading and saw that it basically is secure telnet. This is perfect for what I have planned thanks for the recommendation.
Just wanted to know if 2 people could work on the same pc at once cus I’m planning to give one of my friend’s full access (sort of an admin to the server) and it could be that he will be connected true ssh and that I will also be doing stuff on that pc (locally).

Ok so here is what I have planned for this server it may be a bit ambitious for a newb but I set my goals high just so I could get to know Linux at its best..

Central File-Server -for local network
Router -for local network
DHCP server -for local network
(S)FTP server
SSH
Downloading trough FTP and Openap - (Openap through lopster)

Ok that sums it up I guess.

About SFTP what server program do you recommend? Is the default SuSE (s)ftp server good or do you recommend I use something else.

My goal for this ftp is to have multiple users be able to connect to certain shared folders on my pc and that those users will all have one folder to which they can write (upload). Also, and I don't know if this is possible, id like to be able to set badwith caps and/or a program that tracks the amount of bandwidth a user has used (and maybe set a limit).

Hehe guess that's allot to ask of a FTP server but who knows, maybe.....

Bonez

ohyea... Is PuTTy a good windows based SSH and S-FTP client, or do you recommend something else? I especially need a fairly strait forward S-FTP client since my Dad will be using this ftp also and well.. let's just say he still sees being able to send e-mails one of his greatest accomplishments.

 

[Anarchonixx]

ohyea... Is PuTTy a good windows based SSH and S-FTP client, or do you recommend something else? I especially need a fairly strait forward S-FTP client since my Dad will be using this ftp also and well.. let's just say he still sees being able to send e-mails one of his greatest accomplishments.

Well, if your dad isn't well versed with command lines, putty might not be ideal. There are front-ends for it, but I would recommend http://winscp.sourceforge.net/eng/. It worked fine for when I needed an SFTP/SCP client for Windows.