Hi all. Just brought a Dell Poweredge 2550. Dell PowerEdge 2550 2U Rack Server CPU: 2x Pentium III 1266MHz, 512KB Cache RAM: 1GB ECC SDRAM (Max 4gb) HDD: 5x Fujitsu 18.2GB Ultra 160 SCSI/SCA2/LVD (10,000RPM) RAID: PERC 3/Di RAID Controller with battery backup PSU: 2x 330W NIC: 1x 10/100/1000, 1x 10/100 I/O: CD-ROM, 3.5" Floppy, PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Mouse, VGA, Parallel, 2x USB 1.1, 2x Serial, 3x PCI expansion slots (riser card) Came with rails and 2 power cables and 1 drive disc. What would the best OS be for it. Wanting to use it to sort files on and have it so mates can download files off it. File sharing. Also mite host a website off it.
Windows Server 2008 R2? http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...2e-e992-4aec-9ed4-086de21632a2&displaylang=en Or would Windows server 2003 be ok?
This is probably going to sound like communist propaganda, but so be it. I'd say go for GNU/Linux. Have a google for server-oriented distros and you'll find something to suit your needs. By that I mean what you want to do and what you can do (your knowledge of GNU/Linux environments, any friends that can help you, ...). People often say that GNU/Linux runs great on "older" systems because it uses less resources, and it's true. When your OS takes up less memory/CPU, more is available for your actual server activity and friends downloading stuff from it. Apart from freeing up memory/CPU for user activities (rather than OS activities), you'd also get a lot of expandibility. The FSF directory has got a huge selection of any kind of free software fit for GNU/Linux systems. If you know some programming, or if you've got a friend who does, you're definitely said for as long as the server lives. If you're comfortable with running a "minimal" (i.e. not bloated; so avoid Ubuntu ) distribution of GNU/Linux, or if you're willing to possibly face the hardware challenge (hardware manufacturers not releasing code/free drivers), I'd say do it. A minimalistic OS will only free up space to be actually used by you and other people connecting to the server. In my experience, any MS Windows Server OS will, in general, hog the hardware for the OS rather than focusing on user needs. I don't like slagging off MS, but in my experience they are nothing in the server department. It's fancy and easy, but unworkable unless you're willing to spend a lot of money on the next-best-thing in hardware. To pull a pre-emptive strike to any replies: this is only my limited personal experience. Your mileage and experience may differ; and you may think MS Windows Server operating systems run like Paradise itself on your server. It didn't on mine, or any I used; hence my opinion.
I've been playing with both Windows Home server and Windows Storage Server 2008 recently and both are pretty impressive. WSS2008 may be a little bit heavyweight for that spec, but Home server should suit your needs well and runs on just about anything (I've got it on a Pentium-M underclocked to 1.2GHz and 1GB ram) Linux isn't a bad choice either, but you may find yourself limited by the potentially steep learning curve. Gentoo would be my pick, but be prepared to find some time to give it some TLC
Depends really on the following: What are you familiar with? Are you willing to spend money? Shell or Remote Desktop for remote administration? All the things you want to do can be done on Windows (Server or even XP/Vista will do what you want) or Linux. If its only running SAMBA, FTP and HTTP services then unless you have an OS hanging around Linux is the cheap way but has a slightly harder learning curve. If you have access to a Windows OS of choice (I myself use Small Business Server 2008 currently) and you are happier using windows then go for that. There is no direct answer to it as for the most part its personal choice.
If you want to just throw it on and have it done (and spend money), Windows Server of some description is the best bet. If you don't want to spend money, and are willing to invest a bit of time and learning, linux is the way to go. Also it'll stand you in good stead too (does for me in my job).
I have Windows XP pro SP3. only really used Windows 98 and XP and vista but have tryed Freespire linux before. Can get a cheap copy of windows server 2003 if need be.
Windows Server OSes are really for "proper" servers, I wouldn't fork out any money for it if you already have access to XP Pro
ohok. sweet. So If I use windows PX pro. what softawre would I need to have so I can share files ie: so mates can have a account / password to get in to the server and download files. Just to let you noo I have CuteFTP Pro. http://www.cuteftp.com/cuteftppro/ That I use to upload files to a free website host I have that Im going to delete sum time. Would sumthing like this work? http://www.cuteftp.com/wafs/ or http://www.cuteftp.com/eft/
If it's just gonna be sharing stuff then try FreeNAS or openfiler, and add transmission for a torrent downloader, all of which can be controlled by a web console. Alternatively (what I'd do) is install VMware ESXi (which is available with a free licence) and then you can install as many virtual machines as you want (and are able to run)
Damn, I was slowly reading down the posts to see if I could get in there first, but Lorquis beat me. FreeNas is an epic choice for a file server, and you can enable ftp sharing for your chums. Super lightweight. I tried openFiler but found that it didn't want to do my shares properly. Another alternative is to search for gliders tutorial on how to set up a xubuntu server, it is a little outdated now as some things have changed names slightly but with a bit of common sense you should have it up and running in no time.
I'm still all about the Virtualization way personally, I'd shove ESXi on it then have FreeNAS or Openfiler as a VM on top of that.. Makes things a bit more simple as you can give it more purposes as and when you need it..
Host... ESXi... it's a bare metal hypervisor... it's only about 32mb or so, shove it on a USB stick and have all the drives as your datastore
Yeah up to 999 Licences for free, the free version lacks some of the advanced features of the paid licences such as Vmotion and stuff like that.... but in a SoHo environment the free version will do...
Good stuff, Just downloaded it and hope to deploy it on my Box soon as I'm changing back from Small Business Server on my NAS to Linux but would like to be able to run Windows Server when I fancy to help me work towards the MCSE's etc so ESXi should help me with that Anyway.. I guess that's enough de-railment
Linux! For simplicity just download the desktop version of Ubuntu and use that as the basis for your server. Use Glider's Home server guides here on bit-tech: http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2007/06/05/build_your_own_server/1 http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2007/07/24/build_your_own_better_server/1 Using a Windows OS for your server will get the job done, but learning how to set up a Unix server with Linux is fantastic for familiarising you with the kind of things you should know if you want to run a server, such as security details, volume mounting, shares, etc. Windows tends to simplify things to a point whereby it becomes relatively easy to set these things up without learning what they do or why. If you've set the server up using Linux and learned how to manage users & permissions then when it comes to setting Apache up for your webserver you won't be sitting there wondering "Wtf does it mean to chmod something to 755 and why would I want to chown that?" It's easy to dismiss Linux recommendations because there are so many Linux evangelists and fanboys out there who just get on people's nerves with their insistence on anything-but-windows, but take it from me as someone who only uses Linux for his server, it's worth it. You won't regret it if you get stuck into it.
