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Bits Build your own server

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Da Dego, 5 Jun 2007.

  1. Glider

    Glider /dev/null

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    There are a lot of graphical clients. Filezilla is one of them.
     
  2. Glider

    Glider /dev/null

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    FTP is the protocol, you can tranfer the files from the command line, or through a graphical interface... Most prefer a GUI, the fools ;)
     
  3. anak_design

    anak_design What's a Dremel?

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    Glider, great article.. you just made me build a home server based on Xubuntu. However, I'm stuck straight away at file sharing (I know.. that's sad :p). It won't let me add new user to smbpasswd. Kept saying failed to change password or something. What gives?
     
  4. Glider

    Glider /dev/null

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    Did you add the user to the system too? You are either required to do that or create a special samba userfile. The former is easier ;)
     
  5. jonniefive79

    jonniefive79 Learning Linux

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    I have a hardware question or three.


    I'm pretty much a noob, especially with linux and anything related to a server. This guide has inspired me to build a fileserver [~2TB] mostly for media storage and also so I can learn more about Linux and servers in general.

    I have a case, 600W PSU and a couple of 500GB Seagate HDDs to start. I was going to use an old AMD athlon 1GHz processor and an MSI MB with abou 512MB ram. But something is wrong with one or more of these components, so now I need to buy a new MB/CPU/RAM.

    I'm pretty sure I'm going with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+, maybe 4600+or 4800+ depending on the price ~$55 on the egg right now.
    Do you know if the brisbane or windsor core would be better? or does it really matter?

    For memory, Kingston either 667 or 800MHz, I can get 2x512mb for about $22 or 2x1gb for about $39.
    Will I have better performance with 2GB?

    I really have no idea for a MB, just something fairly cheap with onboard video. I have heard good thing about the "Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H for home server applications. I'm trying to get this on the cheap, so I'd rather go for some thing more in the ~$50 range like the BIOSTAR A770 A2+ or even the BIOSTAR MCP6P-M2 if that would work?
     
  6. Glider

    Glider /dev/null

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    Both will be an utter overkill... A simple fileserver will never max out anything over 1.5GHz, let alone dual core.

    The performance bottleneck in a NAS is the network interface. Theoretically you get 12MB/s on 100mbit and 120MB/s on gigabit. Effective values are about 60-85% of that (depending on you hardware). I've seen large RAID5 arrays on server boards (high throughput) saturate dual or tripple gigabit, but I've never seen a desktop board do this). Typical harddrives get to 80-100MB/s throughput. RAM gets a multitude of that. So don't worry about the RAM limiting your system. As long as you got a fair amount, like > 265MB you'll be fine (for reference, I run a Debian FS in my student house, P3 666MHz on 60MB RAM [60-4] and dual 100mbit links, and that is dishing out files for 6 PC's, and also runs a printserver, my media player,...). 512MB will be plenty, 1GB is luxury, 2GB is a waste.

    I don't have specific recommendations for a MB. Whatever works is good...
     
  7. JrRRr

    JrRRr Minecraft addict

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    Well, I recon the server are going to be turned on the whole time? As for my self I like to think about power consumption.. A Intel Celeron 420 is cheap and it's based on the Core2, and definetly onboard graphics!
     
  8. m0o0oeh

    m0o0oeh Minimodder

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    Hey guys,

    Finally getting around to doing this thing, but one or two wee problems am occuring.

    Firstly, proftpd has an error that won't allow it to restart.

    Secondly, UltraVNC won't allow me to connect to the server, which is somewhat of an embuggerance...

    I've only gotten to that stage, so I'm going to continue to work my way along and if I encounter any more problems, I shall append them to my list.

    Cheers in advance for any help,

    Joe

    ::EDIT::

    Also, I am having issues finding and creating directories when setting up torrentflux. I may however leave this, as if I can get the VNC viewer to work, I can just do it that way. Or set the server up to a KVM.

    J
     
    Last edited: 15 Jun 2008
  9. jonniefive79

    jonniefive79 Learning Linux

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    Thanks for the info... This is all very new to me.

    I found a Dell with a P4 and ~756MB DDR that I can use for parts. Any Ideas if I will have driver issues with the Dell MB? I'll get the specs tomorrow.

    Thanks Again,
    -Jon
     
  10. hocus pocus

    hocus pocus What's a Dremel?

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    Hello!

    Hello there,

    I have been following each step of the guide by the letter, but have been experiencing some issues on step 4: File Sharing.

    Trying to access my.ip.goes.here/homes resulted in a password dialog that would let me configure my router's settings instead of my homes.

    After research, I did the steps indicated by glider in post 40 of this thread. Now my linux box has lost it's Internet connection. Although it still shows up in my network.

    EDIT: To clarify... I did not try to literally access my.ip.goes.here/homes... I tried 192.168.0.100/homes
     
    Last edited: 19 Jun 2008
  11. statmonkey

    statmonkey What's a Dremel?

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    Wow, can't believe this is still active.

    hocus pocus - post the results of the command 'ifconfig'


    Are you sure you are using \\192.168.x.xxx\homes it is easy to get into the habit of using the forward slash from using the net.

    Also you should confirm your router's ip address is different. Its unlikely that you are typing the address for your server and getting your router.

    I can tell you that I have used this tutorial as the basis to set up about 6 different server networks for friends and it does all work (pretty much as written) whether you are using Gutsy, Heron, Suse whatever. It does occasionally require some noodling and triple checking your work. Usually if you have followed the instructions it is some little thing that has thrown you off (in my case permissions seem to always get me). I have never met any issues that were not already covered in the tutorial itself or when I did something stupid that was always covered in the comments.
     
  12. nry

    nry Minimodder

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    Hi

    Just noticed this, and its basically what I have built up. I have limited knoledge of linux but found it quite easy to get my whole file server up and running.

    Got samba setup which is the main purpose of this file server I have built as it will be serving hd movies over my gigabit network, so high speeds are a must!

    PC Spec:
    AMD Xp 2000
    1gb ddr pc3200 ram
    80gb 2.5" 4200rpm system drive
    4 Port sata pci card, sil3114 chipset.
    1tb western digital green power
    dlink pci gigabit

    Netgear GS605 v2 switch connected with cat6 cabling.

    Current testing laptop is a 2ghz, 2gb ram, 320gb western digital hdd, 1 gigabit lan, vista home premium (Rock pegasus 670)

    Now I look at this spec of the file server and it should get atleast 30mb/s from the 1tb drive right?
    But no, samba transfers write to the disk at 5mb/s and read at 11mb/s if im lucky!

    This is from the 1tb drive:
    Code:
    root@nas:~# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda1
    
    /dev/sda1:
     Timing cached reads:   468 MB in  2.00 seconds = 233.99 MB/sec
     Timing buffered disk reads:  220 MB in  3.02 seconds =  72.85 MB/sec
    root@nas:~# hdparm -Tt /dev/sdc1
    
    /dev/sdc1:
     Timing cached reads:   468 MB in  2.00 seconds = 233.98 MB/sec
     Timing buffered disk reads:  224 MB in  3.00 seconds =  74.59 MB/sec
    root@nas:~#
    iperf results with server as server and client

    Vista laptop:
    Code:
    C:\>iperf.exe -s
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Server listening on TCP port 5001
    TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    [144] local 192.168.1.5 port 5001 connected with 192.168.1.9 port 50212
    [ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
    [144]  0.0-10.0 sec  84.9 MBytes  71.1 Mbits/sec
    
    C:\>iperf.exe -c nas
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Client connecting to nas, TCP port 5001
    TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    [368] local 192.168.1.5 port 52855 connected with 192.168.1.9 port 5001
    [ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
    [368]  0.0-10.0 sec  79.7 MBytes  66.8 Mbits/sec
    
    Server:
    Code:
    root@nas:~# iperf -c 192.168.1.5
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Client connecting to 192.168.1.5, TCP port 5001
    TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    [  3] local 192.168.1.9 port 50212 connected with 192.168.1.5 port 5001
    [  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  84.9 MBytes  71.2 Mbits/sec
    root@nas:~# iperf -s
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    Server listening on TCP port 5001
    TCP window size: 85.3 KByte (default)
    ------------------------------------------------------------
    [  4] local 192.168.1.9 port 5001 connected with 192.168.1.5 port 52855
    [  4]  0.0-10.0 sec  79.7 MBytes  66.8 Mbits/sec
    root@nas:~#
    
    
    Am i right in understanding that the problem is the network speeds?
    What am i doing wrong?
     
    Last edited: 9 Jul 2008
  13. skapegoat

    skapegoat What's a Dremel?

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    Well, I was bored last night and decided to revisit this project and attempt it again with the new Xubuntu 8.04 and whatever other new updates are out (like TorrentFlux, for example). I have a comment back on page 6 or so with my feedback and troubleshooting tips when I went through the guide initially. Here are my notes and questions from this time though:

    * the FTP fix in my previous comment is still required. Basically, one of the FTP config file tags needs to be adjusted, and a closing tag needs to be added to the file

    * for VNC, the passwd command has changed; the correct syntax for that line is now: "x11vnc -storepasswd" no quotes, and watch that - , as a copy/paste from the web may not work

    * during the install of mysql, you are asked to choose your web server; I checked Apache2 (as opposed to Apache) and seem OK

    * when doing the installation of mysql-server and phpmyadmin, the install process requires you to set a root password, so you won't need to follow the steps to do this in phpmyadmin

    * in a browser, going to http://localhost takes me directly to the Apache "It Works" page, not a directory listing as stated. However, going to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ works just fine.

    * when copying the Torrentflux data into a /var/www/tf, you only need to copy the files in the downloaded 'html' folder, not all the other stuff. when you get to that step in the guide, just execute the commands mentioned from inside the 'html' folder instead of the 'torrentflux_..." folder


    So; there's my notes =) Here are my questions:

    - when I try to FTP into my server, from another computer on my network, I get a connection refused error. Any Sugguestions?

    - with the SAMBA stuff, I can connect to \\xubuntu\homes, authenticate, and it takes me to that user's (skapegoat) home directory. if I connect to just \\xubuntu it shows me some shares, one is \homes and one is \skapegoat. So far as I can tell, they both go to \skapegoat. Is that normal? Is is supposed to show me all the directories in the /home directory of the server?

    - Similar to above; in my /home folder, I have skapegoat, ftp, and shared (the shared was created via the guide) How can I access this 'shared' directory via SAMBA or FTP on my network?

    Thats all =)
     
  14. stonyjaded

    stonyjaded What's a Dremel?

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    beautifully written, I've built and rebuilt this server twice as I got better hardware. I could never get Glider's script to work so I would use the one that another user posted up here. It worked fine however it didn't allow anonymous login. I just reinstalled Hardy Heron on my ftp box and I finally got Glider's config file working so now anonymous works fine.

    The problem is that I don't know where to put the files on the ftp box for the anonymous user. With the alternative config file that used a user and password it was simply the users home directory. I've tried creating a user named ftp but Ubuntu will not let me, I've tried putting files in the root ftp folder but all I get are access denied errors. Where do files that I want to be able to download from ftp go on my server?
     
  15. bgalfond

    bgalfond What's a Dremel?

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    First off, thanks for the write up!

    I am installing torrentflux, and now the issue with localhost going directly to "It works" is an issue. Why won't it let me see a tree? I tried the fixes posted earlier but it didn't work.

    There is a file /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default but there is nothing about "/var/www/apache2-default/"

    Thanks for any help!
     
  16. Glider

    Glider /dev/null

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    Wow, this thread still going? I think it's starting to be a record. Don't know of any article that got that much feedback over that long time... Or is it that badly written ;)

    Probably the ftp user already exists... you can check by issuing "cat /etc/passwd"

    Anonymous ftp (or anything else) with write priviledges is a bad idea... Even internally. The files will end up in the anonymous directory as defined by the config... But I don't recommend it, better use regular users.

    Try editing /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default, there should be something in it that points to the default directory...

    Also, browse to "http://localhost/tf" and you should end up in the correct directory
     
  17. bgalfond

    bgalfond What's a Dremel?

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    going to http://localhost/tf gives me:

    Code:
    Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in /var/www/tf/config.php on line 56
    
    Here is 000-default:
    Code:
    NameVirtualHost *
    <VirtualHost *>
    	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    	
    	DocumentRoot /var/www/
    	<Directory />
    		Options FollowSymLinks
    		AllowOverride None
    	</Directory>
    	<Directory /var/www/>
    		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    		AllowOverride None
    		Order allow,deny
    		allow from all
    	</Directory>
    
    	ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/
    	<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
    		AllowOverride None
    		Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
    		Order allow,deny
    		Allow from all
    	</Directory>
    
    	ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
    
    	# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
    	# alert, emerg.
    	LogLevel warn
    
    	CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
    	ServerSignature On
    
        Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"
        <Directory "/usr/share/doc/">
            Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride None
            Order deny,allow
            Deny from all
            Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128
        </Directory>
    
    </VirtualHost>
    Of course it's still going, its nearly impossible to find a good how-to like this for noobs like myself! Thanks!
     
  18. Glider

    Glider /dev/null

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    Well, can you post the contents of /var/www/tf/config.php around line 56 (from 50 to 60 or so)

    EDIT: I read somewhere some distro's changed their default Apache2 install, is there an index.htm or index.html inside /var/www/ ? if so, try renaming it
    Code:
    mv /var/www/index.htm(l) /var/www/index2.htm(l)
     
  19. bgalfond

    bgalfond What's a Dremel?

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    HA! changed it to index2.html and now I have my tree listing index2.html and tf/

    I still have the parse error though, here is that code, and thanks again!

    Code:
    // ***************************************************************************
    // ***************************************************************************
    // DO NOT Edit below this line unless you know what you're doing.
    // ***************************************************************************
    // ***************************************************************************
    
    $cfg["pagetitle"] = "TorrentFlux";
    
    // TorrentFlux Version
    $cfg["version"] = "2.4";
    
    // CONSTANTS
    $cfg["constants"] = array();
    $cfg["constants"]["url_upload"] = "URL Upload";
    $cfg["constants"]["reset_owner"] = "Reset Owner";
    $cfg["constants"]["start_torrent"] = "Started Torrent";
    $cfg["constants"]["queued_torrent"] = "Queued Torrent";
    $cfg["constants"]["unqueued_torrent"] = "Removed from Queue";
    $cfg["constants"]["QManager"] = "QManager";
    $cfg["constants"]["access_denied"] = "ACCESS DENIED";
    $cfg["constants"]["delete_torrent"] = "Delete Torrent";
    $cfg["constants"]["fm_delete"] = "File Manager Delete";
    $cfg["constants"]["fm_download"] = "File Download";
    $cfg["constants"]["kill_torrent"] = "Kill Torrent";
    $cfg["constants"]["file_upload"] = "File Upload";
    $cfg["constants"]["error"] = "ERROR";
    $cfg["constants"]["hit"] = "HIT";
    $cfg["constants"]["update"] = "UPDATE";
    $cfg["constants"]["admin"] = "ADMIN";
    
    asort($cfg["constants"]);
    
    // Add file extensions here that you will allow to be uploaded
    $cfg["file_types_array"] = array("torrent");
    
    // Capture username
    $cfg["user"] = "";
    // Capture ip
    $cfg["ip"] = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
    
    ?>
     
  20. Timmy_the_tortoise

    Timmy_the_tortoise International Man of Awesome

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    I've got a couple of old PCs hanging about now.. Been thinking about possibly setting up a home server..

    I might check this out later when I have the time and money for a new "project". *bookmarked*
     
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