Linux Comparison between ubunut and clarkconnect as a linux home server

First of all, this is not a review of either Clarkconnect, or a guide on how to set up either, but more of a comparison between 2 options for a linux home server. It will go over some configuration steps, but if you want full guides, especially for the Ubuntu home server, you can refer to the bit-tech guide on it. This doesn’t have any comparison to windows home server for one reason, I don’t have access to it. And it doesn’t have a comparison with nas devices either, as they are aimed at a completely different market, and have totally different feature sets, so it wouldn’t be a fair comparison.

Clarkconnect as the os

First of all, the specifications of the test machine, it is an Athlon xp 2500, with 512mb ram, and a 120gb sata drive. This is still a fairly high spec machine as a cast off, still old enough to be able to be sourced relatively cheaply. I will also try to install it on a Celeron 600mhz system with 192mb ram, but this will be using Debian, and done using the command line, but more about that shortly. It is more than possible to get a system as fast as or faster than this now days, cheaply, so there is not much point in using a much slower system. However for this I will use that just as it’s what I have lying round, and is a good indication of a low end machine.

The installation of Clarkconnect was quick, with no options requiring any previous Linux knowledge. IT is worth paying attention to what you want installed here, as if you select these options now it will save installing it later. As default it does not install an admin account, and you log on as root first time round. It also asks at this stage if you want it to function as just a server or gateway as well. For these purposes we will just use it as a server, but whether or not you are using it as a server or gateway will affect your choice of operating system.

Some quick speed tests

2 mins 40 secs to copy 1.35 gig to drive on laptop 8.4MB/s
4 mins 10 secs to copy same 1.35 gig back 5.4MB/s
5mins 18 secs to copy same 1.35 gig back to desktop 4.24MB/s
5mins 2 secs to copy that same 1.35 gig back to cc from desktop 4.47MB/s

Anything involving Linux writes were around 5MB/s, which makes me suspect something is up with the writing in Linux, or the caching in vista. This was just using the home share which was simply a matter of starting the samba server and creating a user. Note that to access these shares, you need to logon using your Clarkconnect username.

I told cc to install apache and mysql during the initial installation, so it was simply a matter of starting these services, and adding them to the boot up services. This was all done through the webui, which is really well laid out, and should not be a challenge to anyone used to configuring home networking equipment. I decided to install gallery2, something that might commonly be used in a home server environment. As there is no way to do this from the web interface, you are going to need to do this from the command line interface (cli). This is where Clarkconnect could come into its own, simply give it a zipped file, and have it extract it in it’s the web server directory.

The configuration also went smoothly; with only one bit of unguided command line use required (changing the php memory limit to 16mb). All the rest of the cli commands were stated on the configuration pages, so minimal cli experience was required here.

I tried to install mpd (music player daemon) to see just how hard it was to setup a program obviously not intended to run on Clarkconnect, to see how easy it was going to be to install and get working. For this I was only going to use the package manager, with its default repositories, rather than resorting to installing it from source if that failed. The reasoning behind this is simple, most people who are new to Linux won’t want to / be able to install software from source. The result was mpd was not in the repositories, hence I didn’t install it. This could be got around by changing the repositories, or using a .rpm file.

Ubuntu as the os

Installation involved booting into a live c.d., and then installing from within a gui, so will be a lot more familiar to people who have installed windows before. Loading the live c.d. is quite slow however, and at times there is quite a wait for the installer to do its thing, but other than that is it fairly responsive. However it still has its qui with its clever effects, which may dramatically slow down a slower system. This can be got around using the server version, which also gives you the full choice of packages to install, so is probably the preferable way of installing the system.
Ubuntu first installs just a base system, with a gui, (and with compiz fusion installed as default. In the desktop install, just chewing up resources in a server), and from then you install the packages that you want (in our case just samba, php, mysql and apache2), all of which is done using the synaptic manager, which is straight forward to use. As this is just a server, it is worth turning off the graphical effects, which will save a fair few cpu cycles. Just as an interesting point here, I ran both configurations off a power check meter, and the difference in power use was minimal between the two (albeit on a system that is not overly energy efficient), and both used approximately 80watts/hour of energy. The initial installation of Ubuntu did not take much longer than Clarkconnect did, but it did take a lot more configuring, (Clarkconnect is essentially setup when it is installed). But then again, the Ubuntu system will be a lot more flexible.

As Ubuntu is a fully fledged operating system, there is quite a bit that can be done to strip it down (providing you install the standard desktop os, if you install the server version, it is already stripped back, which is what will be installed on the lower spec system). Turning off x-windows will be of great help on systems that are struggling, but this shouldn’t be necessary on most semi-modern systems.

First to give it a web interface for its configuration, we will use the webmin package. As this is not in the repositories, we will download the .deb package and install it form that. This gives you the ability to run the server in headless mode, without a keyboard or mouse connected, and still be able to make changes to the system. This is where the package managers come into their own, as they will sort out all your dependencies, and install your program, without having to resort to the cli, so people who are used to windows shouldn’t be as daunted by the changes.
Now for the configuration, simply point your browser at serverip:10000, and you will be presented with a familiar web interface. This web interface is not as good looking as the Clarkconnect, and it may initially be daunting, with so many choices, but it is well structured, so shouldn’t be too hard to get your head around. And the benefit of webmin is almost all aspects you’re server can be controlled from it. It also uses its accounts from the Ubuntu’s systems accounts, so you can log in with your normal Ubuntu username and password. If you go to use a module in webmin, and it is not configured, and it determines that it is not installed, it can install it automatically for you.

An interesting point for those who end up using the command line interface is there is no root account as such, but you use sudo command, or sudo –i to go into root mode. Another thing I found is the synaptic manager is able to reinstall packages, if you end up wrecking a config file, or what-ever, and want the easy way out.

First up I created a share to see how easily this could be achieved. This was quite simply a matter of bringing the Ubuntu user to be a samba user, and then creating a share. This was all done in webmin, but I must admit, it was a bit easier in Clarkconnect. One of the major benefits of using a samba server is access controls, so I made the home shares available, and a public share. The public share is for anyone to gain access to, without needing a password.

After this, we installed the same web app as on the Clarkconnect system. One of the benefits of the gui is the ability to use Firefox etc to download files, it just makes things that little bit easier. With installing it, it is the same as Clarkconnect, no easier, but no harder.

One of the benefits of Ubuntu is a lot more software will run on it without much hassle, for most it is just a matter of selecting the package in the package manager. Due to this, installing mpd was no hassle, and just required installing a suitable interface. This could be something like sonata on another Linux system, or a web interface. For me, as I already use mpd, it was simply a matter of directing my sonata client to the server.

On the low spec system, I used the Ubuntu server edition, just as it is so much lighter, and I was sceptical that the fully fledged desktop would run on it. The install is now just a text based installer, and all work is done through the cli. This makes things quite a bit harder from the start, but is not too difficult if you take your time, and use Google a bit. After downloading the webmin package, with wget, try to install it, fix the dependencies (with apt-get install package names) and then install webmin again. Now you can use webmin or apt-get to install other packages that are required. This time I installed torrent flux instead of gallery, just as its one I’ve had problems with in the past. To do this, there is quite a bit more fiddling, (requiring you to build the transmission client, and that causes problems as on the default install no build tools or ssl headers are included). But after installing the correct packages it ran fine. On this system, creating the shares were the same as on the other Ubuntu system, so I won’t detail that.

As well as this, any programs that run on Ubuntu will run on this (well, non-gui ones, but that’s to be expected). This means server side apps like mpd will easily run on it. The other benefit of this (well on my system) was power consumption, it was reading (on a cheap power consumption meter, not sure of its accuracy), 30 watts continuously. This is compared to 80ish on the higher spec machine, which will add up to quite a saving over the year.

Which setup would I choose? IT all depends on what hardware you have available (or a willing to buy), and what Linux environment you are happy with (be it the qui or cli, and pre-configured or not). For most of this, Ubuntu can be replaced with your preferred distribution. But purely as ease of setup, just for a server, with mainly web apps running, I would recommend Clarkconnect. However, if you were wanting to run a few server side applications, (say, mpd, or mythtv backend), I would have to recommend a more general purpose distribution (Ubuntu in our case). And as for running it without a gui, it is not as daunting as it seems, and most people with a good knowledge of computers should be able to do it. It also has the benefit of running nicely on itx spec systems, which in the way of power consumption is good for the environment (and the wallet when the power bill comes). Although I would have liked to look at fedora with amahi installed, I was unable to get my hands on amahi, so was unable to do that.

 

im sorry to say this but something needs to be done with the formatting its too hard to read

 

I got to the second sentence before my eyes started to bleed.

 

QFT

I'll make my little comparison:

Ubuntu: Bloated but flexible
Clarcconnect: Limited but easy

 

That should be easier to read now, I forgot to check to see how it looks after copying from word.

And essentially, yes.

 

Another option www.Amahi.org

For a full featured Home Server -- take a look at www.amahi.org -- they have done all the config work so you can get alot of functionality with little work!

Currently it is based on Fedora 8, but the team at Amahi says they are looking at an Ubuntu version.

Let them know your opinion!