Hardware Open source alternatives to Windows Home Server

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/software/2012/07/19/replace-whs/1

 

On backup: I recommend something like CrashPlan instead, if you can install it for your chosen server. It has installers for Linux and Solaris, but not FreeBSD last time I checked; I run the Solaris version on Nexenta.

The advantage it has is that, when running on your PCs, it can back up to multiple destinations; I have mine configured to back up to both my Nexenta NAS and the cloud. So I get off-site backups as well as very high speed restores.

 

There is one thing blatantly missing from this article - backing up your home server!

(In before Pookeyhead...)

All well and good putting your important files, backups and media on a home server, but if you don't backup the server, you are just moving the single point of failure from your PC to the home server.

Personally I use two...a Synology DS211j which backs up to a home built NAS via rsync (OpenMediaVault but used to use FreeNAS). The network backup options in Synology's DSM allows versioning and there are probably similar options available in the open source packages mentioned in the article.

You don't need another server to backup your home server, an external hard drive will do, but you must back it up or suffer the consequences.

 

For streaming, I have to say that you've really missed out on the best DLNA server out there, bar none.

Serviio is written in Java (but it's not that bad, honest), and supports most (if not all) streaming clients out there. It has built-in content recognition to sort your music, TV and movies correctly, including displaying covers and other fun DLNA features like resuming playback. But that's not the best part. It also has a built-in live transcoding system. So if you have a AVC High/AAC 7.1 video file, but your streaming box (TV, Xbox 360, HTiB, whatever you're connected to) doesn't support the format, Serviio will automatically transcode the file on-the-fly into a format that IS supported by your device. AppleTV won't play FLAC? Not a problem! X360 won't play VOB? Big deal!

Oh yeah, and thanks to the power of plugins and scripting, it'll also play streams from BBC's iPlayer (if you're in the UK), Youtube, and many many more. And while the DLNA service might be built in Java, all the transcoding and streaming is handled using FFMpeg, so it'll stay up to date and use all the features of your CPU.

Combine it with Transmission running in Daemon mode, and FlexGet to grab TV/Radio/Movies from RSS feeds, and you'll have no need of your TiVO anymore.

I'm running the above on a basic Ubuntu server in the basement (though it needs upgrading since I switched to HD), and while the interface for adding/changing hard-drives is very unintuitive (okay, it's LVM on the command-line) it's something that needs to be done so rarely it's a "set it and forget it" thing. One mountpoint exported over SMB, LVM handles the RAID (well, JBODing, but who's checking?) and you're set. Throw in an Apache install (just 'cause. It's not really needed at all) and you're set.

 

And for drive pooling, you can use Greyhole. There is a OpenMediaVault plugin (my experience was that some features worked and some were buggy in the UI) and it is already included in Amahi. That is if you need web GUI for pool configuration. If not, you can use any Linux distro.

 

^ This scenario is what I was referring to and you are probably right about it stretching the scope of the article although a health warning is still applicable.

With regard to important files, you are correct but I would of thought that when streaming media from the home server, would people keep the media on the PC, back it up to a home server then stream from the backup? Surely the inference is that the media is solely kept on the home server?

 

Please.

 

An article on backup best practice would be great, if only to stop Pookeyhead ranting in the forum that "RAID is not backup", it might save his keyboard...

 

thank you

i shall be using this - for setting up a home file server later on today !

 

Used FreeNAS back in the day then tried OpenMediaVault when it got released. Both superb but didn't give me the flexibility I needed. Luckily I've built up my Linux skills over the last few years to a fairly capable level so now use Ubuntu Server and Webmin for lights out management.

Backup my PC and the wifes laptop with RSYNC, Transmission handles the downloads and Plex Media Server installed on it for streaming media to my Android tablet and an Android 4 based TV set top box.

Great article though. Loving the inclusion of this kind of thing in Bit-Tech.

 

Great article. I'm about to get my hands on a couple of old PCs and might take a llook at turning one into a fileserver. Oh, and another yes to a backup article!

 

I'm still running a WHS1 Box - It's not perfect, remote access isn't working and I have had to run some disk checks once or twice but it's been goign for a feew years and does the critical stuff (backup and filesharing) fine.

I'll replace it at some point but it has to be the last place I want to start trying things out.

For the record it is running on a HP Proliant ML110 G4 with some critical folders getting a cloudy backup from keepvault.

 

Thanks for writing the guide, but each distro seams to be good at one specific thing where as Windows Home Server seems to do them all pretty well.

Also I would imagine that installing any of these operating systems would involve formatting my WHS software RAID drives which I don't think is possible any more for me as I have too much data now

 

That is pretty much what am i doing right now. I got fed up with WHS2011 inside ESXi giving me ocassional pauses in the DVB stream, Drivebender sometimes switching to read-only mode because WHS hammered it with the backup system etc. So after a bit of looking around i replaced ESXi with Ubuntu 12.04, installed Amahi on top of it (solves the DHCP, Samba shares and drive pooling part of equation), manually installed lates vanilla kernel + DVB drivers + MythTV and later i will add all the remaining services i need.

I was thinking about OpenMediaVault, but being based on Debian means it still uses archaic 2.6.x kernel which is unfortunately issue for the drivers for my DVB-C card, plus the Greyhole plugin was buggy. So i choose Ubuntu + Amahi.

Now only i have to manually move all the data drive by drive (mount ntfs drive, copy data to the pool, unmount the drive, delete ntfs partition, create ext4 partition, format ext4 partition, add drive to Amahi, add drive to greyhole pool, repeat) .

 

I would also be interested in a backup article, something I still need to get around to doing...

 

Excellent to see more material that I'm interested in coming onto the site Gareth. I've an old machine from work that's found it's way home that I'm looking to re-purpose as a file server, and move my raid card into there. It'd be nice if you were to do a how to in the same light that you (or your colleagues - I'm not sure without checking) have done with the scratch build PC.

Thanks for feeding my home-geeking.

 

I'm surprised Amahi didn't make it into the article, as it's the closest to a complete WHS open source replacement.

I'm not terribly knowledgeable with Linux but would love to see a how-to about putting together a complete WHS open source competitor.