[TriLUG] Your input on new build: Home File Server

[Scott Lambdin]

This reminds me of a question on which I have been sitting.  (poor question)

Word on the street is the distributions, being highly motivated to "work
right out of the download," will wimp down the OS so that it is more likely
to work.  I can't remember the specific nerfing that was shown to me on Red
Hat, unfortunately.

Is there a distribution that is known to not do that?  The Anti-Ubuntu?

--Scott


On 9/13/07, Don Jerman <djerman at pobox.com> wrote:
>
> On 9/13/07, Carl Crider <c.crider at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  Hey guys & gals. I am building a new file/media server at home over the
> > next week or so. [...]
>
> I built mine out of an old P4 gaming system - ripped out the expansion
> cards (except video) and put in a SATA adapter and a bunch of drives,
> and pushed up to a 500W power supply to handle the extra drives
>
> >  Questions are:
> >
> > >What distro would YOU use?
> > [[yeah, I know, standard lame question, but I kind of want to hack
> something
> > new right now]]
>
> I used Gentoo but just because I'm already maintaining a laptop and
> desktop running it.  I'm considering Ubuntu because Gentoo gets a
> little brittle if you let it go several months without an update, but
> it runs fairly well, and so long as I sync and update every month or
> so I generally have no trouble.  I'm not so sure that other distros
> wouldn't have the same problem, but binary distros do scratch installs
> faster.
>
> > >I do use DynDNS for another box, software & hardware firewall, but
> would
> > you feel safe with
> > your personal file server on the web?
>
> Depends - is it your "hardest" box?  Can you harden it without
> compromising the core mission (serving media)?  Then why not?  If
> you're letting folks onto your net and they get through your best
> hardening job, they'll get the rest of your network if they want to.
> But chances are all those streaming services are going to make this a
> softer target than your desktop, for instance, needs to be.
>
> > >Best thing to use to catalog my files, database-wise? [500GB]
>
> I just use JFS :)  At the moment I'm using Galleon with our Tivos, so
> it keeps a searchable custom db.  Setting up MythTV this weekend so
> I'll be watching this space.
>
> > >Anything else that you would add to your media server project?
>
> I'll probably pop a tuner card in for a MythTV slave backend since the
> system is mostly idle (or maybe I'll put the primary there after I
> know what I'm doing).  I run Galleon, you might want to if you have
> tivo.  Samba and ssh of course.
>
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Carl
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