Spare box - What to do with it?

J

jnick

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I have an old Dell Dimension 8250. I believe the specs are P4 2.0 HT, 768mb RD-RAM, 2 Optical Drives, and I have a slew of HDD from 80GB to 120GB (all IDE though).

No matter what, the machine has to be set up as I'm working with Fedora in one of my networking classes and don't feel like screwing up my main gaming rig (first time using Linux). So I'll use the Dell to experiment with.

since I have to set it up, I was really thinking about turning it into a server of some sort. However, I'm not really sure exactly what to do with it :-/. It's only me and my dad on my home network, so it's not like we need a server. However, it would be cool if my family could access files remotely. I mainly just want to experiment with having a server, and Linux at the same time.

Some ideas I had were a Print Server, File Server, Ventrilo Server and/or a backup server (store backups of our main machines). However, would the Dell be able to handle all of that? There wouldn't be a lot of traffic at all. Like I said, there's only two of us. As for family hitting up the FTP, it would be tops, 3 other PCs.

Ventrilo would have to be a must as we use it practically every night with total of 4 clients on at once (2 of the 4 are within my home network).

My current home connection is 10mbps down and about 750kbps up. Is that too slow for what I want? The FTP wouldn't be used for huge files. Mainly pictures, utilities, game patches, etc. Also, at first, I wouldn't expect it to be used much (FTP). Though it would prove to be a great tool when I have to trouble shoot my family's comps and need utilities.

Any help is appreciated!
 
Sounds like you've got some good ideas already. If you're worried about screwing up your gaming rig, and playing with Linux, I would just install VMware and create virtual machines so you can destroy at-will if/when you do screw them up.

VMware Server is a free product.
 
+1 for VMWare.

Alternatively, you could make use of a spare IDE hard drive, install that in the case, and manually swap the IDE cable position from one hard drive to another to "change" which OS you use ... But the VMWare idea is the preferable option IMO.
 
Depending out how your rig is setup you may not even need to change the cable. You can always change the boot drive in the BIOS when you restart.
 
There would be no need to use VMWare if I was putting linux on the spare dell, would there be? I wouldn't care if it screwed anything up as, well, the dell is simply sitting in the garage right now, not even hooked up. So it's not housing anything important.

Fedora Core 5 and RHEL came with my text, so I already have that in house as well.

Also, I'm not really understanding ClarkConnect or Pfsense. Are they server which run under Fedora? Also, whats the benefit of having clarkconnect which is an "All-in-One" type of deal, instead of using multiple services on fedora? (sounds confusing; if you need me to clarify let me know.)

Would that one spare box (and my connection) be able to handle, say a Ventrilo server, file server, print server, and backup server?

Finally, what is the benefit of having a mail server? What would it provide that I'm not getting from RoadRunner? Larger storage capacity?

Sorry for the "newbness", but we all have to start somewhere :p.
 
VMware would allow you to run a linux system on top of your Windows box .. VMware is like "virtual hardware." You install vmware on Windows, and then you create computers underneath it .... it's pretty sweet, give it a try, seriously. You'll fall in love once you realize how easy it is to create, destroy, and back up machines.
 
But my question is, should I do this on the Dell box? The point being, I already have Fedora and RHEL on CD and I have a spare box to mess with. I could understand using VMWare on my gaming rig this way I can't mess my windows install up. However, whats the point if I have a completely usable system for Linux (Dell)? Or are you suggesting that I install windows on the Dell and use VMWare on the Dell machine?

Or am I missing the point?
 
Rakinos said:
Some PfSense action?

www.pfsense.org
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, however I already have the DLink 4100. While it would only help to add another firewall on top of my current setup, I'd much rather use the PC as a sort of "Data Center"; a very minimal one at that.

I'm just completely unsure if the Dell will offer enough horse power to run all I want it to. Or would I need more than 2 HDD and have to go with a SATA setup? Which would require I sell stuff and buy new components for s server build (budget is a huge factor, so it'd be mostly low end stuff (single core P$ or AMD64, 1GB RAM, No sound, cheap ass/onboard video with simply a lot of storage space.)

The more suggestions/input the better. I'm a total virgin at creating a physical dedicated server.

Thanks ;)
 
To answer your question, yes.

That hardware should be more than capabile of running a voice com server, print server, file server, and doing your network backups.

Granted thats speaking in all windows. I would be willing to guess you could do it all in linux as well provided all the needed drivers and applications exist.

Im sure the others can answer your linux questions better than I can.. But, beware you might be playing with it today and tomorrow it's more critical than you thought...

Enjoy
AMDbuilder
 
I was running my file server on a Dell SC420 Poweredge. It was a Celeron based system with 512mb memory. It ran fine with the 8x 320g drives in there via multilane sata and software raid 0. This file server was also running Teamspeak and some other services such as G6 FTP Server and backup software. Never had any issues with it.

I've since upgraded the machine to a full P4 box and linux based fileserver running VMWare Server (its free now) for some virtual machines to play with so the Dell is now sitting in the "to be used as beater box pile". :)

I don't think you will have any issues with the Dell you have and the services you want to run.
 
My vote for a spare server goes to an asterisk box :)

Pick up two $50 SIP phones, s hipped, and you are set.

I am setting this up now (server @ colocation) for me & my wife so when I go there (Brazil) in april I can drop a sip phone there she or her mom can pick up a "normal" phone and dial an extension and ring me here in the US.

We have spent about $500 on phonecards so far!!!

Rob
 
Thanks for the information guys!

I have another questions and a problem which I'm looking for a solution :).

Q: The only issue I see with the Dell is that it uses IDE HDD. This means I can only have 2 HDD in the machine. Like I said, I won't be hosting large files at all. Mostly game patches, pictures, documents, etc. Will being limited to 2 drives be an issue? I have a shit load of IDE drives, except the highest capacity is 120GB. Will 2x 120GB suffice - for now? Are there any add-on cards I can use to connect more IDE drives without moving to external? Or would I need to replace the system for SATA (if I wanted more drives?)

Problem: To keep it simple - Keyboard. Video. Mouse.

Actually, the problem isn't getting those devices - it's where to put them. I have plenty of KB and Mice I can use, plus I wouldn't mind buying a 17" LCD. However, my issue is where the hell can I put it? The server is going in a custom cabinet we built. However, the cabinet won't fit a monitor )would kt K&M though). Therefore I was wondering about Remotely controlling the machine . . .? Is it practical to control the server through VNC? Granted I would always have to have the VNC service running, however I don't thikn that would be much of an issue. The only concern I'd have is how much network lag would there be in controlling the server? I frequently VNC my cousins PC for troubleshooting and maintenance. Even though we're both on C2D machines, the network lag is pretty bad. Granted I know now I'm talking about LAN speeds and not WAN; I'd still assume I'd take a hit?

The only other option I'd have for KVM is . . . well, a KVM switch. The issue I see though is my KB is a Logitech G15 and my mouse is a Razer Copperhead both USB requiring software for profiles etc. If I use a KVM, I'm worried that the configurations I have set on my machine will get screwed up due to the KVM and the lack of a direct connection of the KB&M.

So, with all of that whining out of the way, what do some of you veteran server admins use for KVM? Do you give the server it's own kb, mouse and monitor? Use a KVM switch? Or control it remotely?

Your advice is appreciated!

Thanks for the help!
 
jnick said:
Will being limited to 2 drives be an issue? I have a shit load of IDE drives, except the highest capacity is 120GB. Will 2x 120GB suffice - for now? Are there any add-on cards I can use to connect more IDE drives without moving to external? Or would I need to replace the system for SATA (if I wanted more drives?)
Click to expand...

i tried a bunch of cheap cards and adapters and other things and nothing works well. go with the two drives for now and if you end up needing more room, save your pennies for a 3ware controller. once you get a good controller, you can monkey with the drives (one at a time) as needed and as you phase out or otherwise acquire new drives.

the kewl thing about linux (all unix for that matter) is that you can mount a partition anywhere on the file system and the rest of the OS doesn't know or care that it's a folder, a whole new partition, or even a network drive. 120gb is plenty of space for most linux installs... even with a ton of packages and every ounce of GUI madness your OS should require significantly less than 20gb of space.

since you can run a unix system on a whole series of disks and partitions you can dedicate space to different things, like 60gb to /var (where a lot of spooling and serving takes place) or 120gb to /home (the user directories).

jnick said:
Is it practical to control the server through VNC?
Click to expand...

for administration of a GUI, VNC is perfect. but linux doesn't need a gui to run. you can do pretty much all administration thru SSH, bash, and a simple text editor like pico or nano.

another remote administration tool is webmin (http://www.webmin.com) which is a web based administration console... like your Dlink firewall on steroids. in fact, webmin predates all that stuff by like 5 years.

you will need a keyboard mouse and monitor to build the machine, and you'll need to turn off all the keyboard errors in the bios, but once it's built it's nothing to run a unix server "headless" in the corner. i have seen $100,000 unix servers that ship with no keyboard or VGA ports... just a serial port for a terminal.

jnick said:
The only concern I'd have is how much network lag would there be in controlling the server?
Click to expand...

VNC is NOT a substitute for the console unless you are connecting at 100mbit or more. most VNC servers are designed for low bandwidth connections and some versions have cool compression features... but at the end of the day it's still not meant to be a substitute for the console. also, VNC on linux is multi user (something like term server for windows) and spawns it's own Xserver session for each connection (depending on how you set it up)... it's like running two GUI's at the same time (the local and the remote) so your system performance might suffer.

if all you are doing is server type stuff then stick with SSH and webmin and don't worry about a gui or VNC. GUI take up disc space, ram, and CPU time that could be better used for serving.
 
And about the 2 hd issue, after the initial setup, you wouldn't need both cd drives in there. Hell you wouldn't even need one. Buy a usb to ide cable and use that for the cd drive when you need it, and place 4 hds in the server. Also, you could go with an ide controller card, pci for 4 more drives. Some are selling for like 15 bucks over in the FS board. You could also do a sata controller instead, but you already have the pata drives...
 
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