What OS for a file server?

[Astray]

I'm planning on grabbing one of our old dells from work and turning the thing into a file server, the basic specs of these coputers are around 1-1.5 ghz with 256b of ram with a celeron/pentium3.

I was thinking about using gentoo, just so I can keep the install footprint as small as possible and leave the rest for space...

Any ideas?

 

[Brazen]

Fedora is my fedavorite.

 

[nweaver]

debian has a small footprint, is easier to install and get running, quicker/easier to keep up to date.

I used to use gentoo, but found Debian to suit my needs better. Waiting 20 mins for my app to compile is annoying (and that's if it's a small app). Using stable, I can even script updates, have it email with what updates it's going to perfom (in case I want to stop it) a day before auto updating (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade). Upgrades are more reliable/easier then emerge -u world (something almost always breaks)

 

[sigs3gv]

FreeBSD or Slackware

 

[Nothinman]

Debian.

Gentoo is a huge waste of time IMO.

I used to use gentoo, but found Debian to suit my needs better. Waiting 20 mins for my app to compile is annoying (and that's if it's a small app). Using stable, I can even script updates, have it email with what updates it's going to perfom (in case I want to stop it) a day before auto updating (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade). Upgrades are more reliable/easier then emerge -u world (something almost always breaks)

Or you could just install apticron instead of reinventing that wheel =)

 

[dnuggett]

Are you set on Linux? If not see if you can't grab an old copy of 2000 Server. I'm assuming 03 would be a bit much $ wise for your purposes.

 

[skyking]

it depends on what you are comfortable with. I am learning the ins and outs of debian, but I have years of experience with freebsd. I'd burn the #1 iso of 6.0 stable, do a developer install, enable inetd and add the ports collection.
cd to /etc/ssh, and enable built in password authentication in sshd_config

cd to /usr/ports/net/samba3
make install && make clean

cd /etc/ and edit inetd.conf to enable samba startup

edit /usr/local/etc/smb.conf.default to taste, and rename it smb.conf

reboot

done

But hey, that's me

 

[oog]

Originally posted by: nweaver
debian has a small footprint, is easier to install and get running, quicker/easier to keep up to date.

I used to use gentoo, but found Debian to suit my needs better. Waiting 20 mins for my app to compile is annoying (and that's if it's a small app). Using stable, I can even script updates, have it email with what updates it's going to perfom (in case I want to stop it) a day before auto updating (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade). Upgrades are more reliable/easier then emerge -u world (something almost always breaks)

I agree that debian would have a smaller footprint than gentoo. Gentoo was the first Linux distro that I really started using consistency, but I find it big for something like a basic fileserver because it includes all of the compilation tools. A minimal installation was bigger than the equivalent Debian installation for me.

On the other hand, I never had trouble with emerge -u world breaking things. I'm not sure why other people would.

 

[SleepWalkerX]

Probably Debian.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: oog

Originally posted by: nweaver
debian has a small footprint, is easier to install and get running, quicker/easier to keep up to date.

I used to use gentoo, but found Debian to suit my needs better. Waiting 20 mins for my app to compile is annoying (and that's if it's a small app). Using stable, I can even script updates, have it email with what updates it's going to perfom (in case I want to stop it) a day before auto updating (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade). Upgrades are more reliable/easier then emerge -u world (something almost always breaks)

I agree that debian would have a smaller footprint than gentoo. Gentoo was the first Linux distro that I really started using consistency, but I find it big for something like a basic fileserver because it includes all of the compilation tools. A minimal installation was bigger than the equivalent Debian installation for me.

On the other hand, I never had trouble with emerge -u world breaking things. I'm not sure why other people would.

I had it happen a time or two, usually in packages being masked/conflicting. This mostly happened if I neglected the box for a month or more without updating.

 

[Rilex]

What OSes would interact with this server? If Windows, I would go Windows 2003. You get VSS and Access-Based Directory Enumeration which is quite nice (hides directories in shares users don't have access to).

If you get 2003 R2, then throw in a bunch of reporting tools that are quite nice...And (finally), share-level quotas (versus volume level in 2003/2000).

 

[skyking]

hides directories in shares users don't have access to

Samba does that.

And (finally), share-level quotas (versus volume level in 2003/2000).

Samba does that too.

http://developer.apple.com/documentatio...erence/ManPages/man1/smbcquotas.1.html

Samba does all that, interacts with windows and mac users, and is free.

 

[scottish144]

One of the BSDs

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: nweaver
debian has a small footprint, is easier to install and get running, quicker/easier to keep up to date.

I used to use gentoo, but found Debian to suit my needs better. Waiting 20 mins for my app to compile is annoying (and that's if it's a small app). Using stable, I can even script updates, have it email with what updates it's going to perfom (in case I want to stop it) a day before auto updating (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade). Upgrades are more reliable/easier then emerge -u world (something almost always breaks)

What small application takes 20 minutes to compile on a relatively recent machine?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: skyking
it depends on what you are comfortable with. I am learning the ins and outs of debian, but I have years of experience with freebsd. I'd burn the #1 iso of 6.0 stable, do a developer install, enable inetd and add the ports collection.
cd to /etc/ssh, and enable built in password authentication in sshd_config

cd to /usr/ports/net/samba3
make install && make clean

cd /etc/ and edit inetd.conf to enable samba startup

edit /usr/local/etc/smb.conf.default to taste, and rename it smb.conf

reboot

done

But hey, that's me

Samba runs in inetd on FreeBSD?

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: nweaver
debian has a small footprint, is easier to install and get running, quicker/easier to keep up to date.

I used to use gentoo, but found Debian to suit my needs better. Waiting 20 mins for my app to compile is annoying (and that's if it's a small app). Using stable, I can even script updates, have it email with what updates it's going to perfom (in case I want to stop it) a day before auto updating (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade). Upgrades are more reliable/easier then emerge -u world (something almost always breaks)

What small application takes 20 minutes to compile on a relatively recent machine?

realize, I was using an older laptop when I was using Gentoo...It took OO 3 days to compile, it took tcpdump over an hour, proftpd.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: nweaver

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: nweaver
debian has a small footprint, is easier to install and get running, quicker/easier to keep up to date.

I used to use gentoo, but found Debian to suit my needs better. Waiting 20 mins for my app to compile is annoying (and that's if it's a small app). Using stable, I can even script updates, have it email with what updates it's going to perfom (in case I want to stop it) a day before auto updating (apt-get update && apt-get upgrade). Upgrades are more reliable/easier then emerge -u world (something almost always breaks)

What small application takes 20 minutes to compile on a relatively recent machine?

realize, I was using an older laptop when I was using Gentoo...It took OO 3 days to compile, it took tcpdump over an hour, proftpd.

None of which would be considered a small application. OO alone is a metric buttload of code. Maybe it's gentoo, I don't think tcpdump took that long on my sparcstation 10.

 

[Nothinman]

Samba runs in inetd on FreeBSD?

Samba can run in inetd on any system, it's just not the recommended way to run it.

 

[hooflung]

I would do ubuntu or debian sarge. No reason to go with a DIYS distro like gentoo for a straight forward purpose.