Need help replaceing "windows home server"

Hi all,

I had a trial of WHS but its going to run out by the end of January. I am really happy with the software but the 170 something price tag isn't something I'm willing to pay.

so i was wondering what would be a good free solution to replace most of the funtionaltiy



here are the items i would like to keep

1) i can upload and download files from my server over the web (https)
(i realize i will probably have to pay for some sort of hosting or something but i can deal with a couple bucks a month for this)

2)individual logins to the server to restrict certain files to certain people
(i would imagine this is pretty standard)

3) "drive pooling" software raid
(this is what orginaly sold me on WHS any info is guaranteed to be on at least 2 hdd at any point in time but you don't get to pick. the advantage is you get a little more bang for you buck in terms of storage compared to a raid 1

4) can run headless
(again this should be no big deal)


any suggestions of which os and or what software to run would be a big help

1)Apache is the #1 web server, and it also happens to be open source and native to Linux. For uploading, I don't know if that can be done over http, but for FTP there are a ton of servers, one you might have used in windows was Filezilla? I believe it has a linux client/server. But there are tons of solutions just search and pick the one with the features you want.
Also just sign up at opendns.org or no-ip.org and get your self a free redirecting domain, and then you don't have to rent webspace, it will auto redirect to your server at your home.

2)If you though Windows had control over users, you can set any user to any limits you want. Simply because there is a group for everything, and only users in that group can use those things. There is a X group (or seeing desktop), sound group, http group, and any gentoo user knows about the games group. (Its a common mistake when setting up gentoo to forgot to include your user in the games group and then when you go to play games, they simple will not load)

3)Hmm, I'll have to look into this, but I know there is software raid on Linux, so your ok.

4)I don't think this can be. Thats a windows only feature.
j/k


I'm assuming you've never run GNU/Linux before? If not then go download the latest Ubuntu CD and pop it in your cd drive, reboot and play around with the live cd. Also try out Kubuntu as it has a different desktop interface. When your done with that, then I suggest you take time and read some literature.

I normally would not recommend Ubuntu as a server, as Ubuntu has a lot more stuff for the desktop, and its just a little more bloated than making a custom setup with Debian, but if you've never used Linux Ubuntu has a lot of plug and play, and auto configure, and GUI configuration tools that help with the transition from windows. Eventually you'll get over it and you'll want a sleeker faster distro. Then I recommend Debian...or if your really adventures after you've played with Debain go for Gentoo (Gentoo is a source based distro, meaning that your computer compiles every piece of software, that way its the most custom for your setup, but as you can imagine its time consuming and if you make a mistake..).

unRAID.

The only immediate issue is the remote access. This could probably easily be solved with some additional configuration or an additional server that has access to the NAS shares. Everything else is covered though.

EDIT:

There are instructions available for getting Apache running on unRAID using Slackware packages, so it shouldn't be an issue. Other modifications are available in their forums as well.

Awsome

Awsome

thanks guys

i use ssh for uploading/downloading files from my gentoo box. i just use ssh secure shell for that and it works great. of course, that is when i am using a windows machine to upload/download the files.

i am not 100% sure that is what you are asking for. i'd imagine that there are php interfaces that would do similar things with file management. i know that webmin has an interface for uploading/downloading files from a linux box.

i personally have never tried to use raid in linux so i can't help out with that at all...

Gentoo Linux with Software RAID and LVM2 Guide

you may not want to install Gentoo (i don't know why you wouldn't, it's awesome ), but that will at least let you know that there is a software raid solution available for linux, which you can then use in any other distro (like ubuntu). Ubuntu might even have an option for LVM2 in their advanced install options.

if i was doing this (and I do), i'd install Gentoo (if you like to compile) or Debian (if you want binary packages) minimal install. Then install Apache, PHP, OpenSSH, and whatever else you desire.

Apache + PHP will give you all the web stuff, and you can probably find a neat-o free PHP based file utility floating around the net to let you upload and download easily.

OpenSSH will give you headless control of your box. it will give you a command line to do maintenance and it will give you SFTP so you can securely transfer files as if you were using regular FTP (most modern ftp programs come with sftp support, like filezilla).

LVM is something you probably want to look into. I use it on my Linux file server and it just lumps a bunch of drives into one big one. You want to mirror data, which I'm not doing right now, although I'd like to maybe eventually.

Obviously you can set your Linux box up so that it has ftp access to upload/download from anywhere. Personally, I won't do this as I consider it a security vulnerability and keep all ports locked down, but it should be doable (I don't use an orange subnet, I keep the fileserver on the green subnet, I consider use of an orange too risky for private data).

Samba is the program that will allow your box to act as a server that can be accessed by Windows and Linux. I do not restrict access to the data on the fileserver as only people in my house have access, and I trust them all. It's quite secure from the outside world though. Samba definitely can has this functionality, I just never bothered as it was just an annoyance (and would have taken more time to set up).

Mine runs headless too.

Current uptime (since last power outage):

" ~ # uptime
17:44:28 up 32 days, 8:26, 1 user, load average: 1.10, 1.09, 1.05"

Uptime Looks like you need to buy a APC MRD.

Crash893, You may want to look into Windows Services for UNIX.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...88-601b-44f1-81a4-02878ff11778&DisplayLang=en

We run this at work. It's a free component for Windows that allows you to share files between UNIX and Windows. We run it on a couple of Windows 2003 servers but apparently it works on Windows XP as well. And it's free.

Ebola said:

Uptime Looks like you need to buy a APC MRD.

Crash893, You may want to look into Windows Services for UNIX.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...88-601b-44f1-81a4-02878ff11778&DisplayLang=en

We run this at work. It's a free component for Windows that allows you to share files between UNIX and Windows. We run it on a couple of Windows 2003 servers but apparently it works on Windows XP as well. And it's free.

Click to expand...

Samba is free (and open source) too. Does the same thing just Linux files for windows.

Yeah, I'd have years of uptime on my file server if it were not for power outtages.

I am in a similar situation I have a WHS server, but I am not happy with it.

I have looked at unraid and while a neat idea, I don't want to pay to license basic samba functionality.

Ububtu server or debain will be my choice. I am going to run a raid array instead of JBOD, I like the redundancy of raid much better than the duplication WHS employs. For web access apache, or you could do a smoothwall VPN box and get a good firewall out of the deal as well.

I don't know that there is a way to replace the window backup features of WHS, but at least you wont get horrible, horrible transfer rates

backups with cron and rsync. very easy.

For web access apache, or you could do a smoothwall VPN box and get a good firewall out of the deal as well.

Click to expand...

Bad, bad, BAD idea... never mix anything else with a hardware firewall. It completely compromises the security of the firewall box. A firewall box shouldn't run anything else but the firewall if you want any kind of real security.

You would be much more secure with a Linksys router as your hardware firewall than a Smoothwall box that's running a file server and other stuff on it.