"Jamie Calder" <jcalder3@cfl.rr.com> wrote:
> I realize there's a bunch of computer nuts here so this is where I'm
> starting my research.
>
> Right now we have 4 computers wirelessly networked, 2 for my wife business,
> my laptop and the kids computer.
>
> I would like get another one (or 2 depending how we go about this) and use
> one with Media Center in our living room on our HDTV. I'd also want a better
> backup solution, perhaps a raid setup. What's a good setup for our use?
>
> Have one server with raid with all our files on it (personal and business)
> networked with the Media Center computer, our office computers, and personal
> computers?
>
> Or can one of these computers be also used as the server (Media Center
> computer with raid as the server)
>
> What is Windows Home Server? Is this a server that needs an operating
> system installed on it, an operating system in itself or just a computer
> that holds files (no OS)?
>
> Thanks for any advise!
>
> James
>
>
As you have no doubt noticed, there are about as many ways to
answer this question as there are people to answer it. :-) Ultimately
it will come down to your own needs, capabilities, and budget. As far
as using the same system for the media center and backups, it is
certainly possible, but something to consider is that a system with a
lot of drives is going to need some decent cooling too, and chances
are it is not going to be quiet, which might be a problem if you are
trying to enjoy a movie with the server buzzing away in the corner.
A backup system requires much less horsepower than a multimedia
system, which you can either look at as a good reason to separate the
two and recycle an old PC for the backup duties, or you could argue
that since the backup requirements are low, a system that can handle
multimedia should be able to take on the backup tasks without breaking
a sweat.
As far as a backup server goes, the best location is off-site so
that in a catastrophe, your data is not lost with everything else.
This is not always an option however, especially for home users.
(Although I believe there are services that allow you to upload large
amounts of data, so something could no doubt be done along those
lines.) Another problem with this in a residential setting is the
slow upstream data rate of most bandwidth providers. (It can take a
LONG time to get the data out of your house and to the off-site
location if you have a bandwidth provider who is stingy with the
upstream.)
Some of the benefits of an "offsite" backup can sometimes be
achieved without leaving your property. For example, if you have a
detached garage or even a garden shed a sufficient distance away from
the house, perhaps you could put the backup server out there. That
way, if the house burns down, hopefully your data will survive. (You
will want to be aware of environmental conditions though; if you are
putting the server in a tin shed in Louisiana, don't expect it to last
very long. :-) The basement can be a good place for a backup server
because it is usually cool year round, and any noise from the cooling
fans and such will be muffled. If you have some sort of root cellar
or bomb shelter, or are willing to do some construction, it may be
possible to create an alcove for the server which would protect it in
the event of a fire. (Don't forget that it must not only be protected
from heat and be able to support the weight of the house falling on
it, but it must also be waterproof for when the fire department
arrives.) If you live in an area where flooding may be a problem,
then perhaps the basement isn't such a good idea, and the second story
starts looking like a viable alternative. (The attic will probably be
too hot in the summer.) Even if you can't do an off-site backup of
some type, any backup solution at all is still better than nothing,
and as you can see, there are steps you can take to mitigate the
problems that arise with on-site backup.
Because you don't have a lot of systems to back up, wireless would
be fine; wireless G adapters at 54Mbps are fairly ubiquitous these
days.
Since we all seem to be sharing, :-) this is what I currently have
setup for backups at home: I have about 12 computers in various roles
from servers to desktop machines which have backups performed on them
on a regular basis, and 3-4 more which are used less frequently or are
not always connected to the network so backups on them are done on
more of a "when I feel like it" basis. What I did was to buy a server
with a roomy case on ebay. It was a model I had experience with at a
previous sys-admin job so I was reasonably confident it would work for
me. I only paid about $100 for it, which got me a nice big case (6
hard drive drawers built in, with plenty of room for me to fabricate
more inside the case), and dual redundnant 500W power supplies. Its
got something like 1GB of RAM I think and the processor is just a
Pentium Pro I believe. Definitely not cutting edge stuff, but its
still more than capable of performing as a backup server. (It would
probably have been considered a top of the line server about 8-10
years ago, but just because its old doesn't mean it doesn't have
something of value left to contribute.) I installed Linux (Slackware)
and a couple of SATA cards, and I got a good deal on some
reconditioned SATA hard drives from Seagate or Western Digital (I
don't recall which). Anyway, I got 6 drives at 250GB each, and using
Linux's software RAID capabilities, I configured them as a RAID0 array
(striping) to give me a volume of 1.5 TB in size. (Took 3 days to
format it with bad block checking.) :-) I'm using automount so that
the backup partition isn't actually mounted except for when data needs
to be read or written, to prevent corruption problems (and a long fsck
in the event of a power failure.) I wrote a script based backup
system which uses Samba to backup the windows machines via windows
shares. The linux machines back themselves up and then the backup
server pulls those backups down via rsync. The backups are triggered
via cron; some machines get weekly full backups with daily
incrementals, others have a monthly full with daily incrementals; it
just depends on what it is used for, how it is used, the amount of
data, etc.
I went with a striping setup instead of one of the redundant
versions of RAID mostly because I am cheap and didn't want to "lose"
the storage capacity of one of the drives I purchased, and also
because I figured the odds of a RAID problem at the same time as a
loss of data on one of the backed up machines was minimal. (If the
backup server goes down, I can rebuild it and pull down all the
backups again, because that data is still on the client machines
themselves.) Plus the really critical stuff gets sent off-site so no
matter what happens to this server, at least that stuff is still safe.
Most of the backed-up data just sits on the backup server, but some
of it I send off site. I have a similar backup server set up at my
brother's house, its much smaller though, just an old P5 desktop with
a 1-2GB hard drive for the OS (Slackware Linux again), and a 30-40GB
drive for backups, and its purpose is to backup the two windows boxes
at his house, (I suck those backups down to the large backup server at
my place via rsync). I also upload some of the more critical backups
to that server. All of the above is automated via cron.
Unfortunately, it took a hard drive crash and a painful loss of
data for me to learn my lesson and implement this backup system for my
home LAN, so I commend you on your preemptive strike. :-) I was able
to do it on the cheap because I didn't use any commercial solutions, I
purchased the hardware inexpensively, and wrote the software necessary
to tie it all together. There are no doubt standalone or commercial
systems which you could purchase that would be a lot more plug and
play. The main thing my system is still lacking is a UPS. I'd really
like to get some protection against power failures in there somewhere,
even if the UPS system did nothing more than keep the systems on life
support and shut them down gracefully. Jason gave me some leads in
this area, but I just haven't had enough time to look into it. Living
in a rural area as I do, we get a few power outages every year, so I
really should address that.
Anyhoo, sorry for all the words, if you're read this far. Maybe
there are some ideas you can use in there. :-)
--
-Jon-
.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -.
| '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars |
`-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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