More foray's into Linux

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stuartcnz
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More foray's into Linux

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Since coming back from the States, I have been hyper busy. One of the projects I have been doing is building a NAS (network attached storage), starting from building the computer itself, through to installing and setting up the operating system.

I am using Openmediavault as the operating system which is based on Debian Squeeze (stable) Linux. http://www.openmediavault.org/. Because I am using all new hardware I had to replace the kernel in the operating system before I could even install it on a hard drive. I then set up a RAID10 (for the paranoid in a hurry) with 4X2TB HDDs.

At this stage it is set up and streaming all of my computer based music collection, has a folder share of movies and is set up for Time Machine MacOSX backup. I am now in the process of setting up Owncloud http://owncloud.org/ on it too, though this may take some time to get working.
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Re: More foray's into Linux

Post by rlaggren »

What's "owncloud"? Provides added desktop features for handling data and backup or something?

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Re: More foray's into Linux

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Owncloud is an opensource cloud platform you can use for serving music, photo's, calender, address book, bookmarks, creating documents, and now, by the looks of it, video. You can also use it with Roundcube for web based email, if you have the right mail modules installed on your server.

I've been using it for storing and sharing photo's and for a calender for a few months now.
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Re: More foray's into Linux

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I managed to get ownCloud working today :P

I ended up following some German instructions, which was kind of interesting, since I don't understand German. But it worked.
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Re: More foray's into Linux

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How does OpenMedia handle replacing a disk? Can you just replace the hardware and start it up and it'll get back online and rebuild automatically in the background? Hmm... Does it have any options for hot-plugging a disk?

(I looked at their site but decided I it looked like a tall step and I was too far down the curve to try to study up right now.)

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Re: More foray's into Linux

Post by stuartcnz »

Not sure about the hot-plugging, probably wise to shut down while swapping a disk. Yes it does rebuild an array.

I managed to install VirtualBox into it before I went to work today, which maybe a more convenient way for me to get back into learning to use Rhino 3D (which I haven't touched in a couple of years now).
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Re: More foray's into Linux

Post by rlaggren »

> Rhino

What are you modeling? I've glanced at Rhino over the years, but it's such a high power app that I never found a project that warranted the big time to learn a whole new skill set. A little po-dunk (well, not at the time; actually a pretty nice one) 2D CAD program has done all my jobs since '98. I keep a windows2000 (or so) system just to run it once or twice a year. Surface modeling seems kinda like a go-to-Mars project for me.

> disk swapping...

May be just getting older but I more and more believe that if a thing is to actually do a helpful job it MUST be mostly dope-slap simple to run and utterly convenient. I'm OK with studying and taking time to learn and design a good set-up - it's just my experience seems to show that down the road where you're really hoping to reap the bennies, you either have forgotten all the nifty commands and rules, or are not at the site and have to tell your sister (or someone) to step through the necessary to get things right again, and no manual or parts can be found for love or money and it better "just work" intuitively with stuff found at the local discount PC store. Thus the Q about disk swapping which seems like the most likely potential issue. The other Q is if the mobo dies and you can't create a clone system immediately, what else can read those drives? Ie. how hard is it to get the data off the storage hardware w/out your exact system? Will the array work with a different mobo or RAID adapter? Can attach the disks to a(ny) system and boot a liveCD and get all the data?

The systems I work with all seem to have life cycles in the 7-10 year range (20 and counting in one case). There is no advantage to me in anything cutting edge (speed, whatever) and it seems when they break I've long ago forgotten everything about their build; but I do have to be able to fix or replace the problem w/in a day or two. That means, usually, NOT replacing anything I don't have to. The less data movement the better - an emergency repair is not really a good time to upgrade your storage. I now keep PCI IDE adapters around because when an old mobo goes down I can no longer easily (economically) get replacements with IDE headers. IDE/SATA adapters are also in the box. Ditto old RAID adapters.

I guess what I'm saying is to look at the fail/recovery process a few years down the road and see how many incomprehensible steps and hardware bits are needed to get the job done. Fewer is way better.

Hmm. Ran on a little. Glad you're breaking trail. <g>

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Re: More foray's into Linux

Post by stuartcnz »

Okay, I think I may have misread your question. Swapping hardware=easy. The raid is software, not hardware, so no issues there.

Motherboard is intel x86_64 so should work on any other that is similar, just by conecting the disks to it.

The OS is based on Debian Squeeze (stable), so very stable backend. However as a NAS OS it is still fairly new, so will only get better from here. It is intended for those who are not Linux literate, but I would say it has a ways to go before it reaches that goal. When it is setup and working, the Web-Gui is very easy to use, however when it goes wrong, you better feel okay at playing Bash inside a terminal. I suspect this will become easier as time goes by and OMV matures.

Rhino: I initially signed up for a course to learn it, with the intention of carrying on to study small craft naval architecture. It turned out I couldn't maintain enough focus with my random shift working sleep patterns. However I still have the software, and as you rightly point out it is some powerfull software, and it can do some pretty amazing things. So it would be nice to pick up where I left off, and learn to do some more stuff with it.

Unfortunately, even though I managed to successfully install virtualbox yesterday, I haven't yet got it working. Not sure what the fix is yet, but I have other things that need my attention, away from a computer, at the moment, so will have to come back to it latter.
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Re: More foray's into Linux

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> other things away from computer...

Huh. One of those guys w/a life, eh? <g>

I just get cantakerous when I find I can get parts for a 1982 Nissan Maxima diesel car easier than I can find mobo/s with IDE headers and PCI slots... now I get to buy sata/ide adapters for $10-$30 ea for 4 or 5 drives each time I do much of anything to a system. mumble...mumbl..mbl

Just the price of too much "ain't-broke-don't-fix" practices in the PC world I guess.

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Re: More foray's into Linux

Post by stuartcnz »

Virtualbox is now up and running with a clean XP Windows install with Rhino, Penguin, Flamingo, and Bongo included. :lol:
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