2 questions

[phreak]

Hi there,

 

I have a question regarding a Linux file server I have. Basically, I want to upgrade it slightly as it is in an aging machine running SME server serving roughly 100 users onsite.

What I want to do is to get 2 new machines and split the departments between them. I also want to change the operating system to either Ubuntu or ClearOS.

 

So my first question is, what would you recommend, Ubuntu or Clearos? On the one hand it would be easy enough for me to export my user list from SME and import it into Clearos, but on the other hand I hear you can get Ubuntu to validate users based on AD credentials, which would be useful.

 

Anyone used both and have an opinion one way or the other?

 

Lastly, I was looking for a bit of kit to run said software on. One of the bits I quite liked the look of, for both price and size was the HP Microserver N40L. I would up the memory to 8GB and stick either 2 X 3tB or 4 X 2TB drives in them.

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/13716_div/13716_div.HTML

However, everywhere I am looking regarding this bit of kit it says for businesses with less then 10 users. However, as it will only be a file server surely the processing power is not that important and it would handle it ok?

 

Otherwise I was looking at some older HP ML110 G5 servers, but they are a lot bigger, not that space is necessarily the limiting factor, but it would just be a bonus if they were smaller.

 

If not those 2 then anyone have any suggestions for kit that would suit this purpose, but not cost the earth (Less then £200 or £400 if drives included)?

[CyberNerd]

I'm not going to offer an opinion of ClearOS vs Ubuntu because Redhat is my OS of choice.

 

I wouldn't worry to much about the '10 users thing' - it's probably for things like exchange and other bloatware.

Our file server (virtualised) isn't much better spec than that, single processor, 2GB RAM and it servers all shared and home directories to 2000 users.

Disk are on SAN and it has a 10GBE which might help.

RAM is really only needed for deduplcation, and processor for virus scanning (which you probably won't be doing real time on a file server)

[Geoff]

Personally I use Ubuntu LTS on my servers. As you say it's perfectly possible to connect up to your AD domain with samba for user authentication. If you struggle setting this up (quite a lot of people do on the first few attempts), there's plenty of help here to get you through it.

 

As for your choice of hardware, it is more than adequate for what you want. As you're using it as a file server then processing power isn't a big deal. It's the amount of ram that is important. More ram means more file caching.

[phreak]

Thanks guys. Thats exactly what I thought on the hardware "10 users" thing. My manager was a bit worried when he saw that and started asking me for alternatives, hence why I then started looking at the HP ML's.

 

The only other thing was we have a network run application, the application is installed and runs locally on the pc's but it pulls it's data from the network. And I wanted to put them on these servers as they currently have their own dedicated server. The reason we moved them to their own server as they were originally on this SME server running fine, but then they released an update to the software and then it started crashing/slowing right down. I think though it is due to something in the new update that read/writes more to the network location and the fact the server it was originally on only had a 10/100 NIC in it.

[Geoff]

Make sure the new machine has a GigE nic (I'd be amazed if it doesn't) and you have a GigE port for it somewhere near your network core.

[twin--turbo]

I run ClearOS , but as a mail relay.

 

What do you want the server to do.

 

Rob

[phreak]

File server. Nothing fancy, but integration into AD would be nice. Would be for roughly 50-100 users.

[CyberNerd]

File server. Nothing fancy, but integration into AD would be nice. Would be for roughly 50-100 users.

 

I have a fairly detailed config on the edugeek wiki - which seems to be offline.