alfnoid
Premium,MVM
join:2002-02-18
 ·Comcast
|  What type of data backup server should I use?
I am not sure which specific forum to post this in so I'll start here and if someone decides it better fits elsewhere... so be it.
Anyway I have several computers in the house with a mix of Linux, OSX, XP and vista and want to implement something similar to Windows home server where I can backup files from multiple PC's.
I don't really want to pay $700 for a WHS box from HP or similar. I don't even know it if would work with the *nix boxen I have in the network.
I would like to build my own and install whatever software myself.
So who has suggestions? |
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MattE
Obama '08
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
 ·North State Commun..
 ·Corporate Colocation
| said by alfnoid  :I am not sure which specific forum to post this in so I'll start here and if someone decides it better fits elsewhere... so be it. Anyway I have several computers in the house with a mix of Linux, OSX, XP and vista and want to implement something similar to Windows home server where I can backup files from multiple PC's. I don't really want to pay $700 for a WHS box from HP or similar. I don't even know it if would work with the *nix boxen I have in the network. I would like to build my own and install whatever software myself. So who has suggestions? The WHS package is WONDERFUL for Windows boxes and can be used as a file share by to store backups by others.
I built a WHS with the following components:
1 x Shuttle K45: $99
1 x Celeron Dual Core 1.6GHz = $39
1GB DDR2800: Free (had it lying around)
2 x 250GB Drives = Free
1 x 500GB USB = Free
1 x WHS OS = $150 (OEM)
I've used Windows 2003, W2k3 SBS, Linux, and dumb NAS devices. WHS is absolutely the easiest, coolest thing to come along for this type of usage ever. Hands down. It just works.
If you really want to buy the HW and do it yourself, look into FreeNAS. You'll have to get the backup clients, drive mappings and such configured yourself however. Which you'll still have to do for WHS anyway on your Linux and OSX clients. |
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AdamB
join:2001-01-07
Westerville, OH | reply to alfnoid
HP has a two drive bay linux based home server. I just purchased the HP MediaSmart today with Windows Home Server. WHS is good especially that the power pack is coming out soon. I'm sure you could slap together a nice box with that. |
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MattE
Obama '08
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
·Corporate Colocation
| said by AdamB :HP has a two drive bay linux based home server. I just purchased the HP MediaSmart today with Windows Home Server. WHS is good especially that the power pack is coming out soon. I'm sure you could slap together a nice box with that. FWIW, I'm using the PP1 Beta with absolutely no issue. |
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kherr
Premium
join:2000-09-04
Collinsville, IL
clubs:
| reply to AdamB
said by AdamB :HP has a two drive bay linux based home server. I just purchased the HP MediaSmart today with Windows Home Server. WHS is good especially that the power pack is coming out soon. I'm sure you could slap together a nice box with that. If that's the one I think it is, I was going to buy it. The problem I had with it was it didn't support raid at all. So I ended up buying two Netgear NAS duos. One 750G and a 500G. Once I figured out the permissions, it was easy to setup |
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AdamB
join:2001-01-07
Westerville, OH
·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T Yahoo
| said by kherr :said by AdamB :HP has a two drive bay linux based home server. I just purchased the HP MediaSmart today with Windows Home Server. WHS is good especially that the power pack is coming out soon. I'm sure you could slap together a nice box with that. If that's the one I think it is, I was going to buy it. The problem I had with it was it didn't support raid at all. So I ended up buying two Netgear NAS duos. One 750G and a 500G. Once I figured out the permissions, it was easy to setup If you are talking about WHS, yeah people have complained about the lack of RAID. However, for the audience it is geared for, clumping all the drives together is probably the best solution.
The HP linux box I don't know that much about. It is nice and HP has done a great job developing the interface for it, it's just the two bays are a deal killer for me.
--
Apple Powerbook
1.5 GHz G4 | 1GB RAM | 80 GB HD | OSX 10.5 Leopard
Desktop
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 | 8GB RAM | 150 GB Raptor | EVGA GeForce 8600 GT | Vista x64 |
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MattE
Obama '08
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
·Corporate Colocation
| 
Duplication for all Shared Folders Only |
said by AdamB :said by kherr :said by AdamB :HP has a two drive bay linux based home server. I just purchased the HP MediaSmart today with Windows Home Server. WHS is good especially that the power pack is coming out soon. I'm sure you could slap together a nice box with that. If that's the one I think it is, I was going to buy it. The problem I had with it was it didn't support raid at all. So I ended up buying two Netgear NAS duos. One 750G and a 500G. Once I figured out the permissions, it was easy to setup If you are talking about WHS, yeah people have complained about the lack of RAID. However, for the audience it is geared for, clumping all the drives together is probably the best solution. The HP linux box I don't know that much about. It is nice and HP has done a great job developing the interface for it, it's just the two bays are a deal killer for me. WHS has duplication built-in, so no RAID is required. It's a completely different (unique) filesystem.
You can turn duplication on and off for whatever folders you want, so you have RAID-like protection for your critical data, but tons more free-space than a typical RAID-1 array. If you lose a drive, you only lose whatever data wasn't duplicated that happened to reside on that drive. Even the OS will continue to run. You can add drives right into the array also, without recreating your array. It's TONS better than RAID. I've attached my Storage Summary. Look at the bottom right and also notice I've got a mix of SATA and USB drives. All transparent to the OS.
The backup utility is also the absolute coolest. Initially it creates a sector based backup, which then only updates the sectors that change. So my initial laptop backup took like 3 hours across my wireless, but now when I wake my laptop up, it only backs up the sectors that have changed, so in like 2 minutes it's done. All transparently.
If I need a file, I can go into the backup and restore individual files too. It's really slick. |
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AdamB
join:2001-01-07
Westerville, OH | reply to alfnoid
I agree, I like the way Windows handles the drives and allows for selective duplication. I can also understand why some want hardware RAID, incase the drive holding the OS dies. It is definitely a neat OS, I can't wait to try it out. |
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Snake Doctor
join:2008-07-22 | The power pack is out of beta now and in full rtm in case you were waiting for it to be out of beta
I've been using it for a while now too and i can say it's a great server and cheap too.A++ for WHS!! |
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AdamB
join:2001-01-07
Westerville, OH | Yeah my server came yesterday and I've got it all up to date with the latest power pack. I just need to get a small screw driver so that I can put in the extra RAM I bought. |
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MattE
Obama '08
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
·Corporate Colocation
| Make sure to check out some of the add-ins: »www.wegotserved.co.uk/windows-ho···add-ins/
I use the WebGuide add-in along with a few of the Admin add-ins. |
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