I decided to set up a server for the flat. I have been interested in getting a server set up for a while and had originally intended to use a Microsoft server package to do this, partly because I hadn't really looked around, partly because I legit access to a license and mostly because I studies Microsoft Server a few years ago when I picked up an MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional). A qualification that I ended up never really using.
Well in the spirit of "A Room Without Windows" I thought that this would be a good opportunity to try out another install. So I threw together a motley collection of spare parts, An Athlon 2100XP processor and associated motherboard, 1Gb of ram, An Ati 96000 graphics card and a 320GB IDE hard disk. By todays terms not a very high powered machine. It's not even cased correctly!
However it is just about good enough to use as a file server. And that is what I have done with it. Since I am feeling fairly comfortable with Ubuntu, I opted for Ubuntu 9.04 Server as the software of choice. I was also interested in using Ubuntu because from what I have heard it is one of the easier packages to setup thanks to a menu that offers to automatically set up the most popular server options.
Installing was easy, pop in a disk, then follow the instructions, the only difference really from using the install program on a live disk was that this was all done in far less fancy graphics and input was all text based. Needless to say in around half an hour, I was up and running and offered the chance to install the applications that would give my server its functionallity.
A screen appeared after the install process had completed installing the basic server and had set up the connection to my network. I opted for a LAMP installation, SSH and Samba for my server. Lamp stands for Linux, Apache,MySQL and a programming language such as Perl, Python or PHP. Essentially a LAMP installation includes the ingredients that are needed to cook up one of several websites. I installed this because I wish to do some website development using my home server. I have been using Server2Go for this kind of work, but on my low powered EeePC901, things can get a little sluggish.
I also wish to build a home website from here that will be used a to navigate to various web interfaces that I use.
Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. This I have installed to allow me to operate the server via my EeePC. It means that the server can be hidden away somewhere discrete and a monitor, keyboard etc will not be required to administer it. From a terminal I will be able to do anything that I could do from a keyboard at the machine.
Samba I have installed to allow access to files for my Windows machines, my girlfriends EeePC901.. (Yep we have matching towels and matching hardware) and my Windows 7 Media Center. I had considered trying out a Linux alternative for this, however I think that my girlfriend might object to being forced into this project and is the prime holder of the Media Center Remote control.
All was good so far, everything was installed with no errors reported. Having set up windows servers in the past I would say that this was pretty damn easy in comparison. I have not yet tried a Windows Media Server which apparently are even easier to set up though.
Next following advice from various guides I set up a static IP for my server. This is done by editing a file with the command
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
From there I changed the line
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
with this...
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.20
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1
This sets up the static IP address, but I had to then restart the network services on my server. This can be done with a restart or alternately with the command
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
This seemed to work correctly for me, but another article here suggests some further steps that are required to prevent the server reverting back to DHCP addressing. I have a new router on the way, so I guess when I plug it in and set it up I will find out. I may set the router up to always address the server 192.168.0.20 just to be sure.
With that all done, I then attempted to use my EeePC to control my new server. Opening a terminal window, I use the SSH command to log in to my server. The command for me is ssh This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
You can see from the screen print that the terminal window looks and operates just as if it were a shell on my local machine.
From this I can install software, run admin tasks etc. It is of course very command line focused, something that your Windows users are not going to be too comfortable with.
Fortunately there is a more user friendly method of working my new server available, a package that my friendly IT manager at wrk recommended.
The next package that I installed is called webmin. This gives a GUI which is accessible via a web browser. To install it I followed the instructions here at Ubuntugeek. This again went without a hitch. Within a minute or two I was able to type 192.168.0.20:10000 into my web browser and after login in I have a nice Windows user friendly GUI where I can carry out most if not all day to day administration to my server.Last thing that I tried was to test to make sure that apache was working as it should. This time it is just the ip address of my server that I plug into a browser.
A reassuring "It works" message tells me that apache is up and running successfully.
I tried to connect to the Samba server using my Eeebuntu operated EeePC, but I am having some difficulties with this. I will have to work around this problem a little more I think.
All in all, getting an Ubuntu server up and running has been a breeze so far. Of course I am not doing anything useful with it yet. I am also not feeling anywhere near confident enough to open it up to the outside world. I have no idea at this point how insecure or otherwise my pet server is currently. Eventually though I want to do this. I hope that I will be able to use get_iplayer to work on this server so that it can serve my favourite TV programs across my home network as well as being a central dump for my music collection.
The process of setting it up uses initially a lot (remember I am used to Windows) of command line work. However following internet guides I managed to get this done without too many tears. Of course I have not tested it out properly, but hopefully there will not be too many growing pains.
I have invested in a wireless N router, to speed up the data transfer of my home network. If I am happy with Ubuntu server in the long run I may invest in a more modern platform for it to run on, I am eyeing up Intel Atom dual core processors at the moment and may go for one of those small form factor boxes with a couple of Big Hard drives 1.5tb perhaps to become my main server. Ubuntu is lean enough apparently to run efficiently on these low powered (low energy consumption) boards giving a super NAS device.
Newer news items:
- An update
- Gineau pig #3 checks in
- Well Where Are WE
- Updating the RT8260 802.11N Wireless Network Driver from Source
Older news items:
- Ardour and Adversity.
- Get-Iplayer tempts me to the terminal
- Audio recording and a journey into various booting methods.
- Time for a reboot
- Installing a Linux Application from Outside the Supplied Repositories
