Re: Setting up a linux server.

Date	2011-05-19 09:35 +0200
From	David Brown <david@westcontrol.removethisbit.com>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.setup
Subject	Re: Setting up a linux server.
References	<Xns9EE99A4761F43greederxprtnet@94.75.214.90> <ir1k0t$4iv$2@dont-email.me>
Message-ID	<aLSdncIe19OhVUnQnZ2dnUVZ8oKdnZ2d@lyse.net> (permalink)

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On 19/05/2011 01:16, Aragorn wrote:
> On Thursday 19 May 2011 00:09 in comp.os.linux.setup, somebody
> identifying as Gordon wrote...
>
>> I need|want to set up a small file server on my home network.
>>
>> The three things I want to do with it are:
>>   - provide a place to put various files that can be accessed
>> by any work station.
>
> That's what "/srv" on the server machine is for. ;-)
>

As others have said, that's what /samba/ is for.  You can put the files 
in a directory under /src if you want.

>> - Spool a network printer. I already have a networked printer,
>> but it is using some real ancient hardware.
>
> CUPS should be able to handle that pretty well. ;-)
>
>> - email: I use Thunderbird for e-mail. I would want to
>> store T-bird's configuration files and e-mail folders
>> on the server so that any user can find their e-mail
>> regardless of which workstation they log in on.
>
> Hmm...  There are two ways I see for going about this...
>
>       1) Set up a local IMAP4 server with Courier or Exim or
>          something; or
>

Courier is an IMAP server, and is serious overkill unless you are 
familiar with it, or are looking to serve many thousands of users.

Exim is an MTA, not a mail server.

However, the idea of using an IMAP server is the right one.  Once you 
have started using IMAP for your email, you will never go back to the 
dark ages of POP3 - you'll find it hard to conceive why anyone would use 
anything else.

What you want here is Dovecot.  Without question, it is the easiest imap 
server to configure and work with, and it is also typically the fastest 
and most efficient (especially with maildir).  All distros will have it, 
and include a basic configuration.  When you have only a few home users, 
you can set up authentication (usernames and passwords) in a simple text 
file to make it even easier.

For outgoing mail, users can either send directly to their ISP, or you 
can configure an MTA on the server.  The two most common are Exim and 
Postfix - use whatever your distro has as default, and you will have a 
minimum of configuration.  You can collect mail from external POP3 boxes 
using a fetchmail script that delivers to the IMAP directories.

It might sound like setting up a mail server is a lot more effort than 
using POP3 and storing email locally on a workstation.  It is certainly 
a bit more effort, especially if the concepts are new to you, but it's 
not /that/ hard - and the Dovecot website has a lot of useful help. 
There are also a fair number of how-tos on the web.  And if it doesn't 
work, what have you lost but a bit of your time?  But once it is up and 
running, then all your email is stored on the server - not the 
workstations.  Email clients then get a view of that email, but it's the 
server that is the primary storage.  So you can have a client set up on 
each workstation, or even multiple clients (maybe you want to try KMail 
or Evolution as well as Thunderbird).  If you set up your firewall 
appropriately, you can also access it from outside or from a smart 
mobile phone.

>       2) Create user accounts on the server and install
>          Thunderbird on it.  Then use X11 forwarding, so that
>          whenever someone logs in on the workstation and fires
>          up Thunderbird, the Thunderbird session is running
>          remotely (and using the configuration files and mail
>          dirs on the server) while being displayed on the local
>          workstation's screen.
>

Don't use X forwarding here.  Sometimes X forwarding is a useful trick, 
but it is slow and awkward compared to running things locally - it's 
heyday is long since passed.

>> Other uses may come up later.
>>
>> I want to do this on the cheap.  So i have a couple of
>> retired 1 Gig Athalon machines I would like to repurpose
>> for this.
>
> Do you mean 1 GHz or 1 GB of RAM?  If the latter, that's plenty for a
> workstation, but perhaps a bit tight for a (busy) server.
>

1 GB ram is loads for a server like this.  It's always nice with more 
ram, and it will make some things faster, but I wouldn't have worried if 
he had said 512 MB on the server.  I have a file server at the office 
here with a 90 MHz processor and 64 MB ram, though I wouldn't like to 
run a mail server or printer server on it.

> If the former, 1 GHz is more than enough as a workstation which will
> essentially be working as a thin client - well, X11 forwarding is not
> exactly the same, but you can go the "thin client way" too. ;-)
>
>> These aern't the fastest machines around anymore, but may be usable
>> with a trim version of Linux.
>>
>> So what do you think?  Doable?  What Linux distro would
>> you reccomend.  BTW: I'm a relitive Linux newbie. But,
>> a fairly well advanced computer user.
>
> Well, it's not clear - at least, to me - whether your retired machines
> will be used as workstations or whether you seek to use one of them as
> a server.
>
> You mention "1 Gig", but that's not really saying much - see above - and
> processor speed is one thing, but amount of available RAM and diskspace
> is another.  So it's kind of hard to recommend a particular
> distribution to you.
>
> I can only give you some vague and generic recommendations, especially
> since you mention relative newbie status, and that is CentOS or Debian
> Stable for the server, and possibly - depending on speed and RAM - any
> lightweight distribution for the workstations.  If you're going to be
> using them as true thin clients, then there are special images you can
> download, because a true thin client only needs to connect to the
> network and the server, and display images on the screen, so to speak.
> So it doesn't need a whole lot - it doesn't even need a hard disk, as
> it can boot off of a floppy or a CD, or even PXE boot if the BIOS and
> the NIC support that.
>
> Hope this was useful... ;-)
>

I am also a fan of Debian for servers.  CentOS is a good choice if you 
want "industry standard" software but don't want paid commercial support 
(i.e., Red Hat RHEL) - however, that's typically not an issue for a home 
user.

I would recommend that you first burn a few live CDs and get the feel of 
what you want to use on the workstations - then you can get a related 
server distribution.  Pretty much all server distributions will work 
fine for you, so it makes sense to pick something that minimises your 
learning curves.  If you like the look of Ubuntu on the desktop, get 
Ubuntu Server on the server.  If you prefer Mint Debian, go for Debian 
on the server.

For the workstations, you need to have a look at Ubuntu.  I've gone off 
it myself, but it is very popular and worth checking out.  I would 
recommend Linux Mint Debian for workstations, or Linux Mint Xfce (which 
is also Debian-based) for weaker workstations.  They give you everything 
you need, pretty much out of the box.

Don't forget when testing that live CDs are a lot slower than real 
installations.  If possible, use a live USB stick instead of the CD.

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Thread

Setting up a linux server. Gordon <gonzo@alltomyself.com> - 2011-05-18 22:09 +0000
  Re: Setting up a linux server. Keith Keller <kkeller-usenet@wombat.san-francisco.ca.us> - 2011-05-18 16:01 -0700
  Re: Setting up a linux server. "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> - 2011-05-18 19:09 -0400
  Re: Setting up a linux server. Aragorn <aragorn@chatfactory.invalid> - 2011-05-19 01:16 +0200
    Re: Setting up a linux server. David Brown <david@westcontrol.removethisbit.com> - 2011-05-19 09:35 +0200
      Re: Setting up a linux server. Aragorn <aragorn@chatfactory.invalid> - 2011-05-19 16:25 +0200
        Re: Setting up a linux server. Gordon <gonzo@alltomyself.com> - 2011-05-20 04:40 +0000
          Re: Setting up a linux server. "David W. Hodgins" <dwhodgins@nomail.afraid.org> - 2011-05-20 03:11 -0400
            Re: Setting up a linux server. David Brown <david@westcontrol.removethisbit.com> - 2011-05-20 11:41 +0200
              Re: Setting up a linux server. JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2011-05-23 17:25 -0500
          Re: Setting up a linux server. David Brown <david@westcontrol.removethisbit.com> - 2011-05-20 11:40 +0200
            Re: Setting up a linux server. The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2011-05-20 10:41 +0100
              Re: Setting up a linux server. JEDIDIAH <jedi@nomad.mishnet> - 2011-05-23 17:28 -0500
                Re: Setting up a linux server. TomB <tommy.bongaerts@gmail.com> - 2011-05-25 20:15 +0200
    Re: Setting up a linux server. Gordon <gonzo@alltomyself.com> - 2011-05-20 04:44 +0000
      Re: Setting up a linux server. Aragorn <aragorn@chatfactory.invalid> - 2011-05-20 07:35 +0200
        Re: Setting up a linux server. The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2011-05-20 07:29 +0100
      Re: Setting up a linux server. "Trevor Hemsley" <Trevor.Hemsley@mytrousers.ntlworld.com> - 2011-05-20 05:30 -0500
        Re: Setting up a linux server. The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2011-05-20 11:43 +0100
          Re: Setting up a linux server. "Trevor Hemsley" <Trevor.Hemsley@mytrousers.ntlworld.com> - 2011-05-20 06:18 -0500
            Re: Setting up a linux server. The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2011-05-20 12:43 +0100
  Re: Setting up a linux server. The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2011-05-19 00:39 +0100

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