Help with a big mess

[hawaiiman]

mcduck, great information! Yes when it boots or is running ok,both drives are green lighted, but the second drive goes to red when internet fails. It's running Apache, so I'm guessing if i pick up a caddy for that machine and a drive I can just throw it on, and Apache will get it into the mix with no input from me. Then I can pull the suspect drive. (??)-thanks--Jack

[prshah]

As far as slotting in, are you saying that some form of dual booting would be not advisable for me? We have $0 budget, other than what I get for a salary, so the machine available would be one of the wounded or dead ones here. I guess that would work as a test bed, then if I hit on something useful, I could do a clean install on the HP with the same setup (?).

Yes, I strictly advise against dual booting. It is preferable if you can re-use some of the hardware that you say is available, to make one working machine, upon which you can proceed to experiment.

The specs needn't be steller; 1GB of RAM if you can manage it, 512MB at a pinch; Any processor PIV and above (GHz/MHz does not matter).

As you are suggesting, you can use it as a test bed, and ramp it up if it seems promising.

You really don't need to worry about budget; as far as I can see, your main worry will be about time.

One further suggestion: I would advise starting with Lubuntu / Xubuntu, rather than Ubuntu Server. Ubuntu Server has no GUI, and may increase your learning curve. Though most of your work will be done in command line (CLI), it is still reassuring / useful to have the GUI from time to time.

Once you have a suitable machine set up and running Xubuntu / Lubuntu, you can start throwing tasks at it one at a time, taking input from the forums when you are stuck, or don't know how to start off.

Once your familiarity has increased, you can then decide if Ubuntu Server better suits your needs or not.

[hawaiiman]

PRShah, Yes I see that ubuntu doesn't fully recommend a full gui for Server. As to experimenting with the others, are you saying I should use one of them as a base to install server features? I have run Ubuntu before, and had good luck. I'm not clear on why I shouldn't try Server, as it will be on a clean machine.
I plan on using remote administration. I'll be looking at ssh, ebox, ispconfig....maybe a light gui like openbox ?
I can already see that to implement decent security, I will have to do a lot of commandline work anyway, so maybe the gui isn't a big deal. It will help when I access using ssh from my win7-64 laptop at home. I want to monitor network activity down to level 2 from home, as I only teach 3 days a week in the afternoons.-J

[buzzingrobot]

I'll just offer some non-technical advice: If you fix it, you own it. People will find you when it breaks.

Mysql is a database program. Is there a need for a database at the school? Perhaps staff used one before this one broke. In any case, you do not need it if all you need the server to do is provide internet connectivity.

Ditto Apache. It's a web server. You don't need it unless you need to run a web site on the server. For security reasons, you're better off not running it if you don't need it.

One reason to run Apache would be if someone set up a caching web server, i.e., one that caches web content locally . When users at the school browsed the web, content would be served from the school's server (and refreshed at certain intervals). That's useful if you have a flaky net connection, and/or want to block student access to some sites.

For future reference, "uname -a" will show you info about your kernel, etc.

[hawaiiman]

buzzingrobot, thanks. Well, at this point I know zip about the history of this network or uses. There are 2 teacher rooms/offices each with 4 stations, a library with 4-5 stations that are student accessed, a computer science room with 12 stations which is also the home of the server (..may be a bad idea most of these machines are dead for various reasons and student access has been cancelled (loving the green carpet, not). I also see some cable tied to a tree going to the other building, as yet unexplored. There is a media room with projectors etc. which may have had video conferencing set as a goal. The director'soffice has a machine but lan is dead there, and admin office has one station. Main actual use is from the two teacher offices and the library. I know there has been an attempt to restrict student access, bandwidth limiting is in place, and for some reason, printer/file sharing is blocked. no router, just the server and switches around here and there.
There was a subscription service to Freebee (?) I looked them up, and they have a monthly fee, which probably hasn't been paid. I think they were hosting Mysql, for example. Freebee comes up with a password request when you access the browser.
I don't believe the school has a wbsite, not sure about in house email. Central storage for records and shared files would certainly be a good idea if it isn't being done.

[hawaiiman]

Update: picked up a couple rebuilt drives, installed one and that fixed the old server. In the mean time our ISP and service level have changed 2-3 times. It finally settled on a fiber suplied adsl connection that won't work with the free bsd server. I embarked on building a fresh server based on Ubuntu server. Knowing next to nothing about Linux at the start, it's been a steep and bumpy ride. After uncounted attempts, finally got one going based on very minimal (packages at install) 10.04 64bit LTS server (highly recommended). Samba file server works, eth0 gets dhcp from enterprise modem router with QOS, eth1 has static ip and dnsmasq deals dhcp to LAN. Windows clients on LAN forwarded to internet with iptables command in /etc/rc.local. Simple and sweet. UFW makes problems and was uneeded, so dumped it, dhcp3, & NM. Never would have made it without this forum.

[grahammechanical]

You might find this link helpful

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ThaiTeam

and this one

http://loco.ubuntu.com/teams/ubuntu-th

Regards.

[larrys4227]

I've enjoyed reading through this thread ....

Glad you made some headway, but I'd like to ask if you ever found out HOW they were using network before all this? Is the original machine nothing more than a gateway to the outside world for the teachers and students?, or were there intricate things going on like web, ftp, mail, etc??

I really cant help that much, but I have enjoyed the thread and you good natured-ness to take on such a task.

Good for you my friend!!

[hawaiiman]

Thanks for the heads up about Ubuntu Thai team.
So far I have learned that there was a hosted web site, which by the time I got there was useless due to server problems. It was being used as a gateway with some firewall features. It was also dealing dhcp to the windows clients and controlling access with passwords. If there is good acceptance of the Ubuntu machine and new features, I will talk to them about formatting the old machine and making a Ubuntu server on it with samba file server, web hosting, email. The new machine is built from a normal desktop with a single hdd. The old machine is a real server with raid 5, hot swap, etc. If important files are being kept on the server, I would be more comfortable about having the increased reliability/security of a real server in the long run. I just don't see learning unix to do it.