Warthaug
November 16th, 2011, 05:16 PM
My apologies if this is the wrong section of the forums for this.
I am a new immunology professor/scientist, and am in the process of setting up my first lab. I've used ubuntu as a desktop system for 5+ years, managed a small ubuntu-based cluster for the past 3 (which I did not setup, btw), and as such am fairly familiar with ubuntu as a desktop environment.
As part of my lab setup process I am putting in place a minimal server. The main purpose is file storage (we'll generate a few TB of data every year), but I also want a wiki (for experimental protocols) and backup capacity. because there server will be lightly used (file storage/access being the major thing; with less than a dozen users), I was planning on using modest computer running ubuntu as a front-end, and rack-mounted RAID for expandable storage (i.e. devices like these):
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/RAID/Rack_Mount/FireWire_USB3_eSATA_1U
The server will be managed primarily (hopefully solely) via remote desktop.
My goal for the server is fairly minimal; I want to:
1) Run a file server, accessed internally via SAMBA/CIFS
2) Provide external access to these files via SFTP or another protocol
3) Run a Wiki
4) Backup lab computers nightly to the server
5) Mirror the server nightly onto a secondary (backup) server
The actual amount of traffic will be quite small (a dozen or so users, maximum, accessing from a handful of computers). I have been looking at some options, and aside from the backup portion, turnkey linux seems to be an easy way to get these things up and running. That said, having never used turnkey before I am not certain this is the route I want to go.
So now for my questions:
1) Is turnkey the easiest way to implement this? If not, what would you recommend?
2) Which "flavor" of linux would be best for the server (I was leaning to a less resource-hungry distro like xubutu or lubutu - I would like to keep the GUI, btw)?*
3) Does anyone know of a good guide to lead me through the general process of setting up a server with these types of capacities?
4) With turnkey, can multiple "units" be installed within the same server, or do I have to virtualize?**
EDIT:
* This is only a concern if the answer to Q4 is that visualization is my only option
** Q4 was poorly written. Turnkey is setup to be run as a VM, but I ***believe*** you can also install as a stand-alone OS. If this is possible I was thinking it would be the better option because of my minimal needs. But I still need two turnkeys - i.e. I'd have to somehow install both (i.e. install one; then add the packages for the second?), or install one and virtualize the second, or install a base OS and virtualize both (the later being how things are usually done).
Any other advice is appreciated
Thanx
Bryan
I am a new immunology professor/scientist, and am in the process of setting up my first lab. I've used ubuntu as a desktop system for 5+ years, managed a small ubuntu-based cluster for the past 3 (which I did not setup, btw), and as such am fairly familiar with ubuntu as a desktop environment.
As part of my lab setup process I am putting in place a minimal server. The main purpose is file storage (we'll generate a few TB of data every year), but I also want a wiki (for experimental protocols) and backup capacity. because there server will be lightly used (file storage/access being the major thing; with less than a dozen users), I was planning on using modest computer running ubuntu as a front-end, and rack-mounted RAID for expandable storage (i.e. devices like these):
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/RAID/Rack_Mount/FireWire_USB3_eSATA_1U
The server will be managed primarily (hopefully solely) via remote desktop.
My goal for the server is fairly minimal; I want to:
1) Run a file server, accessed internally via SAMBA/CIFS
2) Provide external access to these files via SFTP or another protocol
3) Run a Wiki
4) Backup lab computers nightly to the server
5) Mirror the server nightly onto a secondary (backup) server
The actual amount of traffic will be quite small (a dozen or so users, maximum, accessing from a handful of computers). I have been looking at some options, and aside from the backup portion, turnkey linux seems to be an easy way to get these things up and running. That said, having never used turnkey before I am not certain this is the route I want to go.
So now for my questions:
1) Is turnkey the easiest way to implement this? If not, what would you recommend?
2) Which "flavor" of linux would be best for the server (I was leaning to a less resource-hungry distro like xubutu or lubutu - I would like to keep the GUI, btw)?*
3) Does anyone know of a good guide to lead me through the general process of setting up a server with these types of capacities?
4) With turnkey, can multiple "units" be installed within the same server, or do I have to virtualize?**
EDIT:
* This is only a concern if the answer to Q4 is that visualization is my only option
** Q4 was poorly written. Turnkey is setup to be run as a VM, but I ***believe*** you can also install as a stand-alone OS. If this is possible I was thinking it would be the better option because of my minimal needs. But I still need two turnkeys - i.e. I'd have to somehow install both (i.e. install one; then add the packages for the second?), or install one and virtualize the second, or install a base OS and virtualize both (the later being how things are usually done).
Any other advice is appreciated
Thanx
Bryan