FreeBSD anyone?

[vonleigh]

Hello,

We have a couple of MacOS X servers (running client though) to handle our email, web, etc. and so far they've been great. I've learnt some Unix along the way and in general It's been great. Problem is I would like to add another server (for backup) and wanted to get some opinions.

Now, I'd love to get another mac, but when you have used G4s going for more than a great PC, it makes you wonder.

So I've been thinking of building myself a nice athlon box; probably this one:

<http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MVGSBG/article.php/1488671>

Which I'd just share monitor and keyboard with another computer using a switch (dr. bott or wahtever, I'll look up reviews). And I'd be able to get this setup going for around $500 (sampling down a few parts, for example I don't need a great video card or sound card)



So all that is to ask the following questions, hence the subject:

1. What OS would you run on this beast?

a. I was considering FreeBSD because it's secure and somewhat what I'm used to dealing with. I'm wondering what package managers there are to get apache, sendmail, etc. on it, or do I have to figure it all out (say fink).

b. Linux could be interesting too.

c. Darwin I thought of, but It could be a problem getting it installed, I guess I could do some tests, but as I understand it the hardware it supports (non mac) is pretty limited still.


2. Say I want to computers to share the same duties, I can easily set up so both of them do round robin DNS, but how do I keep the data on both of them matching?

I could implement something in the PHP code so that anything that happens to one database happens to the other, or find a way to synchronize them at night with psync, rsync, or one of those syncs. But then If someone did something on one server, then reconnected, it would seem that what he did never happened.

I'm sure this is a common problem and there are already great solutions for it, please comment if you know.




Thanks,
V

[Craig R. Arko]

If you're really security conscious you might want to consider OpenBSD (http://www.openbsd.org/) instead. That's its claim to fame.

They use a modified FreeBSD ports & packages (http://www.openbsd.org/ports.html) system.

[mervTormel]

what Craig said, plus:

you've got some homework to do.

if you're going to put together a chop box, you need to research the OS for support of your selected components.

so, of OS choices:

Darwin, Windows/serverVersions, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and the various Linux distributions

which one is going to support the chopped suey of components you're going to use?

e.g.:

CPU: Pentium 4-1.8A GHz Retail - $129
Motherboard: EPoX EP-4SDA5+ - $110
Memory: 256 MB PC2700 DDR - $53
Hard Drive: 60GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 - $91
Video Card: MSI GeForce4 Ti 4200 - $127
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 OEM - $27
CD/DVD-ROM: LITE-ON 16X DVD ROM - $35
Modem/NIC: Creative Labs Modem Blaster 56K PCI or LinkSys LNE100TX - $19
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical - $15
Keyboard: MS Internet Keyboard - $15
Operating System: Windows XP Home - $85
Floppy: Panasonic

with any chop box you assemble, there will be an OS that will gak up huge, globby chunks of protoplasm.

you can quickly see that your project is no trivial task.

one good approach is to select the OS, then build from its known supported components. but, you can see some of the limitations of this approach.

dare i say it? for $500.00, i think you'll get what you paid for :D but, it depends on whether you need a dedicated, reliable server, or want some more flexibility and support in the product.

dare i say it? dude, yer gettin' a dell! (http://www.dell.com/us/en/bsd/offers/specials_3x_pedge_1600sc_home.htm)

dell now ships a red hat box. which prolly means there's maybe a chance the box will play nicer with other linux/BSD-ness.

if this is your first chop box, good luck! it will be an interesting endeavor.

[vonleigh]

Hello,

Thanks for your responses.

AK: Good idea, I hadn't even thought of using OpenBSD, and it would *seem* that I'll probably have not too much trouble with that great ports page.

Merv: You're right, this is my frist chop box. I will most definitely _not_ use a WinOS (on principle) but will gladly check out any of the others.

I guess what I'll do is just build the box and try different OSs until one finally works. I'm sure that in the worse case a Linux Distro will do the trick. I tried googling my way to finding what components are supported by the various BSDs but had no luck; so I guess this is the best way.

Even though I'd only pay about $500 (as I'm not getting the OS or mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc.) I am expecting to get quality parts, I want this server to last, be one of those boxes you plug in and forget about (until the next security advisory :). Well not really forget, just that if it breaks it's me breaking it by tweaking, not on it's own for parts failure.

But ya, I am prepared to do some heavy learning to get this going. I want to learn how to make the box and get some good experience running it. Don't want to be limited to the macs (even though I think they're great).

I'm also planning on getting two hard drives and mirroring them nightly so that if one dies, I can always use the second to boot up and keep working (assuming you can do this).


If anyone else has any comments, please share.



V

[vonleigh]

Oh, I forgot. Anyone have any info on how to keep servers that do the same task synchronized? or would this involve expensive raids and hardware?

One idea I have is have two computers nearly identical, but have one do webserving and the other mail; and have them synchronize at night. That way if one dies the other can take over the functions of the other.



thanks,
Vonleigh

[mdaniel]

You might want to experiment with these alternative OSs using Virtual PC on your mac. I did this while considering which OS to upgrade my intel box to. I decided i wan't dedicated enough to figure out freeBSD (couldn't get the gui launched). RedHat was best for me since I don't have much time for OS tom-foolery.