[nylug-talk] Slim home server for samba and subversion (and possibly IMAP)

[Brian Mathis]

I think there are many questions you need to answer to find your 
solution, such as:
    What constitutes a "full-fledged PC"?
    Why does the "full-fledged PC" not work for you?
    Too loud?
    Too much power consumption?
    Too big?
    Don't like running a full operating system on it?

The reality is that there are so many options for different kinds of 
machines that each of those questions need to be answered before you can 
narrow down what you really want.  There's probably something out there 
for any point on the spectrum.

You can get tiny, low power systems (like an EPIA board 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPIA]), the gumstix systems, and countless 
others.  Don't forget than an old used laptop can probably fit the role 
quite well, being small, power efficient, and quiet.  All of these 
options are x86-based and can probably run most any version of Linux, 
and handle everything you have described.

It sounds like you want something that can replace what you already 
have, so maybe you can start with what is bothering you about your 
current system.

-Brian Mathis


Alexander L. Belikoff wrote:
> Hello everybody,
>
> I've been using a spare PC running Debian as a home server for the last
> several years. This server has basically the following responsibilities:
>
> - Serving files (music/pictures/documents) via SAMBA. In particular, it
> serves the MP3 files for the iTunes running on my desktop, which already
> makes iPod syncs somewhat slowish.
> - Acting as a Subversion server (over SSH)
> - Downloading my mailbox(es) from the ISP via fetchmail and serving them
> via IMAP for my home PCs.
>
> While it's been working well, I cannot help thinking that having a
> full-fledged PC for such meager list of responsibilities is an overkill.
> I'd like to explore some alternatives. One is using a NAS device with no
> server functionality - basically, a network disk. This has a drawback
> that it would not be able to run a Subversion server, so one would have
> to make subversion directly update shared storage which is not elegant
> and prone to repo corruption. It would also rule out the IMAP mailbox.
>
> The other option would be to run a "slim" server - something that is
> barely larger than a NAS device but is capable of running SSH,
> Subversion and imapd. So my question is whether someone has experience
> with using such devices.
>
> Some poking around the Net suggested looking at BuffaloTech LinkStation
> devices. They already run Linux, are quite open for hacking, and have
> dedicated (and active) following with several actively maintained
> Debian-based distributions. One could use such a device to create a slim
> server.
>
> The problem is, there is a world of difference between something that
> works well and something that is merely a proof of concept. In this
> case, I do need something that does work well - I cannot afford having a
> home server that is either flaky or crawling when serving the files (I
> am not going to stream video from it, but, as I said, I'd like my iPod
> syncs to stay within a 5-7 minute range). Therefore, I'd really
> appreciate some info from people who have experience using such a setup
> for practical real-life purposes. Moreover, any pointers to an
> alternative device/setup would be also highly appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> -- Sasha
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