new NAS setup

[Jay Strauss]

Hi, I need to build a new file server (disks are making a lot of noise, and the OS is out of date (Ubuntu 8.10 :)).

I have windows desktops

I've always used samba, and mapped u:/ to my samba share and stored all my files on the server. While this has always made it really easy to re-install windows, since all my data lives on the server, its always seemed kinda stupid that I don't use my local drives and just backup or sync to the server.

Is there an easy way (like google drive) that I could do replication to the server from windows?

Now also, I have your usual compliment of iphones, and now a samsung smart tv.

It'd be nice if I could get at my videos from the TV.

I suppose it would be nice if I could get at my files from outside my house (currently when I need something I just scp in and cp, but that's kind of a PITA)

What should I be looking to build?  A file server, a media server?

thanks for any suggestions

Jay

[Samir Faci]

I think what you're referring to is called a "Roaming profile".  It essentially lazily uploads/downloads data from your $HOME to the remote samba share.  I haven't done anything in samba in ages.. but have a look at this and see if it's helpful.

http://tebros.com/2011/08/how-to-speed-up-a-roaming-profile/

and

https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba_%26_Windows_Profiles

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Thank you
Samir Faci

[Mark M.]

I run a crummy old box as a media server and backup collection point.

MediaTomb to serve to my PS3/Samsung TV.
I'm lazy and use Dropbox for syncing (helps that they goofed and gave me a free Pro plan for a year), including on my server.

Then I just back up that machine to my Drobo via rsync.

YMMV.

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[Jay Strauss]

No Samba? Why no need? 

What do you use?

[Samir Faci]

You might also look at:

http://sparkleshare.org/  (Dropbox open source self-hosted replacement)  and

http://owncloud.org/  (Closer to google services hosted on your box ) 

Thank you
Samir Faci

[JAMES HARVEY]

I have a DLink dns-320 NAS box. Its not much bigger than the two hard drives inside. It is Linux based and easily hacked. It serves SMB or CIFS to the five or so machines here including two Android tablets thru ES Explorer. I put Twonkey on it and my smart TV can play all the ripped DVDs now. The 320 has a USB port that I use to back up everything to an external drive with rsync. So I'm saying its worth investigating a dedicated NAS appliance. Small quiet and 2T in raid 1. It was less than $100 without the drives. Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

--

[Jay Strauss]

Thanks Jim, but my question is less about buying a nas (since I have plenty of old hardware to build one), than about

1) What should I be thinking about building into a NAS

2) How to setup my network to use the NAS in a way that makes sense

Thanks

Jay

[Arun Khan]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 4:00 AM, Samir Faci <sa...@esamir.com> wrote:
> I think what you're referring to is called a "Roaming profile". It
> essentially lazily uploads/downloads data from your $HOME to the remote
> samba share. I haven't done anything in samba in ages.. but have a look at
> this and see if it's helpful.

$HOME -- are you referring to Linux/*nix desktops or Windows desktops?

For *nix desktops, NFS might be better where you mount the NFS store
on /home and don't have to anything more.

For Windows desktops - Roaming Profile is the equivalent of a *nix
"home dir" but not the same as the *nix "home" dir. Roaming profiles
can only be handled by Samba.

-- Arun Khan

[Arun Khan]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 3:51 AM, Jay Strauss <m...@heyjay.com> wrote:
> Hi, I need to build a new file server (disks are making a lot of noise, and
> the OS is out of date (Ubuntu 8.10 :)).
>
> I have windows desktops
>
> I've always used samba, and mapped u:/ to my samba share and stored all my
> files on the server. While this has always made it really easy to re-install
> windows, since all my data lives on the server, its always seemed kinda
> stupid that I don't use my local drives and just backup or sync to the
> server.

Why use high capacity HDDs on a desktop? It is such a waste IMO,
Although, I don't use Windows desktop, the concept of what I have done
for Linux could be extended to a Windows desktop as well. Install
your Windows on a 32GB pen drive and mount the Samba share for all
your data.

> Is there an easy way (like google drive) that I could do replication to the
> server from windows?
>
>
> Now also, I have your usual compliment of iphones, and now a samsung smart
> tv.
>

I second Samir's suggestion of 'owncloud' I have not used smart
devices with it but looks it has apps for smart devices. With openVPN
you could access them from the WAN.

> It'd be nice if I could get at my videos from the TV.

XBMC? It is there in Ubuntu repo.

> I suppose it would be nice if I could get at my files from outside my house
> (currently when I need something I just scp in and cp, but that's kind of a
> PITA)
>

You mean ssh and scp? Whatever you do there is no way around logging
into the file server and getting the files.

openVPN? This would open up your other apps like owncloud w/o port
forwarding every service that you run on your network. Configure the
server to allow certificate based connections.

> What should I be looking to build? A file server, a media server?
>

First thoughts, looks like you need a mixture of various functionality.

It would be great if you share what you end implementing.

-- Arun Khan

[Jay Strauss]

I ended up simply building a new ubuntu box out of an old machine and parts. Nothing fancy. Ran both systems side by side for a couple of days, rsync-ing from old to new.

Then shut the old one down.

I'm not sure your pen drive idea would work on win8 (or 7), because windows is pretty particular about where it puts files. And you can't or couldn't in win7 redirect your entire home directory

I simply mount the nas file share under u: and try to remember to put everything there.


Sent from my iPhone

[Arun Khan]

On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 6:13 PM, Jay Strauss <m...@heyjay.com> wrote:

> I'm not sure your pen drive idea would work on win8 (or 7), because windows is pretty particular about where it puts files. And you can't or couldn't in win7
>redirect your entire home directory

I have seen tech support guys carrying Win7 on 32GB pen drive and use
it for supporting their products at client sites. I do the same with
a Linux based system rescue CD.

-- Arun Khan

[Mike Scott]

Our entire company uses a bootable Win7 environment on a small USB stick
for everything from ghosting our standard OS image onto new systems, to
performing rescues.

All of our user systems are leased and replaced at three year intervals
(though not all at once).
It is also handy for booting systems that won't boot from their hard
drive in order to extract user data files prior to re-image.

I have also seen how-to articles on moving the user's local data to a
different partition from the boot partition. Some contend that should be
best practice for security and portability.

I don't see why the \user partition couldn't be a removable drive or
even a network share.
If the data is there when the user signs on, Windows shouldn't care
where it exists physically.

- Mike Scott

[Rey Cruz]

I have a centos 7 box with raided hard rives. I use samba for storage and plex for media sharing. It works great and is cross platform. You can use it in and outside by opening a port in your firewall. I back up to the server and then back up the server with external hds. Seems your setup is fine why mess with some thing that works. Upgrade the os and add plex to it.