The time has finally come. Linux guys, please come help me set up my RAID5 fileserver

[directhex]

logical or primary doesn't really matter, especially since /boot is primary

filesystem... your call. ext3 is tried and trusted by slow (especially with large files), jfs is a bit fringe, xfs is fast and good for big files but tends to eat files in the event of power loss, and resierfs may murder your wife and bury the body

[SiM]

resierfs may murder your wife and bury the body

LOL... hmm I will bear that in mind for the future

I will be handling big files (this will feed the HTPC), so XFS sounds like it will do the job best... Good comparison here

EDIT: finally progressed past that partition screen... installing the base system now

[SiM]

OK that was quick. I installed Samba... and now I am running it, on the command line... what do i do? lol

Now I need to:
1) set up a shared folder and make it visible over the network.
2) set up turning on from lan and turning off after idle

will google for guides, but if someone can point me in the right direction that would be great

I take it, I can't browse the web from the server...

[peterb]

I was going to post,,,

You don't need a separate partition for /tmp but if you aren't going to put the shared filestore in /home, you really should put that on a separate partition.

You only need one swap file - about 1Gb will be fine.

....However I see you have it up and running.

Did you install a Gui? If so you can download (if it isn't already installed) firefox and use that for web browsing.

If you have installed Gnome or KDE, there are some graphical interfaces for setting up Samba.

http://us6.samba.org/samba/

Which file system did you go for? Personally I would have stayed with ext3 - well trieed, tested and supported.

[SiM]

I can always install it again, it didn't take long... So I will do:

drive 1:
128mb /boot
1920mb swap

drive 2:
2048mb /var

drive 3:
2048mb /home

I didn't install a gui... do I need one?

I am trying to set up remote ssh access now... then I won't need gui as I can browse the net, and copy and paste commands from this pc.

I used ext3 for everything except the raid array, which was XFS... Chose XFS because its better for big files (I might have some HD-DVD ripped onto the array) and because I read this on the above link:
"Ext3 has the worst inital capacity (92.77&#37, while others FS preserve almost full partition capacity (ReiserFS = 99.83%, JFS = 99.82%, XFS = 99.95%)"

[peterb]

You don't need a gui - just makes it a bit easier setting up - or web browsing from the machine itself.

type man ssh to find out how to set it up - the manual pages are pretty comprehensive.

[SiM]

OK reinstalling with above partitions and will set up a gui... will try to set up openssh too for admining later on...

Think I will try KDE

[SiM]

Installing KDE-core now

[SiM]

OK, I KDE is installed. Anyone know how to run it? lol

[SiM]

I got webadmin installed and working. It seems very good. I can run commands through that on my desktop now

Still don't know how to open KDE though lol

EDIT: the command kdm does it... im not sure why they don't make that clearer lol

[SiM]

Did you install a Gui? If so you can download (if it isn't already installed) firefox and use that for web browsing.

If you have installed Gnome or KDE, there are some graphical interfaces for setting up Samba.

http://us6.samba.org/samba/

OK, I am in KDE (browsing with Konqueror)... Which GUI shall I use? I have webmin installed and that works for remote administration too...

How do I make a folder on the 2TB partition for sharing?

[directhex]

(install the "kubuntu-desktop" package)

[SiM]

(install the "kubuntu-desktop" package)

I was trying to avoid that. Keeping the server light... I can get to the desktop, it loads automatically now... Does the desktop package have anything else I need?

During load up it says something about the raid array not being clean and it is rebuilding in background... Should I worry?

I see this in Webmin

RAID device options
Device file 	/dev/md0
RAID level 	Redundant (RAID5)
Filesystem status 	Active but not mounted
Usable size 	1949583872 blocks (1.82 TB)
Persistent superblock? 	Yes
Parity algorithm 	Default
Chunk size 	64 kB
RAID status 	active, resyncing
Rebuilding progress 	9 %
Partitions in RAID 	SCSI device A partition 5
SCSI device B partition 5
SCSI device C partition 5

I think I need to do another re-install...
Will do kubuntu-desktop this time...

The only thing is, I don't want it loading too much stuff once its up and running... so I will disable desktop then...

[peterb]

You rarely need to re-install linux - most things can be fixed easily! (Well relatively easily - and you learn more while you are fixing it - re-install is for Windows Wimps )

It looks as if you Raid system is vbuilding itself - but the array is not mounted - so it isn't available for use. The array will have a drive designator - possibly md0.

You need to look at your file system - either using a file browser from kde or in a terminal using the commands cd / (change working director to the root of the file system) then ls - l (list with a long list option) That will list all the bottom level directories. You should have /home there.

BTW - I hope ypu created a user account for yourself - most distros force you to do that.

If you recall, I sufggested that you bought a good book about your distro - now is the time to think about one of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_...ubuntu&x=0&y=0

Personally I would probably go for this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubuntu-Linux...552873&sr=8-19

or this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubuntu-Unlea...552873&sr=8-32

as they are specific to Ubuntu

You may raise an eyebrow at the cost - but believe me - they will prove their value time and time again in the early days.

As a good general Linux book - mine is very well thumbed - I can wholeheartedly recommend

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linux-Nutshe...5553114&sr=8-1

[SiM]

There are some free ebooks, including Ubuntu Unleashed that you suggested... so I will look at it tomorrow

EDIT: another concern I have is transferability between computers. Say in a years time will it work if I transfer the array into a different computer, then reinstall ubuntu? Would it be better to install the OS on a different hard drive (I have a spare 40gb here) and keep the whole drives for the arrays? I only have 4 sata ports though, but I have an extra 2 on a pcie sata card... which will probably work

[peterb]

Not necessarily a different drive, but certainly a different partition - thats one of the reasons for separating out /home (and possibly /var) /boot has to be separate for reasons we discussed earlier. TBH - in RAID 5 where it is the data that is most important (unless 24x7 operation is critical) you could argue that the OS doesn't need to be on a RAID disk anyway. BTW - I'm sure you won't, but don't fall into the 'trap' of thinking that havinbg aRAID array reduces the backup requirement - it doesn't!