Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
agillis;506485 Wrote: > Have you taken a look a VortexBox? It's a linx distro that is designed > to be a music server. It has SBS installed by default. We use XFS for > our Music partition. It's not quite as cool as ZFS but the performance > is amazing. No I haven't seen that. I use FreeBSD on my desktop and on servers at work so that's where I'm most comfortable :) Still, I'll certainly remember VortexBox if friends want an easy-to-use non-windows SBS system - thanks! sim -- tigersim -- SB3/Duet/SC7.4 on an ultra low-noise homebrew old-skool 19" 4U 24/7 server: Fanless AMD Sempron, underclocked 1.3->1.0GHz (~ 20deg C above ambient) FreeBSD8-STABLE on virtually silent 2.5" Samsung HDD, with spindown FLAC library with auto-synced OGG mirrors: 250GB ATA HDD, with spindown Noctua RF-8 case fan @ < 800RPM. Headless/SSH/SAMBA/NFS - Natural Born Geek! :) tigersim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11362 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
tigersim;505647 Wrote: > A quick update I've just moved my desktop system to ZFS, so nice! :) > Will be migrating my SB server as soon as I've fed it some juicy RAM > sticks... If you go down the FreeBSD route, and don't mind doing a bit > of extra homework/legwork (the FreeBSD installer doesn't yet offer ZFS, > you need to follow a guide), it's definitely worth a look. > > sim Have you taken a look a VortexBox? It's a linx distro that is designed to be a music server. It has SBS installed by default. We use XFS for our Music partition. It's not quite as cool as ZFS but the performance is amazing. -- agillis rip, tag, get cover artÂ… All you do is insert the CD! http://vortexbox.org agillis Lead Developer VortexBox agillis's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=21140 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
A quick update I've just moved my desktop system to ZFS, so nice! :) Will be migrating my SB server as soon as I've fed it some juicy RAM sticks... If you go down the FreeBSD route, and don't mind doing a bit of extra homework/legwork (the FreeBSD installer doesn't yet offer ZFS, you need to follow a guide), it's definitely worth a look. sim -- tigersim -- SB3/Duet/SC7.4 on an ultra low-noise homebrew old-skool 19" 4U 24/7 server: Fanless AMD Sempron, underclocked 1.3->1.0GHz (~ 20deg C above ambient) FreeBSD8-STABLE on virtually silent 2.5" Samsung HDD, with spindown FLAC library with auto-synced OGG mirrors: 250GB ATA HDD, with spindown Noctua RF-8 case fan @ < 800RPM. Headless/SSH/SAMBA/NFS - Natural Born Geek! :) tigersim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11362 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
Rajarajan Rajamani;494865 Wrote: > On 07:10 Sat 12 Dec , dfarrington wrote: > > > > Despite a relatively considerable investment in time to get it set up > > properly, once you have your FreeBSD box going, it truly is > rock-solid. > > And the documentation is really top-notch. > > > > SqueezeBoxServer also runs flawlessly. > > I completely agree, I have been running FreeBSD on an old box off e-bay > for > the past 7-8 years and it has been running 24x7 flawlessly. Except for > needing > attention once in a while to upgrade packages it has been trouble free. +1 again! I built a dedicated headless home fileserver/SBS using FreeBSD on very humble hardware three years ago and it's as solid as a rock, very lean and and secure. It also includes OpenBSD's excellent pf firewall. Of course, Squeezebox Server is in the ports system. To fetch source, build and install (inc dependencies): Code: # cd /usr/ports/audio/squeezeboxserver && make install clean or fetch and install binary package: Code: # pkg_add -r squeezeboxserver Done. As mentioned above, the official documentation is excellent - your first port of call with any problem should always be the 'FreeBSD Handbook' (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/). Beyond that, the 'official forum' (http://forums.freebsd.org/) has a very good signal-to-noise ratio with some very knowledgeable and helpful denizens. As for the other services you want to run, no problem. They're all in the ports system too. Tip - look into FreeBSD's jail system for securely isolating (jailing) network services and apps from each other and the system in general. Very good for web environments. I can't say too much about Debian. I often use Linux systems at work (web dev) and they're fine, but I'm not so familiar with the internals and never quite get the same feeling of 'coherence' that I get from FreeBSD. The guiding philosophies are quite different - remember FreeBSD is a complete OS (kernel, tools & userland) - treated as a whole and all held under one CVS source tree dating back many years. It won't hold your hand but if you're technically minded and really want to understand your computer you can't do much better. HTH /sim -- tigersim -- SB3/Duet/SC7.4 on an ultra low-noise homebrew old-skool 19" 4U 24/7 server: Fanless AMD Sempron, underclocked 1.3->1.0GHz (~ 20deg C above ambient) FreeBSD8-STABLE on virtually silent 2.5" Samsung HDD, with spindown FLAC library with auto-synced OGG mirrors: 250GB ATA HDD, with spindown Noctua RF-8 case fan @ < 800RPM. Headless/SSH/SAMBA/NFS - Natural Born Geek! :) tigersim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11362 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
On 07:10 Sat 12 Dec , dfarrington wrote: > > Despite a relatively considerable investment in time to get it set up > properly, once you have your FreeBSD box going, it truly is rock-solid. > And the documentation is really top-notch. > > SqueezeBoxServer also runs flawlessly. I completely agree, I have been running FreeBSD on an old box off e-bay for the past 7-8 years and it has been running 24x7 flawlessly. Except for needing attention once in a while to upgrade packages it has been trouble free. ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
I used Ubuntu for a long time for my server duties, including SqueezeBoxServer, but for whatever reason found myself tinkering with it way too much. I used to enjoy the tinkering, but lately I've just wanted a 'set it and forget it' approach with minimal maintenance, and FreeBSD has given me that. The ports system is just as easy as apt/synaptic, if you ask me. Despite a relatively considerable investment in time to get it set up properly, once you have your FreeBSD box going, it truly is rock-solid. And the documentation is really top-notch. SqueezeBoxServer also runs flawlessly. There are a million threads at many different sites arguing xBSD vs. GNU/Linux, and both are great, but for this purpose, FreeBSD has been ideal for me. -- dfarrington dfarrington's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7866 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
Thank you all for your tips and repsonses! I'll go for a downgrade to 9.04 for the time being. Thinking about setting up a FreeBSD server in parallel, just to try it out a bit :-) -- robsic robsic's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6665 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
I use Ubuntu (desktop) and disable many of the services. It installs on barely 4GB. Ubuntu also has a stripped down server edition. I have played around with every Ubuntu release, but going forward will stick to long term support releases. My SB server runs 8.04 (duh see my sig), "downgraded from 9.04->9.10. It is rock solid. It also integrates very easily with the inevitable Windows or Mac machine that is likely to infest your household from time to time. :-) Ubuntu 8.04 also provides very nice GUI functionality in a very lightweight way (I found 9.10 to be noticeably slower) and runs very well on machines with very humble hardware specs. An acquaintance of mine just opened a hair salon, and she is joyous with the donation of an 8 year old laptop running 8.04, which runs all the apps she needs for a small business, and between Google apps, open community and such you don't have to spend a cent on software (well, I make a point to make Paypal donations to several projects). And the other great thing about Ubuntu are the forums. They are incredibly helpful and active, and every problem I have ever run into someone else has already had, even though sometimes it takes a while to find the right thread. Then again, the stuff that speaks for Ubuntu also mostly goes for Debian. If it wasn't for Ubuntu I'd definitely run Debian, and I am quite likely to use it soon anyhow. -- pablolie ...pablo Server: Shuttle X27D - Ubuntu 8.04LTS - SBS 7.4.1 Sources: SB3 (3), SB Boom (3), Duet, Accuphase DP65v CD Amplifier: Accuphase E306v - Creek OBH21/22 Loudspeakers: Ceeroy 3-way tower (tuned) - Audioengine 5/S8 - Acoustic Energy Aego M Headphones: Grado SR-1 pablolie's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3816 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
epoch1970 wrote: > Debian sometimes get adamant over licensing problems nobody cares > about. I am *pissed* having to recompile netatalk to make it work with > mac clients, just because someone decided linking with ssh taints the > license. Its almost a cult with the folks who support/commit. Makes no sense to most outsiders. I agree that the documentation has not kept up. The good news is that nearly all Ubuntu documentation works. I tend to not care too much about distro-specific documentation, probably because its just a server and once its setup, I don't mess with it. I go to Apache for apache documentation, Postfix for that, etc. Ubuntu LTS is a valid option. Just install the server flavor and tell it to install everything, all the GUI stuff too. -- Pat Farrell http://www.pfarrell.com/ ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
I think debian's reputation for stability is a bit overrated. They did accelerate their update cycles, but when a stable gets really old (not the case right now, lenny is still young), you end-up mixing stable with testing or unstable, and that's not really what you want. The backports distribution is a nice solution to this, but it has less exposure and finally it holds a limited number of modern packages backported to stable. Although I've been using debian almost exclusively for years, I began using ubuntu for Desktops immediately, and I am really pondering the idea of going "ubunu server LTS" for my servers. Debian's documentation used to be great. I think right now it is poor, and it pales in comparison to the one provided by Ubuntu. Debian has the -imho- dreadful habit of installing Exim 4 as the MTA. Yers after years I've been figthing the dependencies to either install qmail or now postfix instead. Debian sometimes get adamant over licensing problems nobody cares about. I am *pissed* having to recompile netatalk to make it work with mac clients, just because someone decided linking with ssh taints the license. I use FreeBSD very little, but I see it as very stable and solid. The port system is pretty good. BSD's license if free, yet practical. With FreeBSD you can use ZFS. Power management was not BSD's forte until recently, but I believe 7.x has all the ACPI features you want. (I believe FreeNAS is built upon a minimal FreeBSD 7 these days, perhaps you want to give a spin to the live-CD.) If you want a desktop and modern features, go for Ubuntu. If you want a server, go for Lenny which is still good, or for ubuntu LTS. If you want a rock-solid server, check the hardware management features of FreeBSD, the list of ports for your favorite apps, and go for it. -- epoch1970 epoch1970's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=16711 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
robsic wrote: > I'm planning to move my existing Squeezeboxserver/Ubuntu-Karmic into a > more stable server environment, such as FreeBSD or Debian. > Apart from the Squeezeboxserver, I also have a webserver, Samba, > DNS/DHCP and local email services running. > > Now I'm looking for advice, considering the operation/maintenance of > the Squeezeboxserver. What is the pros and cons for Debian and FreeBSD? I'm a Debian for servers, Ubuntu for desktops guy, I don't have any real experience with the assorted xBSD (freeBSD, NetBSD, etc.) I have a good friend who swears by the xBSD code, philosophy, etc. I will repeat my standard advice for distro picking: Find a buddy using what you are thinking about. Buy them a beer. Pick their brain. That way, you can get help for the price of a beer. I run all those kinds of services on my servers, and even a NNTP pool. Works fine. I like Debian because synaptic makes installs easy. As an aside, I strongly suggest postfix over sendmail for a mail server, as the configuration files of postfix can be read and understood by humans. Part of my setup is that I have two servers with DHCP (rollover, backup, etc.) , and I assign fixed IP addresses to all my computers, squeezeboxen, etc. based on their MAC addresses. Then I have the bind server resolve the addresses to nice human host names. -- Pat Farrell http://www.pfarrell.com/ ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
Re: [SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
This wasn't one of the choices you offered, but how about choosing an earlier version of Ubuntu? I've been running 8.10 as my SB server machine for almost a year and it is very stable and reliable, as were other versions before that. I also run 9.04 on one non-server machine. Or you could go back to 8.04, which is their most recent version with Long Term Support (LTS). If you're determined to switch, then I would advise debian because (a) SB's good support for .deb packages, which makes upgrading SBS easy, and (b) as Ubuntu is debian-based, it will already be somewhat familiar to you, albeit with a lot less hand-holding than you get with Ubuntu. -- aubuti aubuti's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2074 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
[SlimDevices: Unix] Advice on server (debian or freebsd)
Hi, I'm planning to move my existing Squeezeboxserver/Ubuntu-Karmic into a more stable server environment, such as FreeBSD or Debian. Apart from the Squeezeboxserver, I also have a webserver, Samba, DNS/DHCP and local email services running. Now I'm looking for advice, considering the operation/maintenance of the Squeezeboxserver. What is the pros and cons for Debian and FreeBSD? Thanks, Robert -- robsic robsic's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=6665 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=72274 ___ unix mailing list unix@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/unix
