Posted on 02/08/2009 3:37:20 PM PST by Tennessee_Bob
Ok - let me go through the basic checklist. Logged in to FR? Check Logged into my computer? Check Logged into the server? Check Tin foil hat? On and locked Large grain of salt available? Check (although I'm cutting down on salt)
I have a small network here at the house. Cable modem into a router, router split into three workstations. I inherited an additional box from a friend, and it's been sitting around for a while, so I figured - heck - let's turn it into a local file/printer/web server. Windows Server 2003 or Home Server are way too expensive, but Ubuntu Server is priced just right. It's free.
However, I'm a newbie to Ubuntu and the whole server process. I figured that the easiest thing to do for now would be to have it as a spur off the network, rather than trying to use it as a gateway. So for now, it'll be sitting behind the router with the other workstations.
What I'd like to do would be to get some advice, some fingers pointed in a good direction, and possibly some I could email with any questions regarding getting this thing done.
Ubuntu is installed. I installed it as a LAMP server, and included SAMBA. What I'd like to do now is get it all up so that the rest of my family can access it. I've installed SSH, and am running Putty from the Windows box so I've got access to the command line. I'm considering installing WebMin - it looks like it might make it easier to admin - but any suggestions (including "Go drink another beer") would be appreciated.
Ping!
You've covered all the bases except taking a shower. Now that's critical.
How do you want them to access it? You said you are set up for file and print. Are you restricting them to certain folders or giving them access to the whole drive?
Yesterday was Saturday - I took one then. :)
Seriesly.
I want them to be able to access the entire NTFS drive.
I’ve got two drives, a 120gb that contains Ubuntu, and a 250gb that is formatted to NTFS for the Windows side of the house.
I’m going through the Samba install document that you posted, and so far, that appears to be what I’m looking to do for now. I want the family to be able to access the NTFS (I keep having to correct that - one of the programs I work with is called NFTS, so if you see that, forgive me :) ) drive - if we can do it without them having to use a login/password, that would be great.
Additionally, one thing I’d like to do would be to host a family website locally - just for those of us in the house. Keep a calendar on it, reminders of upcoming stuff, etc. I figured with the LAMP installation, I could work out how to do the Apache side of it. Right now, I’m wanting to be able to configure the file share side of it.
(kidding)
The “kidding” was in too small a font!
As for setting up a web server - the first question is, is your Ubuntu box running the web server now?? Just aim a Web browser at the box and see if it serves up the default apache page? http://IP_ADDR_OF_UR_UBUNTU_BOX
To allow this to be seen on the web you need to do a couple of things. 1) Put a hole in your router to allow HTTP requests (port 80) get sent through the router to your Ubuntu box. This will allow anyone from the outside world to see your web page. 2) Get a domain name and set up a DNS server (look at www.granitecanyon.com- free dns services).
Now the problem with doing this and using the box as a Disk server as well is that you have your families files on a web server that may get hacked some time in the future.
Finally - I’ve been using Webmin to administer multiple boxes at my house for about 8 years. I think it is a great tool.
And become another slave to Bill? LOL - actually, all the boxes here at the house are Windows machines - including this one. But this one dual boots into Ubuntu. I could run Windows server, but wanted to do something different.
Linux can't write to NTFS (by default).
Use a Linux native filesystem, such as "ext3". Let Samba take care of making it look Windows-friendly.
AFAIK, an NTFS partition on Ubuntu is read-only at best, unless you fork over $bux$ to somebody for a read-write driver.
I share ext3 to Windows users at my company and at home using Samba. Works just dandy.
Took your suggestion and browsed to the server box url, and got the following message: It Works!
Coolness so far :)
Bookmarking so I can learn from YOUR adventures before trying it myself! ;-)
Ok - I understand the need to convert the 250gb to EXT3 - I’ve gone looking and can’t find much that indicates I’ll be able to convert to that format on the fly - so once I get the server up to a point where I can access the drive, I’m going to have to convert half of it to EXT3, move everything over to it, convert the other half, and then merge. Quicker/easier than trying to move everything off the share, convert, and move back.
When you say "convert" filesystems, do you have a magic software utility that will do that for you? Otherwise you've got quite a task ahead. In-place "conversion" from NTFS to ext3 is not something I've seen done before. I have used Partition Magic to shrink an NTFS partition, open up the free space, put the disk on Linux, and format (mkfs) the ext3 partition. But last I knew, Partition Magic didn't deal with non-Microsoft filesystems.
But overall it's MUCH easier and less error-prone to get a separate disk, copy the files to it, repartition/reformat the original disk, and copy back.
Am I correct in assuming that your 250GB NTFS disk has something under 125GB of files on it, so that you can in fact shrink the NTFS partition to half of the physical size of the disk?
That was the plan, reduce the size of the files on the NTFS partition, create an EXT3 partition and move the NTFS files to it, then convert was left and merge them together.
However, I was able to pull up the NTFS drive in Ubuntu, and read the files located on it. I created a file in the text editor, and was able to save it to the NTFS drive. I’m still looking into it to see what all I can/can’t do. Once I get the share up, I’ll see what we can do from a windows box to the shared drive.
Be careful, please. There exist allegedly "write-capable" Linux drivers for NTFS, but none that *in my experience* are guaranteed to work:
a) in all circumstances, and
b) compatibly with Windows client machines sharing the same filesystem
Definitely check the fine print on anything that claims to be able to write NTFS, that is not from Microsoft or one of their licensed driver partners. Be suspicious. I've been burned by this one (writes turned out to be unstable, and if you value your data as I do, "writing" was a mirage).
OTOH, if you really have full read/write on NTFS via Linux, I'm interested in knowing the details if you're willing to share your experience.
Here’s what I’ve got going on - I’m running server with a GUI. It’s easier for me to deal with that than to go through a straight CLI. Beyond that, I didn’t load anything beyond what came with the OS. I was able to browse to the NTFS drive within the Ubuntu file browser and to open it up. I was able to see files within there, browse directories, and actually listen to audio files I have stored there and to look at a couple video clips that I have in there. PDF files pulled up with no problem.
I did create a root password so I could login to that side of the system and make some changes to the domain name in Samba (and yes, I’m going to get rid of it here in a minute), but other than that, I didn’t make any adds to the system to gain access to the NTFS.
I don’t know if it’s something that was added with 8.10 or not, but it’s there, and right now, I’m copy files from my workstation to the shared drive.
Bump.
You mention that you want the Ubuntu machine to host a web site. Yet you also said the machine was inside your firewall. Do you know how to set up your router to that effect, or would you like some guidance?
dayglored, the new ntfs_ng drivers can read/Write an NTFS partition without trouble.
Do they specify which version(s) of NTFS are supported for write? Microsoft adds features every so often and using different versions of Windows can create problems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntfs#Versions.
Any known limitations?
I wonder if somebody has the same for the Mac?
The intention is to just host it locally, within the firewall itself, rather than going to the outside world. I figure this will give me the opportunity to practice with it, before I do anything like going out to the public.
Question about Ubuntu server though -
I’ve got it up and running the file share ok at this time. I’m curious though as to what it would take to have this machine acting as a gateway between the internet and the home workstations.
Currently, the network is set up as follows - cable modem to router, router feeds the three workstations and the Ubuntu file share.
Can I have it going cable modem to Ubuntu, Ubuntu to the router - router to the workstations? I have two NICS in the Ubuntu box, so one could act as the incoming from the cable modem and the other outgoing to the router.
You’ve already got a router. It has a firewall in it (probably). Why add another gateway?
Fascinating, thanks!
I do note this warning:
After installing ntfs-3g, all NTFS drives will disappear from the "Startup Disk" preference pane. Disabling or uninstalling ntfs-3g brings them back. It seems that this issue can't be solved, but only worked around since the Startup Disk preference pane doesn't recognize file system drivers that are not provided by Apple.But since my BootCamp XP partition is FAT32, not NTFS, I might get away with it. Cool!
This thread is worthless without pics.
Mine doesn't have the IB Consulting on it.
Primarily, because I want the experience in doing it. I want to see what all can be done as far as control over a user's profile, limiting time online, etc.
It's possible, and many people do it. However, since you'd need to configure your own firewall rules, this requires a good understanding of TCP/IP routing and of the iptables command. There are some packages acting as a GUI on top of iptables, but a good understanding of this command is critical to the operation of a gateway. So read up the tutorials on it and experiment, since you have two NICs.
Also, there is one good reason for which you might NOT want to use a PC as a gateway: reliability. A PC has rotating fans and hard drives that make its reliability lower than that of a full solid-state gateway. And when you gateway breaks down, you can't even look online for help!
Me, I use a Linksys WRT54GL router (designed to be easy to hack) and I flashed it with the free DD-WRT linux-based home gateway software, which has an excellent web interface AND a command line. The router has no moving part and can be bought new for less than $50.
If you want to experiment with Linux as a gateway, that's the solution I recommend.
Get yyourself a BIG drive...Seagate’s 1.5 Terabyte was going for $129 a few weeks ago...
I want to do some of this ...Guess I am thinking of haveing a server model...
cable modem to router ...to serverver with an 8 port swich connecting to the other computers and devices....have a printer I want to share...
Allegedly? NTFS read/write in the Linux 2.6 kernel is exactly as guaranteed to work ast NTFS on Windows.
Truthfully, NTFS write support on Ubuntu works just fine.
Good point, although I've lost more power supplies than fans or hard drives.
That's why if you really care you'll install a pair of Soekris boxes. OpenBSD runs on them just fine and it ships with CARP. For about $400 a pair of load balanced, fail-over firewalls with no moving parts.
Why drop a bottle neck into the system...all I see in their products is 10/100 ethernet connections...otherwise interesting stuff....prices indicate commercial grade .
Interesting company...
**********************
Soekris Engineering, Inc.
5400 Soquel Avenue, Suite E
Santa Cruz, CA 95062-7803
USA
Phone +1(831)464-5370, Fax +1(831)462-0946
What, you have a 200MB uplink to the Internet?
And Soekris prices are very reasonable when you consider the cost of actual commercial grade firewalls...
Just found this:
IBM is doing stuff with Ubuntu and Servers....will post some things...just saw this morning from summer of 2008....
Thanks for dropping that link here.
********************EXCERPT***********************
When the firewall goes down, inside users are unable to surf the web, the website goes dead to the outside world, and email grinds to a halt. Since version 3.5, OpenBSD has included a number of components which can be used to solve this problem, by placing two firewalls in parallel. All traffic passes through the primary firewall; when it fails the backup firewall assumes the identity of the primary firewall, and continues where it left off. Existing connections are preserved, and network traffic continues as if nothing had happened.
CARP (the Common Address Redundancy Protocol)
The newer OpenBSD builds also include pflog which lets you combine your firewall logs into a single stream for traffic analysis and IDS functions, ifstated which lets you do for internal servers what CARP does for firewalls, p0f which pulls OS and application fingerprints out of network traffic, spamd which is the single most effective spam eliminator I've ever seen and OpenBGP which is a fully documented replacement for Cisco's buggy BGP.
Can you tell I like OpenBSD? ;)
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