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Hey everyone
Due to IT upgrades at work, I have managed to get my hands on two Dell Poweredge 2950 2u enterprise rackmount servers.
The spec is as follows:
2 x Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5148 processor at 2.33GHz
8GB Ram
8 x 300GB SAS 15000 RPM Hard Drives
2 x Broadcom NetXtreme II 5708 Gigabit7 Ethernet NIC with fail-over and load balancing.
Integrated PERC 5/i: SAS 3.0 Gb/s RAID controller with 256MB of battery-backup cache
DRAC 5
2 x auto switching 750w power supplies
I am planning on switching to one of these as soon as my server rack arrives but I was just curious as to what everyone else uses their home servers for.
I already use mine for sickbeard, couchpotato, headphones etc and obviously serving up my home media but what other cool things could it be used for?
I currently have windows 7 ultimate installed on it but might look to one of the windows server builds if it is worth it?
I would appreciate everyone elses experiences and comments.
Cheers
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I ran Windows Home Server until MS abandoned the first release. Since then I've been running Amahi and I like it alot. It has most of the advantageous of WHS without the cost.
But, if you're thinking about a full blown Windows Server install then I guess cost isn't an issue for you.
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I have a drive in mine dedicated to computer backups. All my computers backup on a schedule. I also haveitunes on it so I sync my devices wirelessly.
I run fingerprint so I can print from my iOS devices.
Run netxfer to record streaming radio shows and auto put them into iTunes.
Those are a few other things I run on mine.
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some other things you can use it for:
- IP cameras (to make sure nobody steals your sweet gear)
- setup your own home automation system (check out charmedquark.com)
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wiz561
Senior Member
Posts: 138
2012-02-12, 21:03
(This post was last modified: 2016-04-13, 21:39 by wiz561.)
So far, I haven't heard any complaints from my ISP about running services on it. Since it's just for me and one other user, it's not a big deal. I'm sure if I was passing a LOT of traffic across common ports (IE: 80 or 443), it would raise a red flag somewhere....
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Hi guys.
Sorry, I should have mentioned that I already use Dyndns to talk to my setup from the outside world and remote desktop & logmein.
Yeah it was a lucky find, the servers were about to be thrown out when I rescued them.
I'm tempted to setup a proxy / firewall so all of my home internet traffic passes through the server but not sure what software to use.
I would like to resrict / monitor the websites my children are accessing but do it centrally. My router has this function but it sucks.
The first ethernet port on my server plugs directly into my router (wifi turned off) and then I have a wireless access point plugged into my network switch broadcasting wifi throughout the house. All of my wired ethernet ports in the house go through a network switch which then go through the second ethernet port on server before reaching the router.
Due to this I know I can channel the traffic through the server before it gets to the router, I just dont know what software to use?
Any help would be appreciated.
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jackh
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I have setup my server very similarly to wiz561. For sharing media I'm using both NFS and Samba. Right now this machine is an old Pentium 4 and still handles all that stuff effortlessly (OS is Xubuntu, very light!). For remote access: ssh and x11vnc gives me full remote desktop. Plus torrents. Plus Dyndns. Plus OpenDNS IP updates.
Planning on upgrading hardware soon, since the CPU won't support Virtualization. When that's done, I'll run a VM with my Asterisk (PBX) which is currently running off my HTPC.
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Ditch Windows and install ESXi
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Im running WHS2011 with Stablebit Drivepool (8TB of drive space) and Flexraid for redundency (using a 2TB as a parity drive)
If my replies help you, please click on my reputation
below :) thanks :)
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I'm in the process of replacing my NAS with the HP Microserver N40L. I also ditch windows and downloading Ubuntu. Already setup 2 WD 1.5 TB drives with Raid0 configuration to share it on my network.
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I just built mine, it is actually more of a desktop that is used as server, but we have to be fair, in most (All?) Home Server case, a simple desktop repurposed as a server will handle the load effortlessly.
I used it to
[ul][li]share my media over my local network[/li][li]run an intranet, local web app that are aimed to home automation later on, I am just starting with that)[/li][li]Backup my PCs important data (use of freefilesync)[/li][li]Back up in the cloud with crashplan[/li][li]host my XBMC library (shared between rooms)[/li][/ul]
it is running Ubuntu 11.10 Server + LAMP + Samba.
After reading the above, I guess some new functionalities will be added.
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Cheers for the links guys.
Will checkout Astaro & Untangle as I think they will give me the usage information I require.
Does anyone know of any software like Astaro or Untangle that will cache images on the server to increase browsing speed & save bandwidth?
Ideally I would also like to be able to look at the images as sometimes just seeing the website address is not enough to monitor web usage as there are alot of websites with an ok sounding name but they serve adult material not meant for children.
Or if it can save images of the webpages that are visited and keep copies of any files that are sent and received?
