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Aug
11
30 Dollars, 30 Minutes, 1 Nice Fileserver
August 11, 2007 | By: UbuntuLinuxHelp | 27 Comments
Posted in How to..., Installation, Linux Projects - Hands On
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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When I'm working, I like to listen to music (which I stream over the local network). I also often download ISO images of Ubuntu CD's, Ultimate Boot CD, etc. The problem comes when I have to power down my main computer. If I have an ISO downloading from Ubuntu or somewhere else, I cannot power down. Needless to say, that was an annoyance as I did not want to leave my main computer on when I was not using it. Not anymore!
I picked up a small used PC that would make a great mini-fileserver with a small footprint; so it can be hidden away. The best part is I got it for only $30 (CAN) - An old IBM Aptiva. The added benefit that this smaller unit uses less energy than my main computer is also a nice bonus (and I don't need to leave a monitor connected to it either).
Here's a snapshot:
Here's what came with it:
- AMD 500MHz CPU
- 256MB RAM
- 10GB HDD
- 40x CDROM
- 1.44 FDD
What was my mission?
A file server that could download my ISO's (including Ubuntu and other free CD's). A way to remotely manage it (SSH for example). An interface for file transfers, GUI etc. (LAMP for example),
"Simplicity" was the mantra.
Because it's an older system with less resources, I didn't want the latest, greatest Ubuntu distribution on it (it's only a file server!)
Instead, I opted to use the 6.10 version, "Edgy Eft" (which I still had the CD for).
Here's what else I used...
1) For the downloading (this should be a torrent client):
TorrentFlux - www.torrentflux.com
Because, "...TorrentFlux is a FREE PHP based Torrent client that runs on a web server. Manage all of your Torrent downloads through a convenient web interface from anywhere..."
2) To share files accross the network:
Samba with SWAT - us1.samba.org and www.linuxsoft.cz
Because, "...Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients. Samba is freely available, unlike other SMB/CIFS implementations, and allows for interoperability between Linux/Unix servers and Windows-based clients..."
and, "...SWAT allows a Samba administrator to configure the complex smb.conf(5) file via a Web browser. In addition, a swat configuration page has help links to all the configurable options in the smb.conf file allowing an administrator to easily look up the effects of any change..."
3) Remote administration (over the network):
openSSH - www.openssh.com
Because, "...OpenSSH is a FREE version of the SSH connectivity tools that technical users of the Internet rely on. Users of telnet, rlogin, and ftp may not realize that their password is transmitted across the Internet unencrypted, but it is. OpenSSH encrypts all traffic (including passwords) to effectively eliminate eavesdropping, connection hijacking, and other attacks. Additionally, OpenSSH provides secure tunneling capabilities and several authentication methods, and supports all SSH protocol versions..."
4) The web GUI capability:
Apache - www.apache.org
Because, "...The Apache HTTP Server Project is a collaborative software development effort aimed at creating a robust, commercial-grade, featureful, and freely-available source code implementation of an HTTP (Web) server. The project is jointly managed by a group of volunteers located around the world, using the Internet and the Web to communicate, plan, and develop the server and its related documentation..."
5) The database (to keep things simple):
MySQL with PHPMyAdmin - www.mysql.com and www.phpmyadmin.net
Because, "...The MySQL® database has become the world's most popular open source database because of its consistent fast performance, high reliability and ease of use..."
and, "...phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web..."
Here is how I put it all together...
1) Boot off the Ubuntu 6.10 CD and select to install a LAMP server, when the prompt/option to do so appears. Follow all the installation prompts as directed.
2) When the install (of the LAMP server) is complete, you will be asked to reboot.
3) Upon rebooting, login using the credentials (user) you created during the installation.
4) Sudo root like this:
sudo type_your_password root
5) Remove the CD in your sources.list file by using nano to edit the file (so we have access to the online repositories), like this:
sudo nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list
Again, remove or comment out the CD entry (we do NOT want the CD as a source). And make sure to uncomment the following so that "apt-get" will use the repositories we need:
- edgy universe
- edgy-security main restricted
- edgy-security universe
- edgy multiverse
- edgy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
- edgy-commercial main
(I do have another post you can visit later that enhances the sources.list for desktop users of Ubuntu Feisty here: The Best Ubuntu Linux Repository List.)
My initial objective is to have the fileserver hidden away as soon as possible and complete the rest of the installation in comfort elsewhere. So the next step will be to get SSH installed.
6) We need to refresh the edited source list (so that apt-get can access the software we need to install). Issue this command to do so:
sudo apt-get update
7) After the update process completes we can begin installing more packages (like SSH ):
sudo apt-get install openssh-server
8) After the installation of SSH is complete, we can power down the server, so that we can remove the monitor, etc., by issuing this command:
sudo shutdown -h now
9) After you've disconnected those un-needed devices, turn your server back on and find somewhere comfortable to finish the rest of the configuration/installation activities.
10) From your other computer, use PuTTY (it's available for Windows or Ubuntu) and connect to the IP address of the server.
Windows, PuTTY can be downloaded first and then installed from: www.softpedia.com
Ubuntu users, just: sudo apt-get install putty
11) Let's get PHPMyAdmin installed by using this command:
sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
12) Now let's use PHPMyAdmin to create the database (DB) that we'll use for TorrentFlux:
In a web browser address bar (substitute the IP address of your server in place of the example one I used here), type:
http://192.168.2.1/phpmyadmin/
13) The user is "root" and the password is blank.
14) Add a password to the root accounts and create the new DB for TorrentFlux.
15) Now install TorrentFlux (in the prompts, ignore the "libphp-adodb" as that is not an issue):
sudo apt-get install torrentflux
16) Say "yes" to the dbconfig-common (because it's thhe DB configuration for TorrentFlux).
17) Yes to generate a random password (by leaving it blank).
18) And "yes" to restart the apache server (so the new configurations will take effect).
19) We're not finished with TorrentFlux just yet, just a tich more to do... go back to your web browser to finalize the TorrentFlux set-up, (substitute the IP address of your server in place of the
example one I used here):
http://192.168.2.1/torrentflux/
20) And configure the file path for sharing incoming files (configuration), your password (profile) and create a new administrative user.
Next, let's get Samba working the way we want.
21) First we need to create a user like this:
sudo smbpasswd -a username
22) (NOTE: I had trouble and could not get SWAT working at first and found a solution by re-making the entry for SWAT, it just started working after, in /etc/xinetd.d/swat
The solution to my issue was here: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=58434&highlight=swat)
23) We must make sure that SWAT was added to xinetd (so it can start) like this:
sudo nano -w /etc/xinetd.d/swat
Make sure it's edited like below:
# SWAT
service swat
{
disable = no
socket_type = stream
protocol = tcp
user = root
wait = no
server = /usr/sbin/swat
}
24) Restart xinetd with the new settings by:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xinetd
25) (Before I forget to say, to determine if SWAT works, use this command: "sudo netstat -tap | grep swat")
Now all me need to change is the default document root for the web server and a basic web page that contains links to all our services.
26) Let's get rid of the default apache (web server) documents using this command:
sudo rm -Rf /var/www/apache2-default/
27) No we are going to add our own custom page that contains our important links. (You can put anything on it you like, for that matter, you can host a whole web site instead, use it to manage your small business records - pretty much whatever you imagine):
sudo nano -w /var/www/index.php
And add the following:
<?php $hostname = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']; ?>
<a href="http://<?php echo $hostname; ?>/phpmyadmin">PHPMyAdmin</a><br />
<a href="http://<?php echo $hostname; ?>/torrentflux">TorrentFlux</a><br />
<a href="http://<?php echo $hostname; ?>:901/">SWAT</a>
28) Finally, let's ad an htaccess file so that you have a bit of security (there's lots of better htaccess information and solutions on the Internet):
sudo nano -w /var/www/.htaccess
And add the following (substitute the name "admin" for whatever you want to use instead):
AuthUserFile /www/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Secure Document"
AuthType Basic
<LIMIT GET PUT POST>
require user admin
</LIMIT>
29) Now in the same directory (www) - (use the terminal (PuTTY) command to go there: cd /var/www/)
And type (substitute the name "admin" for whatever you used above):
htpasswd -c .htpasswd admin
You will be prompted for a password and then the encrypted .htpasswd file will be created.
30) Take a break, we're done!
There are many ways to create a file server such as this and many variations you can configure. My hope is that this guide can serve as an interesting, and perhaps, learning project for you; and leave you with a useful tool. Myself, it was a fun, low-cost project for the weekend, that took me a little over 30 minutes of my time!
Related posts:
- Ubuntu LAMP Server With Torrentflux In VMware
- How to Install VMware in Linux via Source Files
- Automate Your Web Site Backup!
- How to regularly backup Windows XP to Ubuntu, using rsync
- Installing an Ubuntu Linux Hardy 8.04 LAMP and FFMpeg Server With a GUI – LAMP installation with cgi-bin
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Follow-up: A few people asked if (and which) FTP server would be best to use and if media streaming could be installed as well.
The short answers? Yes and Yes.
FTP: I’d suggest using ProFTPD because (if I remember correctly) it has the most features with the smallest footprint. (I think memory usage was especially low).
As for the media server… I have two interpretations, one is the use of Ubuntu Studio. This is an Ubuntu distribution tailored to the needs of audio, video, and graphic enthusiasts or professionals. In other words, it’s a desktop audio/video studio.
or…
Using something like Gnump3d on the web server, where you can surf through your audio and video collection via a web browser, and stream playlists across a network. This is a streaming server for MP3s, OGG files, movies and other media formats.
One benefit of the media server, is that if you open the correct ports on your router (and your ISP does not mind), then you can stream your media to virtually anywhere with an Internet connection!
For those who asked:
Correction – Pure-ftpd has the smaller memory footprint and…
Faster Login Time
Allows Virtual Access on any IP address
Better Security Model
Virtual User Quotas
Deals better with Software Raid systems
I hope this helped.
When I had a home server I used a proprietary upnp server called twonky media server which allowed me to stream video and audio to my xbox 360 once the video was the proper format, it was great. It’s about 40 bucks but it’s worth it.
As far as streaming music to regular users on the internet I used a web based (written in PHP I think) called jinzora, which is really nice and includes a lot of great features.
Another app I would highly recommed is webmin, it’s an encrypted web based app that makes system administration so much easier.
@ Justin
I forgot all about webmin!! :-) Thanks for the reminder: http://www.webmin.com/
Also, for those interested in Jinzora http://en.jinzora.com/ (I didn’t know about that one).
Didn’t know about Twonky either. For those interested: http://www.twonkymedia.com/Pro.....index.html
Thanks for the input!
:-)
[...] (Netboot is when the BIOS is configured to boot of the network card). Last year I posted “30 Dollars, 30 Minutes, 1 Nice Fileserver” and that’s the unit I wiped clean and used for this project. We can begin by [...]
Freenas and openfiler would do this as well if you just want a file server with limited functionality.
A fileserver with a measly 10G HD?? Did you consider upping that at all?
@Robert – Now there’s a name I’ve not heard of in quite a while! Thanks for the reminder. :) Freenas: http://www.freenas.org/
@JP – Sure I did. It was an old box. It was only $30 (dirt cheap). The bios could not handle large drives. Why? It’s an old box. The article was intended to show what we can do with Linux and old junk hardware. ;)
However, sure… We can do the same thing with larger drives on newer units. :) You’re right in that this would be too small for someone to store tons of large “media” files – Waaaayyyy to small. :)
So, then, this wasn’t really designed as a “media server”. It was more intended to be a box that would be cheap to leave on all the time for unattended downloads. Once the download is done, I assume you move the file elsewhere.
@JP – Yup. That way if it got trashed (which it did, my fault) all I had to do was reinstall. It was only a 10GB drive so I created a mirror (used G4U for that) and it worked nicely because the install was just a matter of using the mirrored image! :)
However, doing this on a bigger box (larger HDD) can absolutely include a media component. Something like Gnump3d maybe?
[...] them to a file server. Don’t have a file server? If interested, take a peak at this post: 30 Dollars, 30 Minutes, 1 Nice Fileserver. In my case I set up a local (LAN) FTP server and uploaded all my files and the email backup to [...]
For people who dont’t want to spend a tonne of money on a new box.
for example the one you have,
Usb hard drives??
i Got a old latitude laptop which i use got it for £15 ($25-$30) then got an usb 500Gb hard drive, low noise, small, and very low power consuption, :)
works a treat thanks to ubuntu :)
I like to recommend mdadm for software raid using multiple disks. Webmin (great!) also has a utility to help setup the raid configurations through mdadm. I have two 500GB drives in software raid1 for backing up files, and i’ve actually reinstalled the ubuntu server after a failed motherboard, and re-setup the raid using mdadm on the new install and never lost a file. I use vsftpd for an ftp server, never tried anything else because that worked immediately for me, and it does SSL encryption very easily. You can get a vsftpd webmin module to make ftp server setup easier. I’ve also used LLink, which is a great http media streaming program, very easy to setup and provides pretty xml pages for your media.
@nate – Nice suggestion! :) The developer’s blog (for mdadm) is here: http://neil.brown.name/blog/md.....adm
is it possible to setup file server using the dynamic address, or a static IP address is a must?
well, I must admit that I am new to networking..
@kewl – You must use a static IP address. But, here is a workaround for DHCP: http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/ins.....h-cgi-bin/
(Create a DHCP reservation and configure the host files).
;)
I did this once, pentium mmx, 64MB RAM, 2GB HD… debian floppy disks installation… best shell torrent client I’ve found was rtorrent, i believe that was the name… better than many x11 clients, easy keyboard navigation, very deep options per file, file-part, peer, etc…
This seems almost overly complicated. I have a pc tucked away running ubuntu with a shared folder on the network that stores my files. When I want to play something, I simply play it over the network via the shared folder. For my downloads, there’s a directory in the shared folder that my torrent client always checks for new torrents and loads them automatically when they appear in the folder. (So I browse for my torrents on whatever PC, then save the torrent in the shared folder) When the download is finished the file is moved to the “downloads” folder so I know it’s been completed. When I need access to the PC, I simply use the remote desktop viewer. (although it’s pretty rare that I need to do anything on it) I’m not sure why it was necessary to install a web server, database, ssh, etc etc .. (Although i’m almost sure there’s a very good reason i’m not thinking of)
Thanks for the great post!
[...] 30 Dollars, 30 Minutes, 1 Nice Fileserver | Ubuntu Linux Help okbm[...]
Why don’t you just play it from your own computer?
@David B – So that I can turn my main computer (the big one) off and leave torrents downloading without interruption. ;)
(And I can access all files from any other computer and always have backups).
[...] Setting up a LAN file server running Ubuntu [...]
Это хорошо что вы начали вести блог,ведь у вас это отлично получается и надеюсь будет еще лучше. Главное писать о том,в чем вы разбираетесь. Удачи. :)
@плoxaя – Спасибо. Это приятно читать.
Извините, что я не говорю по-русски.
Thank you. This is nice to read.
Sorry that I don’t speak Russian.
[...] 30 Dollars, 30 Minutes, 1 Nice Fileserver [...]
On such a system you can easily run the latest and greatest kernel and toolset. As long as you do not run a graphics engine, or too many daemons, you’ll be fine.
Even if the performance is slightly less then an older version, you’ll never notice but you would have the latest security at your disposal.