your server os experiences?
#1
Hi guys, I builded a whle ago a server and its running win7Rolleyes , but my storage are growing and i want to switch the os to a server os.
So do you have any advices for me which os i should using or have you made good experiences with you os, so tell me?Blush
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#2
depending on your needs Ubuntu Server if you need extra functionality or unRaid if its just a NAS.
for almost 10 years I have lived without Windows due to the amount of effort required to maintain and instability.
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#3
Hi,
lots of people around here did recommend unRAID, when i wanted to move away from my previous openfiler installation, and i am really happy with it.
easy to maintain, and running without any problems for about 6 months now.

btw: it went 5.0-stable yesterday.
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#4
(2013-08-29, 16:22)nokdim Wrote: depending on your needs Ubuntu Server if you need extra functionality or unRaid if its just a NAS.
for almost 10 years I have lived without Windows due to the amount of effort required to maintain and instability.

++1
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#5
(2013-08-29, 16:22)nokdim Wrote: depending on your needs Ubuntu Server if you need extra functionality or unRaid if its just a NAS.
for almost 10 years I have lived without Windows due to the amount of effort required to maintain and instability.

I use Ubuntu as well with Amahi. Using all my USB Raid 5 enclosures and Greyhole pools all the drives so it just looks like 1 big ~50TB drive. If it could add my QNap nas in there as well that'd be sweet. Movies all go to the pool and tv shows to the nas so only 2 drive mappings for XBMC
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#6
You might consider taking a step back and asking yourself what you want in (and mean by) a "server" OS. There are plenty of drive pooling packages now that can work with Windows 7 or any other desktop OS.

I run Windows 2012 and while it's rock solid now, I'd probably choose Windows 7 if I were to do it all over again. On the Windows side, you'll find that some hoops need to be jumped through to get things working smoothly on their server OS's. For example, drivers often aren't fully certified. The single reason why I chose Windows 2012 was because of the built-in drive pooling, and I'm not even using it. However I have found it to be mildly troublesome with drivers, and the support resources on the web are more limited compared to Win7. That said, it's now as stable as an appliance and my family uses it daily for XBMC with absolutely no complaints.

Linux is a great way to go if you don't need Windows-specific applications. My computer requirements included some Windows-only applications so that's what I went with. If it were dedicated to only XBMC then I'd probably be running on Linux, maybe even OpenElec.
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#7
I have gone back and forth with my server OS over the last two weeks i tried about 10 different linux distros as i had no previous experience with linux it was something i wanted to try and whilst i was able to get a Distro up and running and sharing files it became a thing where i spent so much time learning how to do almost every little thing (don't get me started on the nightmare of using Hdparm to spindown idle drives) and in the end i could not run some of the needed software i reguarly use (without using a VM of Windows which defeats the purpose of a lightweight Linux) so i have switched back to windows and currently running Windows 8 Pro on my Home server

I decided on this after seeing many articles about how seeing that Windows Home Server 2011 was the last one and The Insane Price of Windows Server 2012 a good idea would be to use Windows 8 Pro as the OS as it is cheaper and has most of the things Server 2012 has anyways there is of course the simultaeneus Connections limit of 20 but for a home environment this is unlikely to be an issue

I liked linux especially the price but after spending time using it i just found myself realising Price, and (Supposed Bloat) aside windows is so much easier to setup a linux distro took on average about 2 hours to setup for all the things i needed Windows took about 30 Mins Max

I set a Uptime Counter on my Windows Machine as i want to see how long i can run it before having to reboot or having a crash so far it has been running Almost 5 Days Straight without issue I have had my WHS 2011 before upgrading running for around 19 days at one point then had a power outage (not windows fault)

People say about the need for windows to reboot and the downtime it causes which yeah in a Server Farm or something sure but at home especially with window 8 you put a cheap SSD in there and you can reboot and be up and running in under 2 minutes maybe 3 if apply updates i can certainly live with 3 minutes downtime every couple of weeks especially when you can schedule reboots to happen during early hours of the morning or when you are not home

Linux has price and some security benefits

But

Windows Has Familiarity and Ease of Use (Just about anyone can be a Network Admin) which is great for small business that cannot afford a paid Linux Guru or On Call Tech Support
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#8
I think Protocol77 hit the nail on the head on the whole Linux versus Windows decision. Linux is a solid choice for everyone who understands it, and for those looking to learn it. For others it can be a steep learning curve and not everyone wants that.

Ubuntu is a great and intuitive desktop OS, but I've found that it's not long before something requires you do download and compile a package from source because it's not available in any repo. That's fine with me, but it's not fine for someone who has no idea what "pwd" means. Then you encounter the unmet dependencies, etc. Before you know it, your wife is sarcastically telling you to "ask the StackOverflow guys" because the family home theater is hung during startup. Not that it hasn't happened on Windows too....
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#9
(2013-08-29, 17:30)awp0 Wrote: I think Protocol77 hit the nail on the head on the whole Linux versus Windows decision. Linux is a solid choice for everyone who understands it, and for those looking to learn it. For others it can be a steep learning curve and not everyone wants that.

Ubuntu is a great and intuitive desktop OS, but I've found that it's not long before something requires you do download and compile a package from source because it's not available in any repo. That's fine with me, but it's not fine for someone who has no idea what "pwd" means. Then you encounter the unmet dependencies, etc. Before you know it, your wife is sarcastically telling you to "ask the StackOverflow guys" because the family home theater is hung during startup. Not that it hasn't happened on Windows too....

Yeah i noticed a similar issue i took my home server offline to test these linux distros i did before have them running in Virtualbox but i wanted to test them in a real deployment and see how they handle what i needed it too

however i found impatient family members did not appreciate not being able to watch anything i ended up having to wait until everyone was out of the house or asleep to do this linux testing luckily i had a spare hard drive so i could easily swap back the windows one in when they were home and leave it running doing it's thing then when i was able to i would swap out for a spare drive load up the distro and test it out

this was a lot of extra work and it would have been so much easier if i was deploying a windows server as i could have said "Right give me One hour and i will have it setup and ready to go and i could have
  • Installed Windows (Win 8 Installs fast for me at least)
  • Installed Updates
  • Setup Shares
  • Installed and Configured Mysql (for library syncing)

All in that hour


That being said I do like the idea of a Linux Server and i do run linux in my home i have Openelec Machines and i have a spare computer in my garage that currently has Linux Mint on it i use it for when i am in there working on Computers or whatever and i want to either look something up ask a question in a forum or even just have music videos playing on youtube whilst i work

Just for the specific software i needed or wanted to use it is soooo much easier to install and configure in a Windows Environment

I use Freefilesync to do my server backups but with linux i had to learn how to create windows mounts just to be able to use it also if i wanted to use it on a Debian Distro i had to compile the software from source files which is a nightmare
I also use a great Usenet Show Management software called NZBDrone it is similar but better than Sickbeard but that requires current .NET (they are working on a linux version but i am guessing won't be easy to install)

All things aside (security holes, virus risks, less stability) with windows you cannot fault it's ease of use takes seconds not minutes or tens of minutes to install software and it usually works straight away no other tweaking involved unlike sometimes on linux I can say i have honestly not had much in the way of the things i listed above i have found Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8 to be very stable and secure from what i have experienced my server only makes outbound connection to check and download Usenet files so not much risk from dodgy websites and is connected through a router with a strong WPA2 Key and both windows and router firewalls enabled so i have no issues with windows

whereas with linux i basically had the server offline for about 2 days whilst i tested out Linux distro's and had to learn each simple step or install several different packages and then when i had an issue i then had to research it and read forums to figure out the issue


So I would clearly suggest a Windows OS either Server OS like Windows Home Server 2011 or Windows Server 2012

Or if it is just for a couple machines at home something like Windows 7 or Windows 8 will do just fine

Windows Home Server 2011 still has about 3 or so more years of support and can be bought for under $100 on ebay probably cheaper if you look around Windows Server 2012 is a bit expensive at the moment but from what i read is essentially just Windows 8 with a few server related apps add and some desktop stuff removed and Windows 8 is much cheaper I am running it on two machines plus server and had no issues

I know i have typed a lot but just trying to help you with the agony of indecision i had to deal with trying to decide which way to go i hope this helps
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#10
^^^^ this is why my server runs windows 8!

Jump app on iPad RDP FTW!
Modded MK1 NUC - CLICK ----- NUC Wiki - CLICK

Bay Trail NUC FTW!

I've donated, have you?

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#11
woah very much replies thank you guys^^
my needs are just storage, mysql, sickbeard, couchpotato, media manager, dlna, upnp and backups

i have many win7/8 and server 2012 licenses from my school
i think i will look into ubuntu server with gui( i have never done anythink with linux) and windows 2012
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#12
cool just remember if server 2012 you look at is essentials that requires setting up a domain if you plan to use server 2012 look at standard edition if you don't want domain
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#13
(2013-08-29, 19:28)keisuji Wrote: woah very much replies thank you guys^^
my needs are just storage, mysql, sickbeard, couchpotato, media manager, dlna, upnp and backups

i have many win7/8 and server 2012 licenses from my school
i think i will look into ubuntu server with gui( i have never done anythink with linux) and windows 2012

OpenMediaVault - be done in 30 min. Easy to install addons. NFS works easy.

UnRaid is technically superior but it requires sketchy addons to allow easy NFS and sab/sb/cp. I also don't like it since its Slackware Linux and its tough to find any info on it because everyone uses Debian/Ubuntu type.

My only gripe with OMV is its lack of out of the box drive pooling.

In all honesty though, you're better off getting Ubuntu-server, installing webmin, and using guides to install everything else. It's pretty much plug and chug in the terminal if you have a little background in Linux. You can get drive pooling with Ubuntu server the same way you'd get it for OMV.
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your server os experiences?0