Topic: new noob needs advise

[high_security]

Hi all

New to linux and new to SME server! and so far i have to say wow!!!!

I'm in the proccess of playing with my test unit (compac DL 380 duel 733 1.5G ram and 2x 14 bay array units) and have done the basic install's such as phpmyadmin, sys stats and hpasm heath drivers and starting to play with hylafax amd jinzora and i thought i better see if the setup i have in mind for my small  business (only one employee me!) will be able to run off SME. i read the manuals but as a noob i have to say not all of it has set in just yet so be gental. Please

i run a security installation business from my home with about 4 PC's all running XP Pro i would like to use the harware raid in my server and array to setup the following. any sugestions will be great!

i run a wireless 1.5M connection that come into a cable modem that i can run 4 public IP's off and all static or static via Mac address using DHCP

i want to run my domain email,ftp server and possible my web site (its currentlly hosted off site at my ISP) and i have to setup a few NTP servers for specilised jobs. i have to setup a NTP server with the ability to spoof the utc time code +1 hr in daylight savings (i think i've found away to do this but that a different story) and transmit this to clients digital video recording equipment as they are hardware drivern and the programers can not write firmware regarding DST in Australia to save them self, so this will run off on public IP though its own router VPN'd to my normal network as some of the recorders want only an IP address(unable to resolve names) this unit would be nown as cctv.ntp.mydomain.com and the other would within my normal network and be known as ntp.mydomain.com. I run a dedicated machine (DL380 running XP Pro 2x 9G drives mirrored OS and software only) that handles all my client automated alarm software that has data bases on it (not sure of there format SQL etc) that i would like to run off the array on its own drives (hardware raid) under SME and dedicated drives for my multimedia collection, accounting software data etc (i was thinking disk as ibay). i want to run hylafax for incomming faxes direct to a laser printer and email to fax gateway and maybe fax archiving?( i have a normal fax that will be set as a hot spare through the PABX system and for plain paper faxing). i would also like to have a place that peaple can place stuff (ibay) with out being on the domain and not see the rest

now for a few questions

Now my thoughts of placing these dedicated drives in SME where to do one back up off SME to a remote location (a freinds place wirelesslink) to a backup box for automated backups, is this possible?

now as i fairly good windows user i always setup important machines like my alarm server with OS on mirrored  drives and data on mirrored with hot spare now can i set SME like this say basic SME server with extra contribs installed with setting say on mirrored 9 or 18 G drive with in the server and have user emails and general ibay an a raid 5 in the array then my other specilised drives in the array also?

Will SME handle the naming of the NTP servers and do i need to put a vpn link between the 2 ip's?

i'm sorry about the lenght of this but i thought i was better trying to explan ever thing to give you the broader picture i what i'm trying to do

any comments or advise would be great

regards

mark

p.s sorry about the spelling it's late

[gzartman]

I'm in the proccess of playing with my test unit (compac DL 380 duel 733 1.5G ram and 2x 14 bay array units) and have done the basic install's such as phpmyadmin, sys stats and hpasm heath drivers and starting to play with hylafax amd jinzora and i thought i better see if the setup i have

As one new to SME and *nix in general, I would caution you against doing any significant customization to SME.  SME is really meant to be administered from the web, server-manager, interface.  That is until you become experienced with the "SME Layer" that sits on top of Centos.  As such, you shouldn't be manually installing RPMs until you know how the "SME Layer" works and what those RPMs are installing.  It would be VERY easy to break SME.

i want to run my domain email,ftp server and possible my web site

SME does all of this right out of the box and does it well.  You could shift all of this services from your ISP to your SME box in a matter of hours, provided you have a broadband connection.  SME is a pretty "light" OS, so you don't need high end hardware to have a nice setup.  A possible solution for you would be to have SME hosting these services, with a regular Centos box either sitting behind or beside SME doing the other stuff you are after.  

of there format SQL etc) that i would like to run off the array on its own drives (hardware raid) under SME and dedicated drives for my multimedia collection, accounting software data etc (i was thinking disk as ibay).

Keep in mind that SME is not designed to span data across multiple hard drives.   Unless you hack the OS, all ibays sit on the root file system.  You really don't want to be hacking the OS so that ibays reside on a seperate drive.

[bpivk]

To correct gzartman a little...

You can install jinzora and hylafax which are available as contribs (search this forum a little and you'll find them).

with a regular Centos box either sitting behind or beside SME doing the other stuff you are after

No need because SME should meet all your needs.

that i would like to run off the array on its own drives (hardware raid)

This is not recomended. You should use software raid which comes stock in SME.

Keep in mind that SME is not designed to span data across multiple hard drives.

gzartman is spot on

[gzartman]

To correct gzartman a little...

You can install jinzora and hylafax which are available as contribs (search this forum a little and you'll find them).

Yes, there are contribs out there to do these things, however I still stand by my original statement.  It is not recommended that those new to *nix and/or SME administer SME from the console.  All admin should take place in the server-manager.  Given that these contribs are not, as far as I know, available in the yum-repositories, then they can't be installed from the server-manager.

Just because a contrib is out there, doesn't mean that it is good package.  IMO, green admins should never customize SME using contribs floating around in the community.

[bpivk]

It's available from dungog's and i have full trust in his contribs.
As for instalation... it's nothing wrong if a user uses SME trough the console for the first time.
I did it because i was familiar with a lot of different distributions.
The only new thing was using the signal-event commands which wasn't really a problem because SME reminds you every time you type yum.  

And there is a contrib for installing trough server manager but i guess that he still needs to use the console for instalation of that contrib.  

And for the record.... All new users should read the wiki before using SME and then search if they don't understand something but i guess that it's OK to play a little to learn about it (that's what i did before i implemented it and i will never regret it).

[TrevorB]

I run a dedicated machine (DL380 running XP Pro 2x 9G drives mirrored OS and software only) that handles all my client automated alarm software that has data bases on it (not sure of there format SQL etc) that i would like to run off the array on its own drives (hardware raid) under SME and dedicated drives for my multimedia collection, accounting software data etc (i was thinking disk as ibay).

smeserver will automagically create a mirrored raid array of your 2 disks. If you have your other disks connected it will use them as well - DISCONNECT them before doing an install.
smeserver creates one Logical Volume (LVM) which includes your raid array and you can add disks to the array and /or LV.
You CAN mount your other disks as an additional raid array in an ibay, but this is NOT recommended for a noob (but if you want to try, create a VMware smeserver and play with it... do a search on the forums and you will find info - look for mdadm & lvm). I run all of my media (in an ibay called media) on a seperate LVM, currently containing a mirrored array.

i want to run hylafax for incomming faxes direct to a laser printer and email to fax gateway and maybe fax archiving?( i have a normal fax that will be set as a hot spare through the PABX system and for plain paper faxing).

If it's an MFC type machine tyhat can connect to the network, hylafax can probably run that too.

i would also like to have a place that peaple can place stuff (ibay) with out being on the domain and not see the rest

'Out of the box' smeserver functionality

Now my thoughts of placing these dedicated drives in SME where to do one back up off SME to a remote location (a freinds place wirelesslink) to a backup box for automated backups, is this possible?

Yes. Simplest may be backup to workstation and have your friends machine on a local (trusted) network (ie. add their IP address range to the local networks screen of server manager)

now as i fairly good windows user i always setup important machines like my alarm server with OS on mirrored  drives and data on mirrored with hot spare now can i set SME like this say basic SME server with extra contribs installed with setting say on mirrored 9 or 18 G drive with in the server and have user emails and general ibay an a raid 5 in the array then my other specilised drives in the array also?

You don't need any special contribs to handle raid or lvm, it's all inbuilt.

Again, I will stress that you are trying to play at a hardware level, so I would suggest that you set up a test box to ensure that you get it right before playing with anything resembling PROD (I find a VMware instance the best) .

any comments or advise would be great

Your 'requirements' are all a bit of a jumble. Try to break them down into a couple of logical groups and maybe start a topic on each one (eg. ibay on own disks in seperate array, addressing of external servers, backup across wireless link).

I would suggest that you need to approach them in a logical order as well, because if you try to do too much all in one hit, you won't know which one is causing you a problem (if you have any).

Good luck on your new journey
Trevor B
PS. Make sure you read the Manual thoroughly, including the Technical Manual) and when you have done that I would suggest the Developers Manual if you want to understand HOW smeserver works. Knowledge of the templating system and configuration database etc. is fundamental if you are going to modify your system at the levels you are suggesting.

[high_security]

Thanks for the reply's

i'm a bit of a realist and understand that everthing wont happen over night and that is why i'm playing with it now to learn and understand how SME works. i think that overall i'm looking at a 6 months before the system goes live, and its one small step at a time. i dont want to rush and stuff it up

As for my hardware some one said it was pritty high end but it's what i have after some years of collecting and getting stuff cheap and there rock solid and never die. both my DL380's cost me $50 each (and they look good in my rack)

i like the hardware raid becouse of the auto rebuild feture i start the unit using smart start CD set the raid reboot with out the cd and thats it if a drive fails, red light comes on replace  the drive and it will do the rest. I'm working on the less i have to do in SME after i impelment (in command line) the better, you know should be no chance of me stuffing it up.

this is not some thing i want to rush into as i plan to do it once and do it right.

i'm at the stage with my businees that i need to put an employee on and i have set my self the goal that i need to setup the backend system so that its one less worry on my mind that all this works and reliablly!

should i run some thing like open filer or freeNas to handle the storage solution and just run SME for the basic mail, ftp, web and dns stuff. has any one done this before?

And what would be a good size pair of hard drives for the SME working on about 10 users/PC's (gives me room to grow) ?

thanks for the replys i have a freind that have told me not to go open source becouse of lack of support and these forums are a testament to the fact he is wrong. i also think he just wants to sell me MS server 2003 and lock me into using him to service it

regards

Mark

[Tib]

I have run with hardware raid in our server ever since I installed SME6.0 and I have had no problems with it.

I too like the idea of hardware raid better then software raid ... one major factor is the speed hardware raid works at compared to software raid.



high_security

Make sure you run 2 x diff network cards that use diff drivers ... it will save you a lot of hassels

Regards,

Tib

[pfloor]

I have run with hardware raid in our server ever since I installed SME6.0 and I have had no problems with it.

I too like the idea of hardware raid better then software raid ... one major factor is the speed hardware raid works at compared to software raid.

Tib, Performance gains on most hardware raid is minimul to none and sometimes even worse than SW raid.  Your last statement about speed being a "major factor" is just not true at all. Most of the cheap controllers won't work with linux or are just fake raid.  The lower end cards that work are no better than SW raid.  To see any significant gains you will need to purchase a very high end controller and drives.

SW raid has come a very long way in the past few years.

i like the hardware raid becouse of the auto rebuild feture i start the unit using smart start CD set the raid reboot with out the cd and thats it if a drive fails, red light comes on replace the drive and it will do the rest.

SME SW raid and monitoring will do you one better.  If a drive fails you will get an email so you know there is a problem wherever you are and you won't have to keep looking for that little "red light".

[avandel]

Hi to all,

As the subject tells, how am i going to let sme 7 know that there is a second disk (same size) to establish a software mirror RAID1
We work with SME from version 6 now without problems and decided to use for redundancy a software raid. I can't find anything of this sort on the net, maybe i did not know where to look?????

I hope you people don't tell me to backup, reinstall and restore data, because that is i think the Windows way!!! (No offense)

If there's a genius who can tell me how to progress on this, thanks..

Anne.

[bpivk]

Well not a genius. You just need to know how to read.  
Look in the wiki. Or if you don't know where to find it....
SSH into server and login as admin and use manage disk redundancy option. You'll figure it out.

[avandel]

Ha, yes indeed, nice one.........
Sometimes i think i AM stupid, but not this time...
I found that option way back in the version 6 erra, but there is no way i can convert one disk to two disk redundancy. The only way for me that worked was backup data, erase disks, install latest (7.1) on disks and it sees automatically that there are two disks, asuming i wanted a raid 1, thus ending in a nice RAID 1 installation.

Tried via root, and the cd upgrade forcing to install to raid did also not work....

So, sorry but thanks for helping me

Anne

[idp_qbn]

I thought you could upgrade from SME 6 (but not SME 6.5) to SME 7 as longs as you removed any Contribs first.

If I am right, a backup of user data would be wise but it should not be **necessary** to do a restore.

Cheers
Ian

[avandel]

Hi,

In my case we had to do with an upgrade in software as well in hardware. The upgrade in software went fine, even without backup of the data. But, when we wanted to do the same from 7.0 to 7.1 and at the same time from 1 disk to 2 disks (mirroring) it did not do what it supposed to do. Even when we tried the force methode... (explained earlier)
Every step we backedup the whole disk with ghost and restored it, so we could try different angles.
The best way is to backup your userdata to desktop, install the latest version and restore the userdata. That is what worked fine for us.

Cheers...
Anne

[socate]

Hi all,

I just discover SME and I need some answers to my questions:

1) It's available a firewall editor?
2) If I modify Horde Interface, after an update, my changes will remain or I loose everything!
3) Regarding CRON - are available some settings regarding automatic backup to an external device or FTP server?


I install the server as a Gateway!
Thks for support!