I need a file server for a small LAN (around ten work-
stations +/- a laptop or three). I want RAID-1, a tape drive
(external if neccessary) and would prefer 1000baseT so that
I can eventually fix the LAN by installing a 100baseTX
switch with a gigabit port for the server.  Reliability is
very important and the cost has to be kept low because it's
for a non-profit organisation.

Candidates that spring to mind are a Sun Microsystems Netra
T-1 AC200 (SCA hot-swap drive bays are part of the
attraction), an old G4 Apple Xserve (if the firmware's not
evil and if I can find one) or a new x86 board with SATA in
a rack-mount case.  Suggestions or observations are actively
invited.

24 responses total.

If you're going to be giving it to a non-profit organization
then unless you plan to stick around to manage it, perform
backups, etc, I would advise something simpler.  Have you
looked at any NAS products?

Mostly I'll need to manage it remotely.  They're about 150
miles away from me, which means a 300 mile round trip every
time something breaks.  The file server is to replace a 40
Gbyte SnapServer that failed.  Advantages of a file server
over the SnapServer NAS are RAID, useable tape backup, the
ability to upgrade its software and a few other light duties
that I may have it perform.

If you have a Linux/etc system at your end that you can dedicate space
on perhaps it would make sense to use rsync to do nightly backups over
the wire.  The first one will really suck as it backs up all of their
data, but rsync is really bright about it after that.  I'm backing up
about 500MB nightly between MI and AZ.  The data is slow changing, but
the backup takes 10 seconds at about 70 KBytes/sec.  Not too bad.  It
can also be told to throttle its data.  If they are changing a lot of
data each day then perhaps this won't work.

Also you should use some method to encrypt the data on the wire such as
ssh tunneling.

That's a good idea, I should have them supply me with a pair
of disk drives.  Thanks for the rsync tip.  I have been
tunnelling VNC through SSH, but I'm considering a VPN using
something like IPSec.

When both ends support it I like CIPE and OpenVPN.  They seem to be
easier to deal with for most needs.  Also not as secure when using
preshared keys.  YMMV.

rsync usually runs over a remote shell anyway, so securing it can be as 
easy as using ssh instead of rsh.  If you run rsyncd some kind of VPN 
is probably a good idea, though.

More than half a decade too late for this question, but FreeNAS has 
matured nicely and can be run on nearly any modern Intel-architecture
box  (desktop-class boxes work fine, server-class boxes are even
better). It  supports mirrored volumes, either using hardware RAID
controller or by  increasing the replica count in ZFS (port of
Sun/Oracle ZFS to FreeBSD).  This provides capabilities comparable to a
low-end NetApp filer on  commodity hardware. The primary management
interface is via a web browser,  which can be SSL-wrapped or accessed
via a VPN, and which can authenticate  against local accounts or against
an LDAP directory (such as Active  Directory or FreeIPA). 

Given the option, I wouldn't go back to a NAS.  At least
FreeNAS is decoupled from the hardware vendor.

While hardware vendor lock in can be a royal pain, it also makes
operation  much simpl, because you have a single contact for hardware,
software,  integration and configuration support. 

Another alternative is RHSS (Redhat Storage Server), which does Gluster-
based replication for resilience and horizontal scaling and exposes the
data  as CIFS, NFS or ISCSI. 


 -DTK

I've given up looking for a friendly server operating
system.  I just don't think there is one. On the up-side the
increased popularity of Linux and the fact we're on a
university campus means we should be able to find an admin
if we eventually move to Linux.  Keeping him or her might be
a challenge though.

don't plan to keep him; get the best benefit from him until he reaches
his  value apex, have him document well, spend on training him, and when
he  leaves, wish him well. Give him reasons to be the bad ass, and when
he  leaves, he will be a trusted alumnus who will pimp your org to
up-and- comers. Do the same for each new guy; make him awesome here and
now, and  know he'll leave, but give him reeason that it will be on good
terms. Who  knows, he may surpri you and stick around. Look up the
Cravath System [1],  especially as applied to IT [2]. 

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cravath_System
2: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-
Crisis.aspx



 -DTK 

We're a non-profit so we can't approach market rates.  It
would make a passable undergrad internship but when students
graduate they have to move away to find work (like I did).

Market rate for IT intern is different from market rate for an IT 
adminstrator or engineer. And there are other things in a compensation 
package besides money; if you could promise to get him trained to a
couple  of certs by the time he graduates, and that he gets to attend
one conference  during his internship, that alone is valuable, and a lot
less expensive than  paying well. 


 -DTK

We're still going to lose them when they graduate.

You are, but during the time they work for you, you will get the most
out of  them, because they know they are building their career. Don't
look at an  employee moving on as a bad thing; expect it, and maximize
the good they do  while they are there. Build a culture of
documentation, automation and a  pride-of-workmanship desire to hand-off
a smooth sailing ship to the next  year's crew.  -DTK

I do like the sound of that.  I'll have to give it
some thought.

If you set it up right, each person worth a damn will be there for two 
years, first as a junior intern, then as a senior intern. If someone
fails  to perform, they are out, but if they are amazing, they are
building the  future for themselves and for you, and coming out of it
with a great start  to their resume. 

While they are a junior intern, they get training, certs, journal 
subscriptions. When they are a senior intern, they get to go to a 
conference. 

When they are a junior, they document the hell out of everything they
learn  and every process they touch. When they are a senior intern, they
mature and  automate the process that they struggled through as a junior
intern. 

While they are a junior intern, they learn. While they are a senior
intern,  they teach the next junior intern. 

When they graduate, they get a letter of recommendation, a former
manager  who is now a friend and a great start on their new career. In
return, they  will have served as a collosal bad ass for two years, and
will speak fondly  of your org to others. 

Who knows, one day, your interns will make you look so good that you get
a  promotion, and that new grad who made you look amazing will be
promoted into  your old seat. 


 -DTK

Critical to this, is managing expectations and keeping a finger on the
pulse  of the employee and their work. Let them know from day one and at
least once  a month that they are expected to work hard and get you good
results, and in  return, they are makingtheir first and second jobs out
of college pay better  and easier to get. Have weekly one-on-one
meetings with each intern, in  private, and let them set the agenda.
Finish this one-on-one with a recap of  how they've done since the last
meeting. Have each intern send you a weekly  brag report, with what they
did, what they achieved, what they improved.  Have metrics on as many
processes as you can, and challenge your interns to  move the execution
so that they are doing better than last week, and better  than the
previous guy, but don't use metrics to justify punishing. Have your 
interns document *HOW* they improved a process, and when they do, 
congratulate them publicly (maybe order a pizza for the office or
cupcakes,  and have the intern read their improvements). Praise
publicly, punish  privately, and keep each to the minimum amount of time
to get the point  across, ideally under two minutes for either. 


 -DTK

I'll have to work on a more "lean" version of the model you
describe.  If we had the funding for certifications and
conferences there are other things that we would have to
spend it on: disks for the server, a new Ethernet switch,
perhaps a few LCD monitors.  There is no scope for promotion
for me.  I report to the centre's director and work part-
time as my other work allows.  I'll just work on documenting
what we have in place, put out fires and keep looking for
someone to take over when the time comes.

For this sort of application, I think I would look at something
like this:

http://www.ixsystems.com/storage/ix/home-office-storage/

backing up to something like this:

http://aws.amazon.com/glacier/


I think I would also look at something like this:

http://www.netgear.com/business/products/switches/unmanaged-switches/unmana
ged-desktop-switches/GS116.aspx

and something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/RT-N16-Wireless-N-Maximum-Performance-single/dp/B00387G6R8

running something like this:

http://www.easytomato.org

to spruce up the network.


Also, David makes some really great points, but I think the general
thrust of what he's getting at is that a person's career moves in
cycles: in the first part of the cycle, one challenges oneself to
grow along some metric (e.g., technical growth).  In the next part,
one teaches and challenges others.  This cycle, of course, repeats
many times as people move on between jobs, projects, etc.  One can
leverage knowing that towards building a pipeline of people who
come to an organization, work there, grow, move on and then help
build its reputation so that others want to go there to work, grow
and so forth.

I wouldn't worry about specifics like certs and conferences: those
are examples of the sorts of activities that are appropriate to a
two-level internship, but people don't necessarily need to do that.
Personally, I don't look too highly on certs, but I think that
corresponds to someone learning as a "junior."  I haven't been to
a conference in years, but that seems to correspond to the bigger-
picture focus of someone in a more "senior" role.  Pick a workflow
and reward structure that fits your organization, though.

Dan,

Thank you very much to summarize my thought far more succinctly and
eloquently than I could. The focus on conferences and certifications was
a little bit of a red herring; more to the point, give someone two years
during which the have ownership, challenge them to become a bad-ass,
then teach what they have learned, and encourage them to move on when
they have done all the good that they can at one shop. For early and
mid-career employees, these are seen as big benefits, though there are
other benefits that can be conferred that also keep employees engaged.

TL,DR: give them what motivates them to learn -> own -> improve -> teach
-> move-on -> pimp-your-mission, and iterate this cycle regularly. 

 :-)

    We're still muddling along with our old HP
ML110.  We've been donated an old Dell PowerEdge
2650 which has more processing power and hot swap
drive bays but uses SCSI disks and constantly
sounds like a B-52 taking off. I've given the 2650
some light duty tasks and I have used scp to back
up user files from the ML110 to it.  Eventually I
would like to find a single socket Ivy Bridge or
Haswell server (probably a tower since we don't
have a deep rack), retire the 2650, refurbish the
ML110 and use that in its place.

    A kind friend donated his old PC, which I rebuilt and
renovated and I'm now using as my primary PC.  It's built
around a 2 GHz AMD Athlon XP 2800+ in a full-tower case.  I
fitted a new 120mm exhaust fan at the back and two 80mm in-
take fans, one of which is in front of the drive cage.  It
has two 320 Gbyte PATA drives and there's a DVD drive at the
top that I use for installing the operating system (NetBSD/
i386) and for ripping audio CDs.

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