Recently got tasked with a project, I have two weeks (starting next monday) to get in operation.

Basically what I need to do is setup some a usable system for about 5 users that will perform the following (in order or priority)
1) A wiki documenting "industrial widgets" by vendor we provide hardware and software products for. I want to use a Wiki that can be edited by techs possessing moderate to expert I.T. experience. It will be used to track vendor products supported... along with supported parts, software, firmware status, technical notes, technical fixes, etc....

I was looking at docuwiki. Any better suggestions?

2) Some custom PHP scripts I will develop to automate various I.T. tasks.

3) Files storage. Mainly as a "drop" box for testing software, patches, to be tested, etc...

The box I have to work with is a lower end ex-Windows8 desktop:
* 4 - 8 GB of RAM (I'm really gonna push to get 8GB)
* a moderately fast SSD to host the operating system.
* a single 1TB 7200RPM 32MB Cache-Buffer HD.D. for file storage.

Here's what I'm looking at running:
- FedoraCore LXDE Spin (either 64-bit if I can get 8GB; or 32-bit if I only end up with 4GB)
- SSH for remote administration
- SAMBA setup for file sharing on the 1TB HDD
- sFTP access for shared folders on the HDD (i personally like sFTP for transferring files vs. SMB)
- LAMP/PHP/Apache/MySQL :: For the Wiki services and some custom web-apps I will make for various it tasks.
- NoMachine NX Remote Desktop :: For administration only. I'm the only person at work that knows Linux, but other people will be able solve common admin issues with a Linux GUI.


I wanted to run no X-Server. However, I'm really the only one with any Linux experience. But others know enough about networking, and I.T. i general they could perform minimal administration (like add users, change permissions, etc) with a GUI.

I just wanted to post my idea here before rolling this out... Maybe get some feedback, or even some better ideas? I don't plan on this being a server taking heavy loads, and will only have three - four people access it at a time tops. However, it does need to be reliable and up for use. However, it has to be simple and practical.

For the most part, the WiKi and PHP/MySQL projects, I'll just tar and backup on my desktop or CD-ROM. File-storage will not be critical at all. So I'm not too worried about backup solutions, yet. I'll probably just write a few BASH scripts for that.

I don't plan on making the box "ultra" secure. I'm just gonna configure all services good enough to keep "dangerous" people, who kind of know what they are doing at bay. Then set it up on a separate AP, where only people that need to use it will have the WPA2 pre-shared key (kinda inconvenient, but a simple solution).

EDIT: I'm not overly concerned with WiFi security issues. I know how to secure WiFi.
Thanks guys!

Hi,

first I want to comment on your choice of OS: I strongly advise against using Fedora for any sort of production server. If you like RHEL and/or Fedora I suggest and don't want to pay a support contract I recommend you use the latest CentOS (or Scientific Linux).

I also think it is unwise to set this up without backups, especially if you are not using raid. It's not a question, of "if a disk will fail", but "when a disk will fail".

Evo2.

MediaWiki would be my choice.

Yeah, that's do-able, we have a mix of bash and php scripts here.

Push for a proper server!!!


At the very least ditch the SSD (you really don't need it!) and have another 1TB drive so you can at least do a software RAID to mitigate against data loss.


Consider CentOS as it's geared as a server OS and there are literally TONS of how-to guides around for just about everything business related.



You should be worried about backup and should be provisioning it from day one. If your data is in any way "mission critical" it should be backup up daily and preferably to off-site storage.

Please note that 32 bit Linux will work fine with 8GB. PAE in Linux actually works, unlike with Windows. I run Slackware 32 bit on a box with 8GB, and all 8GB is available. Don't let anyone tell you the you can only use 4GB with a 32 bit OS, that seems to be a Windows-only limitation. Disclaimer - it may not work with all distros, but it works great with Slackware. For reasons unknown to me, Microsoft has never been able to get PAE to work reliably with Windows, though in theory it should work, according to Microsoft. Phht - never did for me. 32 bit Linux with 8GB ram - works fine. HOWEVER! There is no reason not to use a 64 bit distro for what you are doing, I only used the 32 bit version because of problems with certain 32 bit libs under 64 bit linux - and no, multilib did not fix it. FWIW, I never noticed any performance differences between the two.

As others have said, don't use the SSD. You don't need it and it won't make anything noticeably faster. Do as others have said and get a second drive, Raid them so if a drive fails you don't loose your data. I hope you have a decent box, not some Dell or HP workstation. They tend to be pretty sluggish when used as servers, as they aren't built for performance. I would either build the box myself, or buy one designed to be used as a server - *not* a workstation. I build my own boxes, and they run circles around your average Dell/HP/etc. workstation.

I do what you are describing with Slackware, and have for years. It works great, 100% uptime (except for when I hit the power strip). I was using Ubuntu, but as a server it caused too many problems, all of which went away when I switched to Slackware. I would recommend staying away from Ubuntu. Debian itself can be used for a reliable server, and I used it when I was doing kernel coding years ago, but I don't use it anymore. Slackware does everything I need, and I use it for both servers and development boxes. I think you will find many different linux Distros that will do what you want just fine. I prefer Slackware because of the minimal hand-holding, and the flexibility. I'm not limited to what the package maintainers think I should use, and I use my own versions of apache/php/mysql. If you know what you are doing and how to configure and install these, you might consider doing this instead of just using what comes with your distro. That is a personal decision, YMMV.

Depending on how heavily the box will be used, you may find 4GB to be more than enough. Memory is cheap. Push for 8GB. 5 users should not tax the system unless they are really pounding it.

WordPress makes an adequate wiki, works for us, but I'm not a wiki expert. Just don't have time to reinvent the wheel.

Thanks for the replies.

I don't NEED backups, or I would back them up, though. LoL

Yeah, you don't need them until you get the query "I deleted that file on the server, can you get it back".

Hi,
Really? In your initial post you wrote:

So, you will be tracking this stuff, but don't care it you loose it? If it is of such little importance, why bother tracking it or even setting up the system in the first place?

Evo2.

OMG!

Wiki is gonna be in text files, writing a cron script to back it up and put ssh it to desktop (aka windows workstation).

I mentioned it's gonna be used a "drop" box for that stuff, as well. If the wiki get big enough , and need to support more users, I write a PERL script to parse all data and load into text file, then load it into a D.B.

I'll reiterate: file storage is a dropbox, for that stuff to go. Worst case scenario: it goes down, i tell a key person to put his files on it again so other people can get it.


My check directly reflects the money I save in I.T. Why spend about 2K on a new box just for RAID when my company does not need it here? If I anted to do RAID, I'd be using Free Solaris and ZFS like I do for the main file server.

Hi,
So there will be a some sort of copies of the contents.

I'm not familiar with that term.
Not sure how this relates to backups.

So it is storage that the users should not except to be reliable. Make sure the users know this.

Eeh 2K (assuming USD here) for raid? The cost of a raid 1 setup is just that you need to purchase a second hard drive - order of $100. Backups just mean dropping in another disk or two. Again you are looking at around $100. By doing these two things you can make sure the machine stays up doing its job in the event of a hard drive failure and also can easily recover from lost files etc. I just don't see the economy of not taking these very basic steps.

Evo2.

Sure... I'l just wave my magic wand and summon a RAID card or MoBo with RAID built in.

I can see the the logic.

It's an immutable law of IT that "temporary production" setups become permanent, it's therefore worth doing it right or not doing it at all. RAID cards can be had around the $200 region, I'm sure your data / personal time to rebuild the server when it fails are worth more than that.

Hi,
There is no need for a raid card or special motherboard. Linux has excellent software raid. As I said all you need is a second hard drive and you can trivially set up a raid 1 configuration.
Sigh.

Evo2.