Last Things First

I really want to write about building the File Server first since I'm in the middle of planning and working on gathering parts, so I can discuss the process....in terms of how I would go about putting this together. As I've talked about before, we, like most families in this digital age have a need for storage; "digital closets" where we put our digital shoeboxes of images, videos and music. What I had before, was an extra drive in my desktop workstation where I kept back-ups of indeterminant and inconsistent ages, not ot mention the fact that when something new needed to be save or something old needed to be retrieved... the bane of my existence (sneaker-net) came into play! We all know what a pain in the neck that is!

So, what I really need (as unglamorous as it is), is a stable running file server with some sort of fault-tolerance. This sort of thing can be had in a wide assortment of types and sizes:

• The simplest of course would be disks attached to any workstation either directly or via some sort of inteface card eg. RAID adapter.
• Then there's the Network Attached Storage option (NAS), which are simple and generally inexpensive. You can buy either a "turn-key" solution that ranges from $200-500 (normal consumer models depending on capacity), or BYOD (Bring your own drive) types that run $125-200 where you then buy one or more drives to create your own file server.
• There is of course the most complex solution; the FILE SERVER, that can be run on a wide variety of software (Windows to Linux).

Let's run through a quick pluses and minuses of each solution then:

• An attachment to an existing workstation is the simplest of cheapest with the obvious advantages. However, the disadvantages are that you have single point of failure, and that failure probably coming sooner rather than later since it would have to remain "spun up" at all times. Very little flexibility since the operating system would need to be optimized for workstation use vs. as a file server, meaning that it wouldn't be as simple to set up security and services in terms of the various users etc.
• The NAS all-in-one setups are simple and easy to work with. They quite often come with packaged back-up software and the BYOD versions can be built to be as big as your budget. These things are small compared to an actual computer, really not much larger than most external HDDs. My main complaint with them is that they typically run a proprietary version of Linux as well as file system; meaning NOT FAT/FAT32 or NTFS, so if you have a controller go down then you can't just attach the drive(s) to a machine and get to the files! Also, many of the companies that sell them are random American or Asian resellers that are just contracting the hardware and will often disappear, never to be heard from again!
• Why would you want to build an actual FILE SERVER though? They represent another computer (quite often large and heavy), and unless you are conversant in the use of headless machines controlled through the network, then you have another monitor and keyboard (if you don't want to buy a KVM). On top of that, if you end up buying server software, such as MS Server03, that's another added expense.

Since I've decided to go with the last option, let me just "cut to the chase" and explain my rationale. First of foremost, I can build the thing (with the exception of the storage drives and case) FOR FREE! ...and you guys know that I'm all about FREE so let me explain this:

• I saw on the ThinkPad Forum that someone was trying to sell some old desktop equipment which included a P4 era Tyan Micro-ATX Mobo that was designed for server use (2 built-in ethernet ports), along with some P4 and Celeron processors. This board also has onboard video which also eliminated the need to have a card for that. I had some parts that the guy could use and so worked a swap for the basis of the file server....NO COST!
  
• Seeing that I now had a M-ATX mobo, I now had the option to use a small case that doesn't take a lot of room. I actually have an old EMachine M-ATX case that I could have used, but I really hate the look of EMachines in general so found a Cooler Master mesh-front micro case that was $38 with free shipping from Buy.com so went with that.
  
• I have an the optical drive from an old machine so don't need that, as well as RAM from the same machine so, again, NO COST!
• Then a Craig's List ad appeared posting a PCI card that would allow me to do RAID with an onboard SATA controller. It was $50 on Newegg, but cost me $20 cash, so now I'm up to an outlay of $58.
• Also from CL came a recert. Dynex (Best Buy house brand) 400w power supply for $10 and I'm now at $68 spent.
  
• I've had an old copy of legitimate copy of MS Server2000 for years in a box that I can use so that's NO COST as well.
  
• Now, if I can score 2 SATA drives for $230 or less, then I will have met my goal of building a file server for less than $300 TOTAL OUTLAY! This shouldn't be too difficult since 1TB HDDs commonly sell for less than $70 and 1.5TB HDDs quite often will sell for around $100!

There's an accumulation of reasons why I decided to go with a "full-blown" file server vs. a simpler solution. Firstly, I wanted the most fault-tolerance I could get for my money...including the ability to simply connect the drives to any functioning Windows type machine and get at the files if necessary. Secondly, my situation gave me the ability to spend very little on the hardware while giving me the greatest flexibility in control. For an outlay of less than $300, I should be able to do a machine with a separate OS drive (allowing me to do a rebuild without disturbing the storage) and 2 1.5TB storage HDDs set up in a mirrored RAID array, giving me a decent amount of "peace of mind".

So there you have it. I just have to accumulate enough money to buy the drives and build the thing. Then the fun starts and we'll see how much running Server2000 that I remember!