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There's lots of choices out there for server operating systems..... much of it free! Some of you might remember that last year I did an experiment using one of my old ThinkPads (an A31) to build a "proof of concept" for a Portable Server. I used an older distro of CentOS, installed several random drives into it's UltraBay and the one in the 2631 Dock as well. It all went fine, and the thing works. However; at the end of the day, it's still an old P4 computer that interfaces with drives via IDE, and there-in lies the issue. Well.... that and the fact that it's P4 is a single core processor and most OS's these days require a dual core. Oh yeah; there's also 2Gb limitation on RAM which pretty much eliminates anything like FreeNAS using ZFS.
So, if I want to go FreeNAS, which by the way is what I use at home, I'm going to have to do something about using hardware up to snuff. Duel Core, processor and at least 4Gb of RAM, maybe more.
The other direction I could go is to pull out my copy of MS Windows Home Server 2011 of which I own a license. Doesn't need as much RAM, but has other demands. So, let's look at the candidates to replace the A31.
In one corner, stands my old ThinkPad Z61m. It has a T7200 Core 2 Duo processor and the ability to have 2 drives onboard. It's really a nice machine complete with titanium LCD lid that's beautiful and unique. However, a quirk of that generation's chipset is a memory limitation to 3Gb regardless of what the RAM sockets have in them!
And in the other is the new-comer, an R500 that I was given this last summer. For some of you who don't deal with ThinkPads on a regular basis, they may seem very similar, but conceptually here's the difference that we're dealing with. If the Z61m is a BMW SUV, the R500 is a Chevy Suburban...... with bench seats! You might be able to see that it's so chunky, that the USB ports are standing on their sides! This machine can also take 2 drives internally, but you can get 8Gb of RAM in it.
I guess what it'll come down to is this. If I want to go with FreeNAS, then it's a no-brainer. I go with the R500. Max out it's RAM, put two drives in the SATA bays and the OS onto a USB stick. Attach one or more external drives and call it a day. However, if I do Windows Home Server; I'll use the Z61m. The 3Gb of RAM isn't really an issue, put a system drive of 160Gb in one bay and a bigger drive in the other one for storage as well as USB or Firewire external drives.
Which then brings on the deciding factor.....networking. Which OS is going to be friendlier as a stand-alone system and be able to server files creating it's own network.
I go through so many computers, that sometimes a machine will fall through the cracks. Although, I'll occasionally need to clean out "the crumbs", I'll also find that jewel as well. In this case, it was the titanium lidded Z61m that I had worked diligently on to bring back from "discarded project" of another ThinkPadder to become a "do-everything" mobile workstation. Unfortunately, it never fully came to fruition due to a locked BIOS. Now, I've dealt with other machines with the BIOS locked before, and in general it's not an issue, however this particular machine wasn't recognizing the wifi card. I tried a number of cards with the same results. It came down to that it was either a defect on the board with was highly unlikely, or that it was shut off in the BIOS somewhere. This is not a very good state of affairs for a mobile workstation! After a while it fell by the wayside, especially since around that time I fell under a proverbial avalanche of ThinkPads! On top of that, many of those machines were more updated (T61), or more powerful (T60p). So, it sat forlornly in the "boneyard" under the workbench. It even suffered the ignominity of giving up it's updated parts (T7200 CPU, 4Gb RAM, 80Gb SSD) to other "front-burner" projects.
When things were looking it's worse, a plot-twist appeared. As part of my OTP (Old ThinkPad) Server project, I was reexamining my stock of IDE/PATA laptop drives and decided to clear them out while their value was high. I listed them on the ThinkPad forum, from which an acquaintance offered a trade for one of the 160Gb drives. Among the things he had to offer was a derelict, but working Z61m! A couple of nights ago, the working base of his Z61m got mated to my screen and other top parts. The parts box coughed up 4Gb of RAM that came out of my old X300, and a 160Gb Intel X18 SSD.
Then this morning, after a BIOS "whitelist" hack, it got an Atheros 5418 "N" wireless card! This was the capper! The very reason that it originally ended up under the bench. Now, it can be a fully MOBILE workstation! Yeah, I gave up a nicer ATI Mobility Radeon GPU on the other board, but the reality is that, it's not something I'll really miss given what I'll be using this machine to do. What'll this machine be expected to do?
In a word..... "gruntwork", that's what. My primary portable computer is the uber-sleek ThinkPad X1, however, it's a sports car of laptops. You can haul tree branches in a Porsche, but you won't find it very enjoyable. The old red pickup (Z61m) of laptops, on the other hand, may not be very sleek, or up-to-date, but it can do pretty much anything...... not fast, or stylishly, but it'll do it without complaint.
It's not often that we get to do something momentus in terms of technology, especially for someone like me who tends to buy after things hit the "sweet spot". In the last post, I talked about upgrading my X300 and having an extra drive as a result. In the post before that, I discussed the demise of the Mushkin Chronos SSD, which is in the process of being RMA'd. Well, I did it again! While in the process of looking at MacBook Pros, then trying to find a Dell E6400 for a friend the other day; I came across a Craigs List ad for an SSD.......new Samsung 256Gb for $100.
Yeah, I know what you're thinking; I was thinking the same thing. SCAM, not really "new", really a refurb, another one of those "penny auction", "I just sold it, but I can tell you where to get one just like it" things. Turns out, it wasn't any of those things. it was being sold be the same guy who was selling the Dell Latitude E6400 that I was buying for my friend. Apparently, he works for/or with Dell and has access to lots of their "sell-off" type stuff. He picked up a bunch of them to use and sell when Dell decided to move on to the new faster SATA-3 standard. I don't know what he paid for them (it must have been great), but I don't really care since $100 for a new 256Gb SSD is a great price in an of itself. Especially because it's a Samsung which is generally considered to be right up there with Intel on reliability. Given that my machine is older and wouldn't see the benefits of SATA-3 anyway, this is pretty awesome. In fact, it turns out that this particular drive is the sell-to-OEM repackaged Samsung 470 that I used in the Viking mini-HTPC build last month.
So, along with this situation and the RMA'd Chronos returns, I'll have 3 spare SSDs. This puts me in the unique position of being able to move all of my front-line computers to either a single SSD or an SSD boot drive/mechanical storage drive combo with the exception of the file server. That's 5 laptops: 240Gb Sandisk in my wife's T61, 128Gb Samsung in both my X300 and Z61m mobile workstation, 50Gb in my son's Z60t, and 64Gb in the daughter's X61. That's along with a 256Gb + 1Tb in my desktop workstation, 64Gb + 500Gb in the living room HTPC, and 64Gb + 500Gb in the bedroom HTPC. The amazing this is that it wasn't intentional or extravagant, just an almost imperceptible shift in storage medium that's completely changed everything.
