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I've been avoiding this for a while now..... the grunt-work associated with a major change. But it had to happen sooner or later. As I've discussed before, there are a number of things about my WHS (Windows Home Server 2011) running file server that I've become unhappy with; although, much of it doesn't have anything to do with WHS itself, but rather the HighPoint Caching controller.
After a lot of hours of watching YouTube I came to the following conclusions:
- I have to decide how I want to manage my storage.
- I have to decide what operating system I want to use.
- How safe do I want to be in terms of the files residing on the file server?
- How much money do I want to put into the server in terms of drives?
- How much time do I want to allocate to learning the OS?
Don't get me wrong: I love this stuff! But I have another full-time profession, a family that expects me to spend time with them. AND I do not have an unlimited amount of cash to expend on this solution.
So, here are my options. They start with reloading Windows Home Server 2011 which has the distinct advantage that I own it and have used it for close to a year now so there's a level of familiarity. My hardware is also set up for it, with a 160Gb SSD for the OS to live on, and a Highpoint caching controller that I know works with it. The downside is that I'm not very happy with how it's working and will have to expend an unknown amount of time figuring out how to make it work better..... if that's possible. Furthermore, it's a product that's been "orphaned" by Microsoft, so this is the "end of the trail" for it.
An obvious alternative is FreeNAS. It's well-known and quite popular today. It has that always favorable attribute of being a free product. As such is supported by the "open-source" community. It and it's off-shoot, NAS4Free (more on this later), have the advantage of having a robust software RAID file system that doesn't require the use of an expensive (and often annoyingly difficult to use) hardware controller. Plus underlying technology that allows it to play nicely with various other systems ranging from Windows (CIFS), Linux (SMB) to AFP (Mac Networking). They can also handle standalone authentication or work with Active Directory, although that's not particularly relevant in my case.
And of course, you can't talk about FreeNAS without getting into NAS4Free which is ixSystems' attempt to do FreeNAS with a better web interface and plugin system. As it turns out, based on lots of research, it seems to be somewhat less "bleeding edge" than FreeNAS and thus easier for laymen like me to grasp. I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty of what exactly pushed me in this direction. Suffice to say that the cleaner and easier interface was a better fit for me.
....But what about the various Linux distros? Although, I'm certain that these are great for full production environments with a professional well versed in running command-line, these aren't for me. I will say that I was suitably impressed with CentOS during my time with it, but I just don't see myself investing the time necessary to become fully comfortable with it's use. Plus; I don't need a full server. I just need something to serve files, so really a "roll-your-own" NAS with greater flexibility.
What got done today? I loaded the OTP (Old ThinkPad) mobile file server up with NAS4Free 32-bit v. 9.3.0.2.1190 with it. Got it up and running. Copied a ripped movie file to it and played it back off. It's a good start! So stay tuned as this project proceeds and I decide whether this is in fact the server OS for me.
OK, there was no big cup of coffee on my desk, but you get the idea. The other night, I stayed up late.....till about 2-2:15 am. What happened was that I have a client who wanted a laser printer. You don't have to tell me twice! You guys know that I'm a huge proponent of the home use of "workgroup" sized laser printers. They are easy to find, reliable, cheap to buy AND cheap to run. But until the other night, I didn't know they were easy to fix. .....well....I kind of knew, but had never done it before.
I know this is super-geeky, but I routinely watch repair and upgrade videos on YouTube. Sometimes, of things that I don't own and aren't likely to either! Anyway, there are a bunch of videos on there that show technicians fixing HP LaserJets. This didn't mean anything to me till last week.
Then, one of these happened. Last week, while out looking for a laser printer for my client, I went into a little computer store in a neighboring town. You know the kind, it smells dusty and the weird old electronics odor. Things are piled everywhere and there's an old guy in the back with glasses on his head. He had several piles of lasers of various sizes, so it was apparent to me that he dealt in corporate surplus. I love those places. I felt like Luke Skywalker nosing around for starship parts in Mos Eisley Space-Port! One of the piles had the mid-sized HPs that I love; LaserJet 5p, 6p, 2100, and 2200. I asked the guy about them. He said that they didn't have toner, but worked and I got him down to $35. OK; $35 isn't "nothing", but really....these things were well over the $500 mark when they were introduced and built like it, not something that sells for $100, which if you haven't already figured out, is why I bought this for my client vs. one of the newer HP/Samsung monochrome lasers that sell for that.
I get this thing home, and put in a NOS (new old stock), actual HP toner cartridge into it and it immediately jams. I open the back, pull out the nasty "fan-fold" jam with streaks of sticky black goo on it. Some of you are now saying; ah-hah!!!... that's what you get for buying an old piece from a place like that! OK....it was $35, cash (no tax) dollars. So I look in this thing and there's the aforementioned black goo all over the place in the back. I'm thinking it's the fuser unit and the film tube has sprung a lubricant leak. I take it back and the buy gives me another one. Then he notices that it has a broken toner lid hinge. So he gives me the one I bought, and this other one saying that if I'd take that, I can keep the left-overs for parts. So I got my butt outta there before he changes his mind! Actually, I'm not very surprised at all. He deals with surplus volume. He just wants that stuff out of this store. This is where YouTube comes in. If I hadn't already watch the videos on how to replace/repair the fuser assembly, I wouldn't have done this. Sure it took me a while to get the lid off like the video, but after that, it took me 5 minutes to get the part out. Then I swapped it with the other machine and I was ready to go. $35 for the printer, $15 for the toner, an hour of time to fix it and I sold it for $75. That printer will probably be in use for the next 5 years at least with a toner cost per year of less than $10....probably closer to $5 per!
Now I have a working spare with a bad lid that needs to have the fuser fixed. From another video, I found out that the "black goo" was the rubber wheels melting. Apparently there was a series that Canon (the laser engine maker) got a bad run of pick-up wheels. That'll cost me $10 to fix. So now, I have another printer out there in the garage that needs about $25 worth of parts to fix. There are literally tons of them out there waiting around in warehouses, wrapped up in plastic waiting to somebody to watch a YouTube video and show them some love.
