[ubuntu-uk] Advice re 8.04 server edition

[Jim Kissel]

Mac wrote:
> I'm thinking of having a go at setting up a file server and music server 
> using 8.04 LTS.  Being a cautious type, I've been investigating what 
> might go wrong (forewarned is forearmed!).  I came across the comments 
> below (slighted edited) from someone who's reasonably tech-savvy, and 
> wondered if folks here could give me some guidance on whether the 
> comments are true and how much hassle someone new to servers (=me!) 
> would have with the installation.
> 
> ############
> "On the other hand, I built a Ubuntu server last weekend. Here's a
> selection of the things which caused me grief out of the box:
> * No CPU power saving enabled
> * No fanspeed control installed
> * Needed to set noatime to allow discs to spin down (and had to set
> discs to spin down!)
> * Had to compile a upnp server from source, which took a few goes to
> get right
> * No automatic updates by default (!!) - had to install and configure
> cron-apt
> * cron-apt needed a working mail environment so then had to get exim
> working , and then smtp auth, etc etc (that took a while)
> 
> I'm sure there was more I'm forgetting, but you get the idea. Now not
> all of this is needed for everyone (though I would imagine much of it
> is), and of course next time I need to build a box it'll go much
> quicker as I know what I'm doing. But I always smile when people who
> are clearly very knowledgeable in a field exclaim how it's so easy
> anyone could do it - we forget what we're good at!"
> ############
> 
> I don't know whether I need to control CPU speed and fan speed or 
> install a upnp server (??);  but automatic updates and having the discs 
> spin down seem fairly basic requirements.  And it sounds like the guy 
> above had a lot of hassle to set up automatic updates.
> 
> Any thoughts??
> 
The "problems" seem about what I would expect for a server install. 
Spin down disk on a server - no thanks.  It's a server and I expect 7x24 
service.

If you want a server that behaves like a desktop, install a desktop 
distro, and add the server bits you want.

ymmv