[ubuntu-uk] Advice re 8.04 server edition

[Rob Beard]

Mac wrote:
> Jim Kissel wrote:
> <snip>
>> 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.
> 
> Jim >>> Thanks for your reply.  I'm just wanting a server to serve files 
> (documents, images, and media) to our various machines at home on our 
> LAN, and to run our music server and hold its library.  (No plans to 
> stream video.)  As you see, I don't know a lot about setting up a server 
> to do just this, so your point about not spinning down the discs is 
> helpful (and I assume you're saying that instant access is more 
> important than avoiding wear?)

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server will be fine for the job.  If it's a mixture of 
Windows and Linux machines you could use a combination of NFS and Samba 
or Samba on it's own (I just use Samba on my server).

> I don't know how essential upnp is - any advice?  But I'm a bit 
> surprised that automatic updating needs to be added - is that right?
> 

I don't think uPnP will be essential, in fact I've heard in some 
circumstances it can be a security risk.

Can I throw another option on the table?

SME Server 7.3 (which you can get from here: 
http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server_7.3) is a server which combines 
e-mail, web server, internet gateway, samba server and more into one 
easy to use server.  It's administrable via an easy to use web interface 
and is free (under the GPL).

It works on anything from about a Pentium 2 upwards and will work 
happily with something like 256MB ram.  It's based on Centos 4 which in 
turn is based on RedHat.

Otherwise, a standard Ubuntu 8.04 Server install (as long as you're 
comfortable using the command line), with Samba and a bit of tweaking of 
the config files will do the job.

Rob