Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Momesso Andrea wrote: I alredy have a gentoo home server up and running with decent hardware (a FUJITSU SIEMENS Amilo M3438 laptop, Pentium M 1.86GHz, 1.5Gb ram) that I use for general purpose (backup, portage-rsync, bittorrent, groupware) and also for my wife's work (a joomla site, a ftp server, and a mailing list manager). The work my wife does as a researcher for the university is growing fast, her group relays in the ftp server for uploading important documents, and she also required me to set up a wiki. I now think it's time to set up something more hardened and to have a separated box for her work, to reduce the risk that I break things while trying experimental stuff, masked packeges ecc. It comes that they had from their mentor an old iBook G3 to see if it fits their needs. I will recive the machine tonight and start to work on it this weekend, so yet I don't know the amount of memory it has, but I know for sure it's expandible to 544Mb, and I will surely do the upgrade if needed. Here are my questions: - Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server? - What kind of checks should I do to verify that the hardware (expecially the disk) is fine? - Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for the ppc? - Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on nfs shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe just the distfiles? - What would you suggest for automatic daily backups? - I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the distro I fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case? Would a compiled distro better fit my needs? Thank yo in advance for your answers. I run PPC64 in a production environment at work (full 64 bit UL) as a postgres data server (it's SUPER fast, 24 hours of upgrade on our intel quad takes about 4 on the mac). IMHO ppc is fine, but obviously sandbox and test before going live. Kind Regards Rich Healey - -- Richo - - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Developer / Systems Admin - OpenPGP: 0x8C8147807 MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AIM: richohealey33 irc.psych0tik.net- #hbh #admin ((richohealey)) irc.freenode.org - #hbh #debian ((PythonNinja)) -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkkFGj4ACgkQLeTfO4yBSAcbZwCeN/PH50/sLUjmO97hbyNx6yUd P7kAn2kOuDYGQ1uHsAaNw9ETgjjPbNKo =Uqtw -END PGP SIGNATURE-
[gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server
I alredy have a gentoo home server up and running with decent hardware (a FUJITSU SIEMENS Amilo M3438 laptop, Pentium M 1.86GHz, 1.5Gb ram) that I use for general purpose (backup, portage-rsync, bittorrent, groupware) and also for my wife's work (a joomla site, a ftp server, and a mailing list manager). The work my wife does as a researcher for the university is growing fast, her group relays in the ftp server for uploading important documents, and she also required me to set up a wiki. I now think it's time to set up something more hardened and to have a separated box for her work, to reduce the risk that I break things while trying experimental stuff, masked packeges ecc. It comes that they had from their mentor an old iBook G3 to see if it fits their needs. I will recive the machine tonight and start to work on it this weekend, so yet I don't know the amount of memory it has, but I know for sure it's expandible to 544Mb, and I will surely do the upgrade if needed. Here are my questions: - Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server? - What kind of checks should I do to verify that the hardware (expecially the disk) is fine? - Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for the ppc? - Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on nfs shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe just the distfiles? - What would you suggest for automatic daily backups? - I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the distro I fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case? Would a compiled distro better fit my needs? Thank yo in advance for your answers. pgpwCdsvgO2ER.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server
On 23 Oct 2008, at 11:49, Momesso Andrea wrote: ... Here are my questions: - Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server? I've played with Gentoo PPC pnly on the PS3, so am only a little more experienced than you. Oh! I think I did a base install on an iMac a couple of years back, but haven't touched it since. Anyway, for packages that are in Portage, it seems fine. - Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on nfs shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe just the distfiles? I'm sure all of /usr/portage is fine. - I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the distro I fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case? Would a compiled distro better fit my needs? For me, the inconvenience of learning another distro outweighs any advantages it may have. I have a really nice TST ESR316 case here which I bought a couple of months ago and which I am now finally getting around to deploying; with a drive array of this size ZFS really makes sense, but I just know that - any other considerations aside - I'll end up just hating OpenSolaris' package manager and will generally be less productive. Your milage may of course vary. It occurs to me that - if you're being GIVEN this laptop, and the university are not expecting it back - you can probably get more for it on eBay than you'll pay for a replacement x86 lappie (even, say, a Thinkpad). I appreciate this might seem like a long way around the problem, but it might save you from some PPC inconvenience. One just knows _something_ will go wrong! Stroller.
Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server
quoth the Momesso Andrea: Here are my questions: - Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server? I used an old G4 for a server for a while. I think I used a hardened profile. The machine's specs were a little higher than yours I believe, but it wasnt a speed demon or anything 433Mhz I think. - What kind of checks should I do to verify that the hardware (expecially the disk) is fine? smartmontools? - Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for the ppc? Yes, see the cross-compile gentoo docs. - Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on nfs shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe just the distfiles? I have both on NFS shares on my home network shared between 4 machines. Works great... - What would you suggest for automatic daily backups? Amanda, bacula? - I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the distro I fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case? Would a compiled distro better fit my needs? It would certainly make things easier. My G4 was a headless server but it still took a _very_ long time to build larger packages such as glibc etc. If you set up cross-compile it may help with this. Thank yo in advance for your answers. So: I did get PPC to work as a server, but it did have a few problems here and there. This was just for hosting my personal website/server so it wasn't a big deal. If your server is any sort of important you may want to look at finding an old x86 box. 2cents, -d -- darren kirby :: Part of the problem since 1976 :: http://badcomputer.org ...the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected... - Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972
Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server
On Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:49:27 +0200 Momesso Andrea [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I alredy have a gentoo home server up and running with decent hardware (a FUJITSU SIEMENS Amilo M3438 laptop, Pentium M 1.86GHz, 1.5Gb ram) that I use for general purpose (backup, portage-rsync, bittorrent, groupware) and also for my wife's work (a joomla site, a ftp server, and a mailing list manager). The work my wife does as a researcher for the university is growing fast, her group relays in the ftp server for uploading important documents, and she also required me to set up a wiki. I now think it's time to set up something more hardened and to have a separated box for her work, to reduce the risk that I break things while trying experimental stuff, masked packeges ecc. It comes that they had from their mentor an old iBook G3 to see if it fits their needs. I will recive the machine tonight and start to work on it this weekend, so yet I don't know the amount of memory it has, but I know for sure it's expandible to 544Mb, and I will surely do the upgrade if needed. Here are my questions: - Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server? - What kind of checks should I do to verify that the hardware (expecially the disk) is fine? - Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for the ppc? - Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on nfs shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe just the distfiles? - What would you suggest for automatic daily backups? - I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the distro I fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case? Would a compiled distro better fit my needs? Thank yo in advance for your answers. If you are round a university, I would actually suggest asking around and seeing if there are old P3 workstations being thrown out. With a little TLC, gentoo runs nicely on such hardware, especially as a headless server in a corner. Such a box would also offer a LOT more flexibility than an old laptop would, and they will probably be delighted to get rid of it! Rob. (Has a little collection of such rescued machines.) signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server
On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 09:18:32AM -0600, darren kirby wrote: - Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for the ppc? Yes, see the cross-compile gentoo docs. I alredy have a problem with that, and alredy filled a bug: http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=243406 pgpiSKOtkbZXE.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server
On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 04:27:35PM +0100, Robert Bridge wrote: If you are round a university, I would actually suggest asking around and seeing if there are old P3 workstations being thrown out. With a little TLC, gentoo runs nicely on such hardware, especially as a headless server in a corner. Such a box would also offer a LOT more flexibility than an old laptop would, and they will probably be delighted to get rid of it! Rob. (Has a little collection of such rescued machines.) The reason why I prefer a laptop is size (I can put it on the top of a cupboard next to the other one), and the possibility to use it without an UPS, that I don't have. pgpIqegBZbUiY.pgp Description: PGP signature
