Peter Simmonds wrote on 11/04/15 16:07:
> I have recently acquired an IBM System X3400 server. Have tried CentOS
> v6 (64bit) and opensuse (64 bit) until finally getting a Centos v7
> 64bit installation completed and working.
>
> My immediate need for this server is to get Zoneminder installed on it
> so that I have my security cameras up and running (Replacing a
> vulnerable windows xp machine).
>
> Would your mailing list be an appropriate way of getting the advice I
> need to make this happen? My linux skills are only entry level, mostly
> based on a Unix Fundamentals course I did at Polytech.
>
> More specifically:
>
> 1. Would the distribution be appropriate? This was the only one I have
> successfully gotten installed on this machine, with the major problem
> being the RAID card. The downside to this distribution was that there
> is currently no binary repositories for zoneminder, and the only
> available option seems to be to install it from source code.
>
> 2. Are there any other distributions that you could recommend that may
> work on this machine? or possibly would there be easy fixes to the
> likes of centos v6 or opensuse 13.2 to get it running?
>
> 3. Should I try ubuntu just to get things up and running, if so, is
> ubuntu extendable to server usage? (Say, emulating a windows
> environment to run an internet ordering business, plus the usual stuff
> like FTP, NFS, SAMBA etc)?
>
> Any advice on the best way to get started would be greatly appreciated.
Good work - I'm familiar with those. Not small or quiet, are they!
Do consider doing a full firmware upgrade - I can generate a bootable
DVD ISO that does it all if you advise the exact IBM model and submodel,
which is a small white-on-black sticker on the front, or run
# dmidecode | grep "Product Name"
Product Name: IBM eServer x3400-[*7975B4M*]-
This list is fine place for asking good questions, just like the ones
you've already asked.
1) What raid card is in the machine? What drives do you have? What
level of raid are you configuring? Are they sata or sas? Hotswap
drives or "Simpleswap" drives?
We've found that real hardware raid cards work the best, but they're
most expensive and you might not have one.
Likely your x3400 has a " LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS1064ET"
controller, which is not in the same league. If you have one of
these, then "hardware raid" works but is slower than linux software raid.
The other advantage of software raid is you can control what the raid is
doing without having to find some kind of raid management card utility.
2) Use the linux distro you're most comfortable with. Personally I use
debian, but once you get past the distro differences they're all linux
underneath, and what is possible in one should be possible in others.
For me one of the main features of Debian is that there is a supported
upgrade path between major revisions. Redhat and therefore CentOS did
not support an upgrade from 5 to 6. However I see that 6 to 7 is now
"supported" but I've not been ballsy enough to try it.
https://linuxacademy.com/blog/linux/centos-7-upgrading-from-centos-6-x-in-place/
I personally have no knowledge of zone minder, instead I set up Motion
about 12 years ago and have been happy with its function.
I have seven cameras now, and have got 32 days of footage stored using
705 GB of disk.
3) Any linux can run all the normal stuff like Samba and a FTP or SFTP
server or NFS.
There are ubuntus that are "LTS - Long Term Support" so they will stay
secured over their supported life. They may not run the latest version
(think squid or samba) but they will be secure once updated. I assume
they inherit the Debian ability to do a dist-upgrade from X to X+1
The best way to get started is to dual things up - if your XP box doing
cameras is production then leave it as-is for now,
and set up a linux box in parallel. I have a spare analogue input card
and an analogue camera for testing if that's any use, or if you only
have network cameras then you might be able to read them from both
machines together.
Are you in Christchurch?
--
CF
_______________________________________________
Linux-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
