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- Nov 5, 2018
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So partially out of boredom, out of need I decided to embark on a new project. It's not done yet but I have tried a number of solutions and learned some things along the way.
My goals were to build a low -power consumption server that would stream files to my home network as well as being a remote server (or "Private Cloud") to access files remotely.
A possible thought was to be able to re-encode media files on the fly for serving to various devices on the network but that requires horsepower and would interfere with low power consumption.
I have a used Acer easyStore H340 server that originally came with WHS but that was wiped off the main drive. What I do like about it was it has bays for 4 drives (1 GB max each) and was very low power. The cons were it was a pseudo 64 bit system which meant that instead of the Intel Atom 230 being a true 64 bit chip Intel fiddled around with the CPU registers and thru coding made it appear as 64 bit. This would explain the 1 GB HD limit to all the internal HDs and the 2 GB RAM limit. So this really limits to what software I could incorporate.
So first I tried a plain vanilla WHS install, Windows 10 won't touch it as a server for security reasons, not enough resources to run Windows 10 Pro, so it's not worth the bother in a Windows environment so I moved on.
So off to Linux land. First I tried Ubuntu server. It taught me a lesson about Linux forks.
#1 There are more forks of Linux than Carters has pills. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/more+than+Carter+has+pills
#2 Unless you are willing to become one of "the gang" and hang out on their boards to keep up with the ever occurring changes being instituted, don't bother with Ubuntu Server. The documentation that is available is outdated and contains errors and typos. I think no one cares to keep it current any more. Fail.
So then I thought I would give AMAHI a try. They do tell a great story and they do provide some neat features such as your own custom URL to direct users to your server. Then it gets odd. I suppose if you are really clever and know Linux well the base AMAHI program can be made to work. However barring that you had better get the credit card ready to purchase add-ons to make this program functional. At the center there seems to be a program "Greyhole" which provides file handling via a GUI. That's $25 usd. If you want a pro subscription with added features for AMAHI that will run you $9.99 to $19.99 usd PER MONTH and the list of stuff to buy goes on and on. They even have the stones to "sell" a version of Plex that they ported to AMAHI, that's pretty sleazy. My goodness I think I know where Satya Narayana Nadella is getting the same idea for Windows. So I am starting to smell rip-off and maybe these guys are taking lessons from the POTUS or vise-versa.
So that really leaves me with a couple of alternatives. Windows 10 Pro can be fashioned into a server of sorts to do exactly what I am looking for but security isn't great. The other options is to haul a server home and either set up Windows Server or perhaps a commercial fork of Linux that is supported. Hardware is not an issue for me. I can grab a couple year old Power Edge Server for nothing at work and max it out with options. My job does have it's privileges.
The only thing is both of these options are going to suck up some major power and I was hoping not to have to do that.
Does anyone have any experience with set-ups like this and could make some recommendations? This is a "stay at home" project so it's filling in time. I just thought it might make a great addition to my home network.
My goals were to build a low -power consumption server that would stream files to my home network as well as being a remote server (or "Private Cloud") to access files remotely.
A possible thought was to be able to re-encode media files on the fly for serving to various devices on the network but that requires horsepower and would interfere with low power consumption.
I have a used Acer easyStore H340 server that originally came with WHS but that was wiped off the main drive. What I do like about it was it has bays for 4 drives (1 GB max each) and was very low power. The cons were it was a pseudo 64 bit system which meant that instead of the Intel Atom 230 being a true 64 bit chip Intel fiddled around with the CPU registers and thru coding made it appear as 64 bit. This would explain the 1 GB HD limit to all the internal HDs and the 2 GB RAM limit. So this really limits to what software I could incorporate.
So first I tried a plain vanilla WHS install, Windows 10 won't touch it as a server for security reasons, not enough resources to run Windows 10 Pro, so it's not worth the bother in a Windows environment so I moved on.
So off to Linux land. First I tried Ubuntu server. It taught me a lesson about Linux forks.
#1 There are more forks of Linux than Carters has pills. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/more+than+Carter+has+pills
#2 Unless you are willing to become one of "the gang" and hang out on their boards to keep up with the ever occurring changes being instituted, don't bother with Ubuntu Server. The documentation that is available is outdated and contains errors and typos. I think no one cares to keep it current any more. Fail.
So then I thought I would give AMAHI a try. They do tell a great story and they do provide some neat features such as your own custom URL to direct users to your server. Then it gets odd. I suppose if you are really clever and know Linux well the base AMAHI program can be made to work. However barring that you had better get the credit card ready to purchase add-ons to make this program functional. At the center there seems to be a program "Greyhole" which provides file handling via a GUI. That's $25 usd. If you want a pro subscription with added features for AMAHI that will run you $9.99 to $19.99 usd PER MONTH and the list of stuff to buy goes on and on. They even have the stones to "sell" a version of Plex that they ported to AMAHI, that's pretty sleazy. My goodness I think I know where Satya Narayana Nadella is getting the same idea for Windows. So I am starting to smell rip-off and maybe these guys are taking lessons from the POTUS or vise-versa.
So that really leaves me with a couple of alternatives. Windows 10 Pro can be fashioned into a server of sorts to do exactly what I am looking for but security isn't great. The other options is to haul a server home and either set up Windows Server or perhaps a commercial fork of Linux that is supported. Hardware is not an issue for me. I can grab a couple year old Power Edge Server for nothing at work and max it out with options. My job does have it's privileges.
The only thing is both of these options are going to suck up some major power and I was hoping not to have to do that.
Does anyone have any experience with set-ups like this and could make some recommendations? This is a "stay at home" project so it's filling in time. I just thought it might make a great addition to my home network.
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