home directory questions

[Bill Moran]

[Keep the mailing list CCed]

Thomas Moyer <tommoyer at atlanticbb.net> wrote:
> Bill Moran wrote:
> 
> >Thomas Moyer <tommoyer at atlanticbb.net> wrote:
> >
> >>Is it possible to setup a file server with FreeBSD and use that as a 
> >>home partition and also share other files on a small network?
> >>What kinds of utilities would I need to run?  I imagine NFS for *nix 
> >>clients and Samba for MS clients.  Also possibly share printers with 
> >>this computer as well.  CUPS for that.
> >
> >Um ... yes.  I assume you're just looking for verification that you're
> >selecting the correct technology, and you are.
> >
> >>Also what kind a minimum system reccomendations does anyone have?
> >
> >That's impossible to even guesstimate without some idea of what kind
> >of load the system is going to be under.  I have a fileserver here that
> >serves Windows and FreeBSD clients and it's a 200mhz with 96M of RAM.
> >But I would never suggest that for a big installation.
> >
> At most the server will serve 4 to 5 clients at any given time.  This 
> might increase later but for now it is limited to those few.

<uses his psychic powers to ascertain how much traffic each of those
clients will generate>

Seriously.  This is one of the biggest misconceptions around - that I can
tell you what kind of hardware to purchase based solely on how many clients
you have.  Without a better usage profile, I can only guess.

And here's my guess:
With that many clients, it's likely that your reliability requirements will
be greater than your performance requirements.  Meaning: you could probably
get a used computer at Goodwill for $100 that would perform acceptably for
that load, but do you really want your server running on used hardware?

You could probably buy cheap NICs that are advertised at 100mb/sec but can
only really do 70mb/sec, and you'd still think they were fast enough, but
that depends on your tolerance for delay, which is a pretty difficult thing
to judge until people start complaining.

All said and done, you can probably buy commodity hardware at a competitive
price and get something that will suit.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com