Hi,
I've not set up an NFS server from hardware for many years, so please bear
with any naive questions.
I need to set up a server to replace an old Dell Business server (SC 430)
running Ubuntu 14.04.02, which has stopped booting up now. It had 2 500GB
drives, daily backup from drive 1 to drive 2 using rdist-backup. Data is
written only to 1 drive. It has 4GB RAM. Small subnet - 3 fixed NFS clients
(2 desktops, 1 fixed laptop) and 1-2 floating laptops that are brought in
occasionally.
What would be a really good server setup to replace this? OS, software, &
network installs/configs are not a problem, but I'd like to set it up once
(well, OK a few times!), and then leave it to run for years.
I've only used servers with internal hard-drives. Are there reliable boxes
(chassis?) which will let me re-use the 2 SATA HDDs? Is a
CPU-RAM-network-only box + SATA box config possible? And the Dell case is
really nice, I'd hate to scrap it if it can be re-used. The motherboard has
been dying for some time, I think, so it may not be salvageable. Only 2 of
the 4 SATA connectors work.
To spice up this problem a little further. Most users are already getting
their home directories through NFS. Would it make sense to convert the
desktops into thin clients? No hardware replacement here, just
distro/OS/config.
Many thanks in advance for all advice & suggestions.
Regards,
Sameer
