Linux Format forums

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

wyliecoyoteuk — Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:15 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 9:15 pm

There is a zoneminder tutorial in this month's LXF

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

nelz — Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:57 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:57 pm

The Type A has no ethernet.

PIs !

derek765 — Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:33 pm

Author: derek765

Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 5:33 pm

A bunch of PIs http://www.linuxformat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13694 ?

Could use the cheap spec type A due for release soon

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

bobthebob1234 — Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:54 pm

Author: bobthebob1234

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 11:54 pm

wyliecoyoteuk wrote:

The hardest bit was getting the flourescent display working.

Assuming you are talking about the 'Fancy LED' as defined on http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MSI_Media_Live then this is true.

I found some voodoo chanting and random mashing of the keyboard helped. I haven�t bothered lately as I found it got very very hot...

I never got the buttons to work though...

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

wyliecoyoteuk — Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:34 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 9:34 pm

Well, I managed to pick up one of these for �99 on ebay, remaindered stock, still in a sealed box. I put in an AMD 4850e, 4 GB of ram, a Hauppuage Nova-T500 dual tuner TV card, and a 320gb HDD.
The hardest bit was getting the flourescent display working.

But any miniITX mobo would do.
I run Mythbuntu 11.04 on it, with Zoneminder installed from the repos.

couple of howto posts, (a little out of date, but largely still true)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1140411
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1535947

I use a Logitech E3500 webcam indoors, and a HCV91 Webcam-pro external IP camera.

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

mande01 — Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:29 pm

Author: mande01

Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 4:29 pm

OK so everyone thought I was nuts!

I was the one person that said no. I was really not liking the idea that 100% of people thought I was nuts.

Thanks for all the input, esp. @wyliecoyoteuk. your set up is really close to what i want.

Could you give out some details about that box?
H/W spec, OS, applications, IO constraints?
Any difficulties you had specifically?

Thanks again to everyone who looked in at this.
Derry

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

wyliecoyoteuk — Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:54 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:54 pm

By the time you are running 4 Pico boards with separate OS installations you are talking 40W minimum, not counting the extra equipment such as Arduinos.
And you have the overhead of multiple OSes

I have one Mini-ITX PC with a "power hungry" Dual core Athlon 4850e that uses around 45W average.
I use it as a 4 channel PVR and DVD player, and it can stream live TV, radio, recorded Video, photos and music across the net to multiple PCs. It also functions as a File server, backup server (to an external HDD), Zoneminder server and IMAP mail server.
It is very quiet, mainly due to a huge heatsink with a slow 12CM fan.

There are ways of printing using IPP (Internet Printing Protocol).
Many of the things that you want can be done via a web interface, but you really need an always on box.

Maybe a few Raspberry Pis

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

tandyn — Wed Nov 16, 2011 5:31 pm

Author: tandyn

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 5:31 pm

I have always believed that the more points of failure you have, the more failures you will have. Is there a purpose to having everything on a separate board?

How about a firewall in front of one controller/mail server, one media server, and a security server/ home automation. That would be three, so many one more for backing up settings and whatnot? Some of the things you have on there can be done with programs already available. If necessary, have them update with Googles web apps, or build your own 'cloud server.' As for printing, I am not sure if there is a program for printing something at home from a remote location.

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

mande01 — Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:33 pm

Author: mande01

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:33 pm

I just thought, my old N95 could stream media!

How capable are mobile platforms?!?

Some forums report people being about to stream video for a N95 to TV?

I'm starting to drift into madness here, I'm thing a pc case full of phones all doing different work when ever needed...

Madness I tell you! madness!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8qcccZy03s

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

mande01 — Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:08 pm

Author: mande01

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:08 pm

idea is to use a little power as possible, I'll update that above!

Also adding in stuff about cooling

Thanks thought, that is what i kind of have at the moment but it is a power hungry hot noisy machine!

Re: Home server Am i nuts!

Rhakios — Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:58 pm

Author: Rhakios

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:58 pm

Or just use virtual machines in a decent spec box.

Home server Am i nuts!

mande01 — Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:56 pm

Author: mande01

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:56 pm

Ok so a little idea, how would one go about doing this?

So you have a home server box/appliance that is made up of an ATX box with about 10-12 pico-itx PCs inside each one dedicated to a service/solution for a home.
All connected via GB managed switch (inside the box) everything with passive cooling except the box it's self. A pico board will fix in a hard drive space, so cooling design is as per hard drive cooling.

The bonus of doing this is that only a little pico board (5-10W power) needs to be on the whole time.

So you have:
One pico board which holds the website that controls everything else
media servers; one for music, one for video, can WOL the file server for nfs shares
file server; just connect HDD via PCI USB3 on the one pico board,
mail server; but I probably won't. Maybe just use it as a local back up for web mail,
torrent server;
home automation server; arduinos all over the place but if an event occurs they can WOL this board and log/email/sms/phone someone, or this board can be WOL from the central one to get things to happen in the home,
security server; i.e. zonealarm to IP cameras, and something like arduinos at remote locations that can WOL this box if needed,
back up server; basically an host for rsync up to a remote location
"Family Applications" Server; calendar, to-do list, shopping, forum,
Print server; for printing!
etc...
etc...

I really do like this idea, it could be a product that is bought in pieces, add in more and the home website just updates based on what is added, like modules in Webmin.

A small home version, medium home version, small business version, medium business version, student version (no home automation/security server) etc....

The really beauty is that only the open source community could do all this cheaply (relatively to a commercial version)!

Am I nuts, maybe I should do a poll for that?!?

Add your own ideas or examples of implementing some of this stuff, or just give out to me about how impracticable it all is!!!

Thanks
Derry

P.S. Started here http://www.linuxformat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=102825

P.P.S One vote on yes => therefore I'm 100% nuts! Please vote!