Camera Labs

I have a windows 7 PC that I used to use as my workstation before buying a more powerful one.

I want to build a linux box with software raid as an additional backup to my NAS Raid box i use a primary backup.

I will use a 120 GB SSD drive as the main install drive, with 5 1TB drives configured to run in some version of RAID to give me maximum disk capacity. As it will be my 3rd backup device, i am not looking for raid 5 redundancy rather maximum capacity - so which raid for that?

The last time I installed and played with linux was several years ago, opting for CENTOS. I want to know which version of Linux you would recommend to install, with:

-easy to use GUI
-easy to configure RAID
-some form of automatic backup where it checks a network drive for changes and adds the new files

It has an ATI card (pretty new one) which I belive is not great for Linux. Is this true? I doubt I will use the procesisng power of it, so provided it supports a good gui I will not replace it with a cheap NVIDIA card.

If possible, I want to be able to start and stop the server automatically once a week to perform the latest backup. Can this be done with software or does it depend on my bios?

I may also use it to host websites for beta testing, as I am rebuilding mine from scratch with dreamweaver, so I also need to be able to install, easily, apache and support for SQL.



Thanks in advance for your advice.

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http://www.parismetrotrash.com

ATI has gotten a lot better with their linux drivers. Trying to get dual monitor support to work will probably cost you a few hairs, but aside from that, no worries.

NAS system: FreeNAS. Awesome distro, running it here. Supports software raid, and eats like 32 megs of ram when idling. Nice web interface, too.
Although not technically linux (it's BSD), I think it suits your needs.

As far as a full blown backup solution goes, see here: http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/?p=2649
Apps are in the shownotes, and the backup section is around the end of the show I think.

As a base OS for those full backup solutions, I'd go for either CentOS (red-hat base) or Ubuntu server (Debian based). Keep in mind that Ubuntu server is full console, so no GUI whatshowever. If you want a graphical interface for the server with Ubuntu, it's best to pick Debian (Ubuntu's ancestor).

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

thanks. Not sure I will be able to listen to those very annoying presenters for long though:) I think i will go for ubuntu server and install a gui on it, then look for a good backup solution.

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http://www.parismetrotrash.com

Haha, I think they're awesome. Way over the top, makes it fun.

Also, the command to install the desktop on Ubuntu Server is : sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

That will take a while though with downloading and installing.

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

thanks, I will try to install it this weekend.

thanks for your help.

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http://www.parismetrotrash.com

Well your comment made me want to get back into SAN/NAS systems, so I also gave Openfiler a try. So far it looks more resource hungry than FreeNAS, but the web interface appears to be easier.

And I like the login screen better:

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".