Setting up a linux server at work

Has anybody here actually set up a linux server from the ground up? All the guides I've found are very sparse on actually getting everything up and running, and it'd be nice to have a reference person to touch base with when I run into problems.

The situation is: At work we've got a pretty old machine with a decent sized hard drive(300GB or so) and a pretty old version of SuSe on it. The machine hosts a website and acts as a file server. The website end is fine(although it hasn't been updated in about 2 years), it's the file server that's causing me grief. It was written very poorly by a guy that left over 4 years ago.

We cannot add accounts through the file server web site, only through editing database files. That'd be fine, except there's a ton of files that need editing in order to add one account and if one file is wrong then it messes up the whole system. Another issue is that if somebody tries to upload a file greater than 3.5GB(roughly) everything craps out and it screws the system up.


I'd like to keep SuSe, but move to a new version(10.x), or switch to debian/Ubuntu as these are the distros that I have the most experience with. Does anybody have any pointers or really good all inclusive guides?

 

I haven't set up a server, but what are the specs on this system?

 

What kind of file server is this? It doesn't sound like Samba or ftp. Is it a custom written application? What type of database is being used?

Offhand, it sounds like your best bet would be to migrate all the database info, and move everything to a freshly built server. Its hard to be more specific without knowing more details about the current server. Most likely any change to a new distro or version of Suse will require modifications to the existing web site and file server configurations. I would imagine there could be significant changes in the web server and database versions.

 

Current system is an AMD Duron at right around 1ghz, 256mb ram. We have a pair of really nice dual quad core xeon dell servers waiting to be used, but the higher ups are afraid of loosing all the data by switching.

I will hopefully be using the dell servers(dual quad core xeon, 4mb ram, harddrives-as much as I can get) for the new setup, that way I can test everything on a local network before swapping out the old software.

It was developed several years ago using perl(with no real database). I fully plan on implementing an entirely new website also, but I have enough experience developing websites to be able to figure that part out(I think). New hardware will be used

 

Does this help any?

 

That's a bit much to start from. I'm no linux pro. I have enough knowledge to find my way around and deal with stuff that's already there, but starting fresh with something like this is totally new to me.

If there was something comprehensive there, that'd be great, but most of the server tutorials out there assume you know a whole lot or just show you how to set up a printer-share or mail server.

 

I see, hmm, have you tried installing this in a VM first? Why not just go ahead and try?

 

Fine idea, sir! I'm downloading openSuSe 10.3 as we speak(just a term, it's actually as I type).

 

Simple solution? Download the ubntu server iso, use it to install the a lanp server, which takes care of the basics and the web server. Then all you need is an ftp server, which is easily installed with sudo apt-get install proftpd. TADA!! Insta-server!

 

Honestly if you dont know what you are doing, it might not be bad for your company to contract out this project to an actual linux administrator. There is a reason they get the big bucks

 

You can checkout the linux reality podcast.He has done a series of episodes dedicated to servers

www.linuxreality.com

 

Well, the problem is is that I don't work at a "company", I work for the university(I'm a student) and there are no bucks to spend. My job title doesn't necessarily dictate that I'm the server admin, but it kind of fell into my lap, as everybody there either has no experience with linux, or has no time outside of teaching classes/preparing grant proposals.

Plus I really want to learn how to do this

 

Setting up a linux server is easy peasy! Now, setting up a squid server that encrypted all the connections over a tcp-port tunnel using 256-bit thingies, THAT can be sorta complicated!

 

You'll want to use Samba for the file sharing and Apache for hosting the website. Google around for How-To on setting up Samba, theres a lot to learn. To start you off http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~mpakoyan/Samba/Build a Samba File Server.htm
http://us3.samba.org/samba/

You'll probably need to do the same thing with Apache.

What I would do is install Linux (any distros but a enterprise class distro like CentOS is a good choice) get them talking to each other and see if the people higher up would let you start coping the data over to the new servers. Then you'll probably want to bring the old server down and start test driving the new servers once your done. There shouldn't be any data lost if you make sure you backup and keep the old server the way it was.

I'm sure theres a lot to it, at my school we have 3 or 4 classes on Unix/Linux so I'm sure theres going to be a lot of learning involved in it. Most of the instructions on getting it up running should be on the net.

 

Woot for more Linux users. Seriously, I'm glad you are jumping into this like it's a pool in the middle of a hot summer. From your enthusiasm, modesty and patience, you should do fine. Plus, Linux geeks just love to show off how much they know.

 

one option you have is to go with something like clarkconnect or vyatta they are not only firewall but provide a great deal of functionality out off the box and clarkconnect has a good forum based to help

 

Well, we're waiting on a power cord for the Dell PowerEdge server.

One of the problems is that some of the people that need to access files hosted on the server apparently can't figure out ftps. So my boss wants to be able to just send a link to a person that will take them to a page where the only thing there is a link for download. I don't understand why he can't just email them a link to the file(ie: ftp://oursite.edu/transfer/thebossesfolder/file1.zip), but he wants that extra page. Anybody know of anything like this?

I've been looking at ftp frontends such as oliver and gollem, but it doesn't appear that they do what I need.

 

IIRC, when there is no index.html in a folder, apache automatically lists the contents of that folder. Is that kinda what you need?

 

Ok, so bringing this back up. I had to put the server to the back burner as we got our new S-Band radios in for testing and those where higher on the food chain.

As it stands I've got openSuSE 10.3 with xampp installed and running. I'm able to access all the xampp controls and if I put an index.html into the main folder it shows up when I access it from the actual server. However, I am having difficulty getting it to actually host it so I can view it from another computer. We have a specific domain name and ip address for this server, and I can't seem to get it to take over that address.

How do I configure this thing to host a page on a predetermined address?(I'm using the same Ethernet port to connect the new server as is being used on the old server so the physical location is not changing)
Thanks a bunch.

 

Linux servers are often very customized for the specific uses of corporations. What I saying is, you'll have a tough time finding any guides on how to set up Linux in a specific server function; thats left to professionals.

 

Based on what you say, I'm guessing you want a static address. Is it possible that your server is currently getting its ip from dhcp?

BTW, there are probably forums better able to help you than NBR.

 

Update for you guys who care(if any). I went and talked to the head of IT for the university and we came up with some ideas to get it working.
First thing I did was enable port forwarding for port 80(for xampp).
Next I edited /etc/resolv.conf to listen to the servers ip address(router assigned, found with #ifconfig).
that was all that I really had to do. All this time spent messing with settings that had nothing to do with anything really, and it was something so small as a conf file and port forwarding.

check out progress at http://ssc.moreheadstate.edu (should display a "server down for maintenance" message until I can get all the old files transfered over).

 

Hi,
1. files larger then 3.5GB - i'm sure, you use 32 bit OS. Thant means the system can address memory and create, copy, save etc. only files 2^32 which is roughly 4gb
2. i reccomend switching to new HW as soon as you can, since, as you describe your HW its pretty old and what you do if hdd fails? (except you have finally your hands "untied") )
3.i reccomend CentOS linux distribution - its basically RHEL (red hat enterprise linux) only recompiled by community and therefore free of any charge etc (well, rhel is free too, but you need to pay for updates, support) ... CentOS is now in 5.1 version, but because we have freshly new RHEL 5.2 (with lot cool features and fixed things) i'd wait like 2 or 3 weeks before its recompiled to CentOS 5.2
4. as for file server - it depends what clients you use? I suppose windows? If it's so, nothing is better than Samba, if clients are Linux boxes, use NFS.
5. scripts for user creation - you said you have some scripts for editing and settin up users - dont bother, you dont need them, since in new Linux distributions you have nice gui utilities for user creation/management
6. i propose, you install new server on new HW, setup users on new server and run it (and have old server up and ready) because you will surely need copy out some data from it
7. you said you're university - so, where is the prob? ask arround, i'm pretty sure, you find some linux geek, who just for shear joy will help you to install it and show you some basics ...

gl & hf