David Eisenbeisz
asked on
Good use for an old server?
I have an old Dell PowerEdge 2800 domain controller sitting in my office that is collecting dust. I was thinking about converting it into a server that we can use to backup the hard drives of the individual workstations in my office. It has a boatload of hard drive space in a hardware RAID array, which I believe is large enough to hold the workstations. There are 9 workstations that would need to attach to the server. Right now, it has MS Server 2003 installed on it, but not much else. Our workstations are a mix of Windows 7, Windows 10, and I think we have one Windows 8 laptop. On a suggestion from a guy who does some IT for us now and then, I was thinking about reformatting the server with Linux to do this job, but I don't know if that is the best way to go about it because I haven't used Linux since college.
My question is this: Is there a software solution available that will allow us to automatically backup our workstations to an old server that is relatively simple to install and maintain? We have a small business and don't have dedicated IT staff, so I will probably have to do this myself and I don't want to have to learn something really complicated.
We don't need the domain server anymore and I am willing to install a different operating system if necessary. Thanks for any suggestions. If the suggestion is to go with another operating system, please let me know the build or the version. Thanks.
My question is this: Is there a software solution available that will allow us to automatically backup our workstations to an old server that is relatively simple to install and maintain? We have a small business and don't have dedicated IT staff, so I will probably have to do this myself and I don't want to have to learn something really complicated.
We don't need the domain server anymore and I am willing to install a different operating system if necessary. Thanks for any suggestions. If the suggestion is to go with another operating system, please let me know the build or the version. Thanks.
Dave Baldwin
Your machine supports only older OS's. http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/supportedos/poweredge-2800 Anything newer and you're on your own. I suspect that it's out of support anyway.
This could be a useful new purpose:
http://www.freenas.org/
Nas on steroids....
Or this:
https://nextcloud.com/
a Web access service.. can hold contacts, calendar's, files, ..... accessible from any type of phone.
With webrtc, it could be your communication cloud... etc
And i doubt if any of the drivers of the latest kernels (linux) dropped anything they used to support.
So i would suggest to just go ahead and test any distro.
http://www.freenas.org/
Nas on steroids....
Or this:
https://nextcloud.com/
a Web access service.. can hold contacts, calendar's, files, ..... accessible from any type of phone.
With webrtc, it could be your communication cloud... etc
And i doubt if any of the drivers of the latest kernels (linux) dropped anything they used to support.
So i would suggest to just go ahead and test any distro.
You can format it to a Linux Server, then install some monitoring tools, such as Zabbix, Cacti,...
Hey,
NOCI's suggestions are very good.
> FreeNAS is pretty stright forward to set up, but you may have to use an older version of FreeNAS - The newer versions now have hardware requirements that eliminiate the older boxes - The FreeNAS site has the the full collection over versions and what they can run on.
> One think I like about FreeNAS is the different protocols that it support - iSCSI for instance and NFS.
> The FreeNAS quorum is very extensive and a good resource for help.
rojosho
Rojosho
NOCI's suggestions are very good.
> FreeNAS is pretty stright forward to set up, but you may have to use an older version of FreeNAS - The newer versions now have hardware requirements that eliminiate the older boxes - The FreeNAS site has the the full collection over versions and what they can run on.
> One think I like about FreeNAS is the different protocols that it support - iSCSI for instance and NFS.
> The FreeNAS quorum is very extensive and a good resource for help.
rojosho
Rojosho
Using this old PE2800 as a NAS would be problematical to me, as it uses SCA drives which have small capacities by current standards (18GB, 36GB, 73GB, and 146GB) and which are also becoming increasingly scarce even on eBay. It would also consume quite a lot of power, particularly if the drive bays are fully populated. Using obsolete hardware for backing up stuff that matters is rarely a good plan.
A better use for it might be as some kind of appliance for running pfSense or unTangle, or perhaps as a syslog server, or a monitoring host as suggested above.
The question you need to ask youself is this: If this old server fails in the role assigned to it, what impact will this have on my business/life/whatever? If the answer is "Negligible" then why bother repurposing the machine at all, particularly as you'll have to invest time in learning a new OS in order to get the server to function in its new role? If the answer is "Considerable" then the new role is important enough to justify the acquisition of new hardware in order to reliably discharge it.
Just my two cents' worth.
A better use for it might be as some kind of appliance for running pfSense or unTangle, or perhaps as a syslog server, or a monitoring host as suggested above.
The question you need to ask youself is this: If this old server fails in the role assigned to it, what impact will this have on my business/life/whatever? If the answer is "Negligible" then why bother repurposing the machine at all, particularly as you'll have to invest time in learning a new OS in order to get the server to function in its new role? If the answer is "Considerable" then the new role is important enough to justify the acquisition of new hardware in order to reliably discharge it.
Just my two cents' worth.
and take into consideration that old servers consume lots of power, generate much heat and noise - and take as much place as a new, powerful one
If you are set on using it for a backup of the workstations, why not just set up a simple file share in windows. Then on the workstations, set them up to back up every night to that file share using windows backup. It’s not the most reliable and it might use a lot of power as the others said but it would be simple and quick!
https://www.urbackup.org/
simply install windows 7 and install this software.
it done.
you have both client/Server options.
simply install windows 7 and install this software.
it done.
you have both client/Server options.
they make a nice BBQ. ;)
ASKER
Thank you all for your input. We decided to use the old server as a boat anchor (it is definitely heavy enough) and will probably purchase a second NAS for this purpose.
David, if you have an answer, don't forget to clos this !
David, sound like an good idea, it has the weight to do the job
Hm. weight is only so much for a boat anchor.... It is the design of the blades, and the whole combo.
A 15 Kg. Anchor can hold a 2000Kg Boat only because of the blades.., the weight is needed to get it through weed to the clay/sandy bottom.
(More probably the right chain + rope and enough length of it do more than the anchor).
A 15 Kg. Anchor can hold a 2000Kg Boat only because of the blades.., the weight is needed to get it through weed to the clay/sandy bottom.
(More probably the right chain + rope and enough length of it do more than the anchor).
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