Whre is OpenSolaris 2008.11?
Monday, December 01, 2008
Still waiting on the new version of OpenSolaris. Perhaps it should be called 2008.12 now.
posted by bj @ 10:07 am,
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Mobo back again
Monday, November 03, 2008
My OpenSolaris home server project stalled after a problem with the motherboard I bought. After much delay the online reseller has finally replaced it. Just arrived today. I'll be seeing if I can boot my system in the next couple of days.
Of course, OpenSolaris 2008.11 is due any day now. I expect to be using that in the final build.
posted by bj @ 1:33 pm,
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Final parts selection for home server
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
I chose the Asus motherboard because it is on the OpenSolaris HCL. I had access to another (desktop) computer that uses it and I was able to boot the live DVD and run the device manager. I showed no hardware problems, and networking worked.
The motherboard has only 4 SATA ports, but I've decided to run the OS from an old PATA disk. The case is a cheapy from Gigabyte that was chosen because it has slots for lots of disks. Its ugly, but it is going to sit out of sight down in the basement.
Initially I'll run 2 x 500GB disks in a mirror pair for ZFS storage. There is space to add more later.
Last weekend I put it all together, but it wouldn't boot. I haven't had time to figure out the problem yet, and unfortunately the next 3 weekends are taken. I hope to get some time on a week day night though.
Here is the final list.
- Gigabyte GZ-X4 Mid Tower Case w/ 300W PSU
- Asus M2A-VM mobo (AM2/690G/SB600)
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ CPU
- Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 2GB RAM
- 2 x Samsung 500GB SATA HDD
- old 80GB PATA disk for OS
- old IDE DVD drive for installation
posted by bj @ 8:03 am,
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Motherboard for home server
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
A Foxconn motherboard is looking good in that it is cheap and has 6 x SATA ports, but still trying to ascertain if the relatively new AMD 780G chipset is supported by Opensolaris. The LAN chip (RTL8111B) is good.
One post I found mentions installing OS on a Asus 780G/SB700 mobo, so it seems it might be OK.
Foxconn - Products: Motherboard
posted by bj @ 10:41 pm,
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ZFS Home Server
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Been busy, but now have some time to devote to the home server replacement.
Still keen on Opensolaris. Still looking at hardware.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 - cheap and plenty fast enough, 64 bit, dual core.
Motherboard: still looking. Requirements:-
- 4+ SATA and 1+ IDE
- GbE network
- cheap, but good quality; a no-frills workhorse
- Opensolaris HCL
Memory: 800MHz DDR2 - 2GB to start, expandable.
Graphics: no requirements - on-board or can use an old PCIe Nvidia 6200 for install.
posted by bj @ 9:24 pm,
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An OpenSolaris Home Server
Thursday, July 31, 2008
OK, its time to replace my ancient home file server with something newer and faster. Although I run Windows, Ubuntu Linux and OS X on my PC, the significant other wants only a Windows workhorse and no hassles. Backups should just happen.
The Old
An old Dell PIII 800MHz running Gentoo Linux with
- Samba
- Apache/Cacti
- mt-daapd (audio streaming server for iTunes)
Hardware yet to be finalised, but it doesn't have to be anything special. These days AMD Athlon X2 CPUs are dirt cheap, as is RAM. It will be in the basement, out of sight and hearing, so a butt-ugly shabbily made case is fine. All I want is at least 4 SATA connectors on the motherboard. A moderate speed dual-core with 2GB RAM and a couple of 500GB disks isn't going to cost too much.
Looking now at software. For a while I considered Windows Home Server. I like its storage pooling model and the automated backups. I thought I could run a virtualisation platform on it (such as VMware Server) so I could have a Linux plaything. Problem is that it costs way too much compared to the hardware. Any cracked version will eventually be blacklisted and stop getting updates.
Next candidate is the relativlely new OpenSolaris distro. This is hitting all the right chords.
- $$ free
- ZFS - shit hot! - storage pooling, snapshots, NFS, CIFS, iSCSI, data integrity
- All the usual open source stuff.
- Zones and/or VirtualBox for virtual playthings
I stumbled something that suggestion that with Samba and a VFS plugin you can have Volume Shadow copies, and with use of symbolic links you can use ZFS snapshots as the foundation for the shadow copies. Sounds like something to aim for.
Stay tuned.
posted by bj @ 9:24 pm,
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I'm with Germs
Thursday, September 07, 2006
The media onslaught about the death of Steve Irwin continues unabated. I feel deeply for his family, but...
I'm with Germaine Greer. I was embarrassed by him too. I thought the writers of South Park hit the nail on the head with their send up of him. In that episode, Cartman took to wearing khaki and talking in a hokey Australian accent. He would tackle animals, declare them dangerous, then try to make them angry by sticking his thumb up their but.
I saw that on TV a couple of years before I had even heard of Steve Irwin. His popularity in the US was huge, while TV stations in Australia thought him too cringe-worthy to show.
Still, he knew and acknowledged that not everyone liked his projected persona. He traded on it mercilessly, so good luck to him.
Greer sticks to her guns over 'tormentor' Irwin - Stay in Touch - National
posted by bj @ 8:46 am,
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