Right now I currently have 3 laptops
-one asus g72 (gaming)
-a gatewaye (hosting game servers)
-acer (going to no use)
well since I have three laptops, two of which are in use, i wanted to make the acer into a data server so I would be able to backup my data from the other two laptops.
How would I go about doing this?
All three laptops are connected to the same network so they all have internet access.
The Acer is currently running the latest version of Ubuntu and has nothing on it.
I would like to make it so that the whole computer is one storage device that is connected to the other two laptops.
I'm currently confused about how i could do this, so a step-by-step process would be great.
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Linux Data Server
Tags:
windows, software, it management, linux, hardware, network, server, networking, programming, computer, data, off-topic, transfer
12th Jan 2011
Answers (4)
0
Votes
Make a share in your home folder, allow your other machines to access it
Done deal.
A word of caution, if Windows locks open a file on Linux, Nix gets pissed off, so far the only solution I know if is to restart Nix to release the file lock.
A word of caution, if Windows locks open a file on Linux, Nix gets pissed off, so far the only solution I know if is to restart Nix to release the file lock.
12th Jan 2011
Replies
how would I make a share folder? I've made a folder and it has share properties but none referring to other computers.
Tyharo
12th Jan 2011
Follow the prompts. I personally use Mint so I cannot be as helpful, but there is a blog post on TR describing exactly how to do this. The TR search is kind of sad, if I find the blog I'll post it here for you, but in the mean time, I suggest googling file sharing in Ubuntu.
Once you share the folder, the slightly trickier task is changing samba server to give your computer a meaningful name and to exist on the proper workgroup.
Basically, open up "Computer" and choose "File System"
Navigate here.
"/etc/samba/smb.conf"
When you find smb.conf, right click it and choose to open as admin (again, this is Mint instructions, hopefully Ubuntu has something similar). Scroll down in the file and you should find a line that says this.
"workgroup = MSHOME"
Change this to be the same as the windows workgroup machines.
To make things even easier, in the same file, you can change the computer name.
Find the line that says something like.
"netbios name = ComputerName"
and set it to something you want, no spaces allowed.
Once set, restart your Nix computer. Your share should now be accessible from a windows machine like this.
Type in run command
"\\ComputerName\ShareName"
Once you share the folder, the slightly trickier task is changing samba server to give your computer a meaningful name and to exist on the proper workgroup.
Basically, open up "Computer" and choose "File System"
Navigate here.
"/etc/samba/smb.conf"
When you find smb.conf, right click it and choose to open as admin (again, this is Mint instructions, hopefully Ubuntu has something similar). Scroll down in the file and you should find a line that says this.
"workgroup = MSHOME"
Change this to be the same as the windows workgroup machines.
To make things even easier, in the same file, you can change the computer name.
Find the line that says something like.
"netbios name = ComputerName"
and set it to something you want, no spaces allowed.
Once set, restart your Nix computer. Your share should now be accessible from a windows machine like this.
Type in run command
"\\ComputerName\ShareName"
Slayer_
12th Jan 2011
After messing around with the file system a bit, i decided to install mint because i was getting tired of swiching between mint and ubuntu when i actualy know how to navigate through mint alot better. sorry about the change.
How would I do this in mint?
How would I do this in mint?
Tyharo
13th Jan 2011
...View my previous posts for how to setup samba to make windows detection easier.
Click Menu
Choose Home folder
Click the file menu, and choose "Create folder"
Give the folder a name, such as "Shared"
Right click your new folder and select "Sharing Options"
In the new window, Click "Share Folder"
then click "Allow others to create and delete files in this folder"
Then click "Guest access (for people without a user account)
And click "Create share"
This combined with the Samba setup and you now have a shared space on a Nix machine. This is only basic file sharing, if you want something fancier, you should download a server OS.
Click Menu
Choose Home folder
Click the file menu, and choose "Create folder"
Give the folder a name, such as "Shared"
Right click your new folder and select "Sharing Options"
In the new window, Click "Share Folder"
then click "Allow others to create and delete files in this folder"
Then click "Guest access (for people without a user account)
And click "Create share"
This combined with the Samba setup and you now have a shared space on a Nix machine. This is only basic file sharing, if you want something fancier, you should download a server OS.
Slayer_
13th Jan 2011
0
Votes
First things first...storage
do you have enough storage on the server machine you want to use to store multiple versions of the backups?
This is paramount, because it's all good to run full backups, but if it fails in a month, you have to go through and delete everything, and then again, and again......
Is there an external drive I'm not hearing about?
This is paramount, because it's all good to run full backups, but if it fails in a month, you have to go through and delete everything, and then again, and again......
Is there an external drive I'm not hearing about?
12th Jan 2011
0
Votes
Well provided that there are enough resources in this unit
Start with the easy things the Normal Ubuntu isn't really a server product so go to their Server offering here
http://www.ubuntu.com/server/get-ubuntu/download
After you have that downloaded go to the Ubuntu Server Guide here for the correct way to configure this thing.
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/C/index.html
As you want a Data Server read up on the Network File System which is what I think you wan here.
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/C/network-file-system.html
I think you'll find that the Standard Ubuntu is a Desktop OS not a Server OS and isn't ideally suited to what you want to do.
Col
http://www.ubuntu.com/server/get-ubuntu/download
After you have that downloaded go to the Ubuntu Server Guide here for the correct way to configure this thing.
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/C/index.html
As you want a Data Server read up on the Network File System which is what I think you wan here.
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/serverguide/C/network-file-system.html
I think you'll find that the Standard Ubuntu is a Desktop OS not a Server OS and isn't ideally suited to what you want to do.
Col
12th Jan 2011
0
Votes
Set up SAMBA
there are lots of HOWTOs on that.
Create a folder for everyone to use on the Linux box (/SHARED jumps to mind) and make it a share in Samba.
The neat thing about Linux is that /SHARED could actually be a separate drive, used only by the sharing function. (see "mount" for making a separate drive look like a folder) That increases your security and integrity, by granting access only to a separate drive.
You'll probably want to set permissions (as root - use SUDO) for the folder so that everyone has full read/write/execute for the shared folder - "SUDO chmod 777 /SHARED" and you'll need the root password for that. (PLEASE say that you don't login as root...)
Then, if you have several different users, it's probably easier to set their Windows ID's up as users on the Linux box, and then add them to Samba with MKUSER then SMBPASSWD.
By default, each user will only be able to access their own files when they save them to the shared directory, unless everyone uses a common ID. Since the ID "Owner" is fairly common on Windows Home systems, that may be the only ID you need to set up, and if everyone uses that, they will all be able to access all of the files.
If you have different users and want to make this an area for everyone to be able to read and write each other's files, you may want to set "fmask" and "dmask" to "0002" when mounting the drive. That would give full access for everyone to newly-created files and directories, without needing to reset file permissions. The normal default is that only the owner can write to the file.
Yes, it's a little complicated, but really not too bad. If this is all new, you're going to learn a few things about file server security. Linux sets file permissions for "owner", "group", and "everyone". That's why the "chmod" command has 3 digits in the number, in the same order. Each digit represents the permissions for that entity. The permissions are -
4 - Read
2 - Write (Modify)
1 - Execute
You just add them together (actually OR them)
Common permissions are -
700 - Only the owner can access the file
755 - group and everyone can read/execute, owner can also modify
644 - group and everyone can read, owner can also modify, but no one can execute (run as a program)
777 - everyone can do everything (no security)
Welcome to the world of SYSADMIN! I've been running Linux file servers on Windows networks for 20 years, and there are some great advantages, once you learn the capabilities of the OS.
Good Luck!
Edit: for more help, Google "HOWTO" and the topic - like "HOWTO SAMBA" or "HOWTO CHMOD" and you'll find many explanations
Create a folder for everyone to use on the Linux box (/SHARED jumps to mind) and make it a share in Samba.
The neat thing about Linux is that /SHARED could actually be a separate drive, used only by the sharing function. (see "mount" for making a separate drive look like a folder) That increases your security and integrity, by granting access only to a separate drive.
You'll probably want to set permissions (as root - use SUDO) for the folder so that everyone has full read/write/execute for the shared folder - "SUDO chmod 777 /SHARED" and you'll need the root password for that. (PLEASE say that you don't login as root...)
Then, if you have several different users, it's probably easier to set their Windows ID's up as users on the Linux box, and then add them to Samba with MKUSER then SMBPASSWD.
By default, each user will only be able to access their own files when they save them to the shared directory, unless everyone uses a common ID. Since the ID "Owner" is fairly common on Windows Home systems, that may be the only ID you need to set up, and if everyone uses that, they will all be able to access all of the files.
If you have different users and want to make this an area for everyone to be able to read and write each other's files, you may want to set "fmask" and "dmask" to "0002" when mounting the drive. That would give full access for everyone to newly-created files and directories, without needing to reset file permissions. The normal default is that only the owner can write to the file.
Yes, it's a little complicated, but really not too bad. If this is all new, you're going to learn a few things about file server security. Linux sets file permissions for "owner", "group", and "everyone". That's why the "chmod" command has 3 digits in the number, in the same order. Each digit represents the permissions for that entity. The permissions are -
4 - Read
2 - Write (Modify)
1 - Execute
You just add them together (actually OR them)
Common permissions are -
700 - Only the owner can access the file
755 - group and everyone can read/execute, owner can also modify
644 - group and everyone can read, owner can also modify, but no one can execute (run as a program)
777 - everyone can do everything (no security)
Welcome to the world of SYSADMIN! I've been running Linux file servers on Windows networks for 20 years, and there are some great advantages, once you learn the capabilities of the OS.
Good Luck!
Edit: for more help, Google "HOWTO" and the topic - like "HOWTO SAMBA" or "HOWTO CHMOD" and you'll find many explanations
Updated - 14th Jan 2011
Replies
Question for you, how would you make a /Shared, most of those are on their own partitions no? So which partition would that show up on?
In my instructions , I just told him to make it in his Home directory since by default, Nix installs give the /home partition the bulk of the space.
In my instructions , I just told him to make it in his Home directory since by default, Nix installs give the /home partition the bulk of the space.
Slayer_
15th Jan 2011
