[gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server

[gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server

[Momesso Andrea]

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I alredy have a gentoo home server up and running with decent hardware
(a FUJITSU SIEMENS Amilo M3438 laptop, Pentium M 1.86GHz, 1.5Gb ram)
that I use for general purpose (backup, portage-rsync, bittorrent,
groupware) and also for my wife's work (a joomla site, a ftp server,
and a mailing list manager).

The work my wife does as a researcher for the university is growing
fast, her group relays in the ftp server for uploading important
documents, and she also required me to set up a wiki.

I now think it's time to set up something more "hardened" and to have a
separated box for her work, to reduce the risk that I break things while
trying experimental stuff, masked packeges ecc.

It comes that they had from their  mentor an old iBook G3 to see if it 
fits their needs.

I will recive the machine tonight and start to work on it this weekend,
so yet I don't know the amount of memory it has, but I know for sure
it's expandible to 544Mb, and I will surely do the upgrade if needed.

Here are my questions:

- Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server?

- What kind of checks should I do to verify that the hardware
  (expecially the disk) is fine? 

- Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for the
  ppc?

- Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on nfs
  shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe just
  the distfiles?

- What would you suggest for automatic daily backups?

- I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the distro I
  fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case?
  Would a compiled distro better fit my needs?

Thank yo in advance for your answers.

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server

[Stroller]

On 23 Oct 2008, at 11:49, Momesso Andrea wrote:
> ...
> Here are my questions:
>
> - Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server?

I've played with Gentoo PPC pnly on the PS3, so am only a little more  
experienced than you. Oh! I think I did a base install on an iMac a  
couple of years back, but haven't touched it since. Anyway, for  
packages that are in Portage, it seems fine.

> - Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on  
> nfs
>  shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe just
>  the distfiles?

I'm sure all of /usr/portage is fine.

> - I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the  
> distro I
>  fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case?
>  Would a compiled distro better fit my needs?

For me, the inconvenience of learning another distro outweighs any  
advantages it may have. I have a really nice TST ESR316 case here  
which I bought a couple of months ago and which I am now finally  
getting around to deploying; with a drive array of this size ZFS  
really makes sense, but I just know that - any other considerations  
aside - I'll end up just hating OpenSolaris' package manager and will  
generally be less productive.

Your milage may of course vary.

It occurs to me that - if you're being GIVEN this laptop, and the  
university are not expecting it back - you can probably get more for  
it on eBay than you'll pay for a replacement x86 lappie (even, say, a  
Thinkpad). I appreciate this might seem like  a long way around the  
problem, but it might save you from some PPC inconvenience. One just  
knows _something_ will go wrong!

Stroller.

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server

[darren kirby]

quoth the Momesso Andrea:

>
> Here are my questions:
>
> - Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server?

I used an old G4 for a server for a while. I think I used a hardened profile. 
The machine's specs were a little higher than yours I believe, but it wasnt a 
speed demon or anything 433Mhz I think. 

> - What kind of checks should I do to verify that the hardware
>   (expecially the disk) is fine?

smartmontools?

> - Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for the
>   ppc?

Yes, see the cross-compile gentoo docs.

> - Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on nfs
>   shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe just
>   the distfiles?

I have both on NFS shares on my home network shared between 4 machines. Works 
great...

> - What would you suggest for automatic daily backups?

Amanda, bacula?

> - I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the distro I
>   fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case?
>   Would a compiled distro better fit my needs?

It would certainly make things easier. My G4 was a headless server but it 
still took a _very_ long time to build larger packages such as glibc etc. If 
you set up cross-compile it may help with this.

> Thank yo in advance for your answers.

So: I did get PPC to work as a server, but it did have a few problems here and 
there. This was just for hosting my personal website/server so it wasn't a 
big deal. If your server is any sort of important you may want to look at 
finding an old x86 box.

2cents,
-d
-- 
darren kirby :: Part of the problem since 1976 :: http://badcomputer.org
"...the number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected..."
- Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server

[Momesso Andrea]

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On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 09:18:32AM -0600, darren kirby wrote:
> 
> > - Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for the
> >   ppc?
> 
> Yes, see the cross-compile gentoo docs.
> 
I alredy have a problem with that, and alredy filled a bug:
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=243406


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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server

[Robert Bridge]

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On Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:49:27 +0200
Momesso Andrea <momesso.andrea@gmail.com> wrote:

> I alredy have a gentoo home server up and running with decent hardware
> (a FUJITSU SIEMENS Amilo M3438 laptop, Pentium M 1.86GHz, 1.5Gb ram)
> that I use for general purpose (backup, portage-rsync, bittorrent,
> groupware) and also for my wife's work (a joomla site, a ftp server,
> and a mailing list manager).
> 
> The work my wife does as a researcher for the university is growing
> fast, her group relays in the ftp server for uploading important
> documents, and she also required me to set up a wiki.
> 
> I now think it's time to set up something more "hardened" and to have
> a separated box for her work, to reduce the risk that I break things
> while trying experimental stuff, masked packeges ecc.
> 
> It comes that they had from their  mentor an old iBook G3 to see if
> it fits their needs.
> 
> I will recive the machine tonight and start to work on it this
> weekend, so yet I don't know the amount of memory it has, but I know
> for sure it's expandible to 544Mb, and I will surely do the upgrade
> if needed.
> 
> Here are my questions:
> 
> - Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server?
> 
> - What kind of checks should I do to verify that the hardware
>   (expecially the disk) is fine? 
> 
> - Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for
> the ppc?
> 
> - Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on
> nfs shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe
> just the distfiles?
> 
> - What would you suggest for automatic daily backups?
> 
> - I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the distro
> I fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case?
>   Would a compiled distro better fit my needs?
> 
> Thank yo in advance for your answers.

If you are round a university, I would actually suggest asking around
and seeing if there are old P3 workstations being thrown out. With a
little TLC, gentoo runs nicely on such hardware, especially as a
headless server in a corner. Such a box would also offer a LOT more
flexibility than an old laptop would, and they will probably be
delighted to get rid of it!

Rob.

(Has a little collection of such "rescued" machines.)

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server

[Momesso Andrea]

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On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 04:27:35PM +0100, Robert Bridge wrote:
> 
> If you are round a university, I would actually suggest asking around
> and seeing if there are old P3 workstations being thrown out. With a
> little TLC, gentoo runs nicely on such hardware, especially as a
> headless server in a corner. Such a box would also offer a LOT more
> flexibility than an old laptop would, and they will probably be
> delighted to get rid of it!
> 
> Rob.
> 
> (Has a little collection of such "rescued" machines.)

The reason why I prefer a laptop is size (I can put it on the top of a
cupboard next to the other one), and the possibility to use it without an
UPS, that I don't have.

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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} An old iBook G3 as server

[Rich Healey]

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Hash: SHA1

Momesso Andrea wrote:
> I alredy have a gentoo home server up and running with decent hardware
> (a FUJITSU SIEMENS Amilo M3438 laptop, Pentium M 1.86GHz, 1.5Gb ram)
> that I use for general purpose (backup, portage-rsync, bittorrent,
> groupware) and also for my wife's work (a joomla site, a ftp server,
> and a mailing list manager).
> 
> The work my wife does as a researcher for the university is growing
> fast, her group relays in the ftp server for uploading important
> documents, and she also required me to set up a wiki.
> 
> I now think it's time to set up something more "hardened" and to have a
> separated box for her work, to reduce the risk that I break things while
> trying experimental stuff, masked packeges ecc.
> 
> It comes that they had from their  mentor an old iBook G3 to see if it 
> fits their needs.
> 
> I will recive the machine tonight and start to work on it this weekend,
> so yet I don't know the amount of memory it has, but I know for sure
> it's expandible to 544Mb, and I will surely do the upgrade if needed.
> 
> Here are my questions:
> 
> - Is gentoo pcc stable enough to work on a server?
> 
> - What kind of checks should I do to verify that the hardware
>   (expecially the disk) is fine? 
> 
> - Is it possible to use the other server (x86) to build packages for the
>   ppc?
> 
> - Due to my limited space I'd like to mount some non-vital stuff on nfs
>   shares. Is it aviceable to mount /usp/portage on nfs? or maybe just
>   the distfiles?
> 
> - What would you suggest for automatic daily backups?
> 
> - I use gentoo as the only os on all my machines and it is the distro I
>   fell confortable with, but is it really a good choiche in this case?
>   Would a compiled distro better fit my needs?
> 
> Thank yo in advance for your answers.
I run PPC64 in a production environment at work (full 64 bit UL) as a
postgres data server (it's SUPER fast, 24 hours of upgrade on our intel
quad takes about 4 on the mac).

IMHO ppc is fine, but obviously sandbox and test before going live.

Kind Regards


Rich Healey

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