I'm *slowly* moving towards creating a dedicated file server for my home
network an all I want on the server is a basic OS without any extra
applications outside of those needed for the smooth running of the disk
drives and sharing the files.

I will be using a Tyan Tsunami AT (s1830) board with 1GB RAM and a PIII
850MHz Slot 1 CPU.  Since this is to be used only as a file server, I
may downgrade the CPU to the original PII 450MHz Slot 1 CPU I had in
there.  I envision having at least four (4) 250GB HDs.

I'm new to the BSD world and it is my understanding that the various BSD
flavors are 'lighter' than the Linux flavors.

The thing is, I always thought there was just FreeBSD and now I find
that there are other flavors as well.

Which BSD flavor would be best for my needs as stated above and why?

Since I'm no sysadmin, are there any other things I need to keep in mind
when operating a file server?

Thanks for your time and reading.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Same Guy wrote:

> I'm *slowly* moving towards creating a dedicated file server for my
> home network an all I want on the server is a basic OS without any
> extra applications outside of those needed for the smooth running of
> the disk drives and sharing the files.
>
> I will be using a Tyan Tsunami AT (s1830) board with 1GB RAM and a
> PIII
> 850MHz Slot 1 CPU.  Since this is to be used only as a file server, I
> may downgrade the CPU to the original PII 450MHz Slot 1 CPU I had in
> there.  I envision having at least four (4) 250GB HDs.
>
> I'm new to the BSD world and it is my understanding that the various
> BSD flavors are 'lighter' than the Linux flavors.
>
> The thing is, I always thought there was just FreeBSD and now I find
> that there are other flavors as well.
>
> Which BSD flavor would be best for my needs as stated above and why?
>
> Since I'm no sysadmin, are there any other things I need to keep in
> mind when operating a file server?
>
> Thanks for your time and reading.

I would use FreeBSD for this particular task. That is the most
speed-optimized version available. Also maintenance is quite a bit
simpler than with Open- or NetBSD. Packages are maintained on a binary
level, whereas you would have to rebuild those manually on the other
two platforms.

HTH,

EJ
--
Remove the obvious part (including the dot) for my email address.
http://www.vanwesten.net for examples of ipf and pf.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Sat, 20 Mar 2004 12:04:46 +0100: written by erik
<erik@geenspam.vanwesten.net>:

~snip~

>I would use FreeBSD for this particular task. That is the most
>speed-optimized version available. Also maintenance is quite a bit
>simpler than with Open- or NetBSD. Packages are maintained on a binary
>level, whereas you would have to rebuild those manually on the other
>two platforms.

Thanks for the feedback and info.  This will be my first foray into the
non-M$ world, so I'm pretty clueless as to what to expect.

Thanks again and I'll subscribe to comp.unix.bsd.freebsd unless there is
a better group for my inevitable questions.  ;-)

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Same Guy wrote:
> I'm *slowly* moving towards creating a dedicated file server for my home
> network an all I want on the server is a basic OS without any extra
> applications outside of those needed for the smooth running of the disk
> drives and sharing the files.
>
> I will be using a Tyan Tsunami AT (s1830) board with 1GB RAM and a PIII
> 850MHz Slot 1 CPU.  Since this is to be used only as a file server, I
> may downgrade the CPU to the original PII 450MHz Slot 1 CPU I had in
> there.  I envision having at least four (4) 250GB HDs.
>
> I'm new to the BSD world and it is my understanding that the various BSD
> flavors are 'lighter' than the Linux flavors.
>
> The thing is, I always thought there was just FreeBSD and now I find
> that there are other flavors as well.
>
> Which BSD flavor would be best for my needs as stated above and why?
>
> Since I'm no sysadmin, are there any other things I need to keep in mind
> when operating a file server?
>
> Thanks for your time and reading.

FreeBSD is the way to go.  FreeBSD targets the PC platform much the same
way that Linux does.  It is faster and more stable on this platform as a
result.  NetBSD attempts to be the most promiscuous operating system in
existence by trying to run on every hardware platform available,
including models that haven't been produced since breakdancing was
considered cool.  This tends to result in an OS that isn't as stable or
as optimized as it could be.  OpenBSD targets security, almost to the
exception of everyting else.  There was a report on Slashdot a few
months back where a researcher tested the various BSD variants against
Linux.  OpenBSD basically fell flat on its face with strange
performance-wrecking problems that basically made it a no-go for
anything other than a firewall.

Hans

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

Hans wrote:

> Same Guy wrote: 
>
> FreeBSD is the way to go.  FreeBSD targets the PC platform much the
> same
> way that Linux does.  It is faster and more stable on this platform as
> a
> result.

Faster than what?

> NetBSD attempts to be the most promiscuous operating system
> in existence by trying to run on every hardware platform available,
> including models that haven't been produced since breakdancing was
> considered cool.  This tends to result in an OS that isn't as stable
> or

Rubbish.

> as optimized as it could be.

That part is true.

> OpenBSD targets security, almost to the
> exception of everyting else.  There was a report on Slashdot a few
> months back where a researcher tested the various BSD variants against
> Linux.  OpenBSD basically fell flat on its face with strange
> performance-wrecking problems that basically made it a no-go for
> anything other than a firewall.

Re-read the responses to that non-report. First examine the prejudice of
the author. Then ask why he is testing a very early prerelease
(OpenBSD) to production code. Then check the results. You'll be
surprised.

EJ
--
Remove the obvious part (including the dot) for my email address.
http://www.vanwesten.net for examples of ipf and pf.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]