Linux Server for two Macs and a PC

[Cromulent]

First off sorry if this is in the wrong forum but I couldn't see anything else particularly relavant.

I'm looking at setting up a Linux box to act as a fileserver for two Macs (both running 10.4.8) and a PC running XP. The chances are it will be running CentOS 4 and will share via NFS.

First question, I would like to use the Linux box to store all my MP3s, Videos and any other media related file on so that it clears a bit of space on my hard drive. Does anyone have any suggestions for setting this up? Or would it work if I just set the NFS share to automount on the Mac and have iTunes use that as its music libary?

Next question, does anyone have any other recommendations for Linux distribution at all? I'm half thinking about FreeBSD but have very little experiance using that (a downfall as I will be administering the machine via SSH), so I guess a Red Hat based distro would be prefered although I'm not closed off to the idea of Debian.

Thanks for the help, I'm sure I'll think of something else later knowing my luck .

 

[adiosk8]

PM Sent

 

[kitki83]

Can I get that pm also? This sounds something very interesting to do.


Thank You

 

[MacSociology]

2: CentOS would be an excellent choice for a server OS. It´s made to be a server OS, and the support is wonderful (7-8 years). This is also the reason why so many servers out there are using it.

I will not recommend BSD if you haven´t got any experience with it.

1: About the setup: I would use Samba instead of NFS. Pretty much because your gonna use Windows XP. And Mac OS will work satisfyingly with Samba too. Your solution with your computers automounting the server will work well. It´s a simple and pretty reliable solution, so I would use it myself. (And I do it too.)

 

[Westside guy]

I have a home server running Fedora Core 5. One advantage to it is you can enable an AFP daemon (netatalk), so your Macs see it as if it's a Mac server. You can even have it offer AFP over SSH just like OS X Server. Samba can offer up Windows shares, but of course that's available in CentOS as well.

Combine that with Avahi for mDNS - also comes with Fedora - and you've got a nice little server.

NFS isn't considered particularly secure, although if your home network itself is secure then it probably doesn't matter too much.

 

[ChrisA]

First off sorry if this is in the wrong forum but I couldn't see anything else particularly relavant.

I'm looking at setting up a Linux box to act as a fileserver for two Macs (both running 10.4.8) and a PC running XP. The chances are it will be running CentOS 4 and will share via NFS.

First question, I would like to use the Linux box to store all my MP3s, Videos and any other media related file on so that it clears a bit of space on my hard drive. Does anyone have any suggestions for setting this up? Or would it work if I just set the NFS share to automount on the Mac and have iTunes use that as its music libary?

Next question, does anyone have any other recommendations for Linux distribution at all? I'm half thinking about FreeBSD but have very little experiance using that (a downfall as I will be administering the machine via SSH), so I guess a Red Hat based distro would be prefered although I'm not closed off to the idea of Debian.

Thanks for the help, I'm sure I'll think of something else later knowing my luck .

I have a Linux server doing something like what you want to do. There must by 100 ways to make this work. First off you can use NFS, SMB or Apple's Appletalk.

BSD has the advantage of being like Mac OS. The distribution hardly matters use what you know best.

How many users do you have on these Windows and Mac machines. Automouting is usful when you have many users. With only one or two just do a regular, normal mount in the /etc/fstab and loose three layers of complexity

One way would be to mount one directory onto (say) /mnt/media. in there would be /mnt/media/<username>/[movies|pictures|music] then yo replace the music|picture\movies folders in each user's home folder with links into /mnt/media. This is simple because it only uses one mount

One neat thing I found. My mac Mini only has 100BaseT ethernet but the linux system can do Firewire based netwoking with the Mac and is 4X faster. Of course if youe mMacs have gigabit ethernet then use that but FW is as fast as the SATA disk drive in the Linux box

 

[Cromulent]

Thanks for the help guys, some good information there.