As many of you know, I've been planning to set up an OwnCloud server for awhile. I'm happy to report that I was able to get that done last weekend.
The server machine: Early 2004 12" iBook G4 - 1.0 GHz - 1.25 GB of RAM
(https://everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/specs/ibook_g4_1.0_12.html)
RAID Solution: OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual set to RAID 1
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M16H154)
Hard Drives Used: HITACHI Ultrastar A7K4000 - 4TB - 7200 RPM - 64MB Cache ($59.99 when I ordered, looks like they've since gone up a bit.)
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HMLZBFG)
The laptop is running Debian 8. Setting up OwnCloud was without issue following the standard instructions - no hangups for missing packages on PPC or anything like that.
The only weird caveat I ran into was that when powering on the setup, I have to turn the laptop on, then immediately turn the RAID enclosure on. I'm guessing this has something to do with the enclosure's power management feature where it puts itself in some sort of "sleep mode" when there is no active Firewire or USB connection. If I don't turn the laptop on first, the drive fails to mount as part of the boot process. (I have it configured to mount the disk by UUID in fstab). In practice, this won't be an issue, since I will be leaving the setup on 24/7, so turning it on/off will only be for maintenance or in the case of power outages.
To deal with the issue of not having a static IP assigned by my ISP, I am using No-IP for a Dynamic DNS provider. As a proof of concept, I simply used their free tier to assign a free domain to my server and it worked flawlessly, but I'm going to upgrade to one of the paid packages with my own domain name. This will allow me to do Port-80 forwarding as well. I'm using https, so the real site is hosted on port 443, but I have Apache configured to redirect port 80 (http) to the https address so I don't have to manually type "https" as part of the web address. By using Port-80 forwarding from No-IP, their service will forward to another port of my choosing, which my router will then have port-forwarded to port 80 on the iBook.
Although, I'm sure they have a Linux client, I had my doubts about whether it would be PPC-compatible, and I already have an old Compaq laptop running Windows 2000 Pro that stays up to host a Star Wars Battlefront II (2005 version of course) dedicated server. So, I'm using that to run the Dynamic DNS Update Client.
So, now I have 4TB (well...3.5 TB after formatting
) of cloud storage, all hosted locally in RAID 1 so I don't have to worry about drive failures unless something catastrophic happens, and I don't have to trust some cloud provider with my data.
And of course, its all running on a PPC Mac.
PS: Forgot to mention that via SSH to the iBook and TeamViewer on the Compaq, I also manage the entire setup from my main personal device, my Powerbook G4.
The server machine: Early 2004 12" iBook G4 - 1.0 GHz - 1.25 GB of RAM
(https://everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/specs/ibook_g4_1.0_12.html)
RAID Solution: OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual set to RAID 1
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M16H154)
Hard Drives Used: HITACHI Ultrastar A7K4000 - 4TB - 7200 RPM - 64MB Cache ($59.99 when I ordered, looks like they've since gone up a bit.)
(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HMLZBFG)
The laptop is running Debian 8. Setting up OwnCloud was without issue following the standard instructions - no hangups for missing packages on PPC or anything like that.
The only weird caveat I ran into was that when powering on the setup, I have to turn the laptop on, then immediately turn the RAID enclosure on. I'm guessing this has something to do with the enclosure's power management feature where it puts itself in some sort of "sleep mode" when there is no active Firewire or USB connection. If I don't turn the laptop on first, the drive fails to mount as part of the boot process. (I have it configured to mount the disk by UUID in fstab). In practice, this won't be an issue, since I will be leaving the setup on 24/7, so turning it on/off will only be for maintenance or in the case of power outages.
To deal with the issue of not having a static IP assigned by my ISP, I am using No-IP for a Dynamic DNS provider. As a proof of concept, I simply used their free tier to assign a free domain to my server and it worked flawlessly, but I'm going to upgrade to one of the paid packages with my own domain name. This will allow me to do Port-80 forwarding as well. I'm using https, so the real site is hosted on port 443, but I have Apache configured to redirect port 80 (http) to the https address so I don't have to manually type "https" as part of the web address. By using Port-80 forwarding from No-IP, their service will forward to another port of my choosing, which my router will then have port-forwarded to port 80 on the iBook.
Although, I'm sure they have a Linux client, I had my doubts about whether it would be PPC-compatible, and I already have an old Compaq laptop running Windows 2000 Pro that stays up to host a Star Wars Battlefront II (2005 version of course) dedicated server. So, I'm using that to run the Dynamic DNS Update Client.
So, now I have 4TB (well...3.5 TB after formatting
) of cloud storage, all hosted locally in RAID 1 so I don't have to worry about drive failures unless something catastrophic happens, and I don't have to trust some cloud provider with my data.And of course, its all running on a PPC Mac.
PS: Forgot to mention that via SSH to the iBook and TeamViewer on the Compaq, I also manage the entire setup from my main personal device, my Powerbook G4.
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