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Pros & Cons of a headless server?

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barney:
My naval buddy called this weekend, checking to see how the laptop(s) config process is going.

He's all gung-ho over something a shipmate fed him about a headless [Ubuntu] server.  Now he wants to do that with his home desktop system.  Granted, it would allow him a bit more room, i.e., no monitor or keyboard space, but I'm kinda dubious 'bout the concept.  He's wild about the idea, wants to admin with Webmin from his laptop.

I can perceive the advantages, but not familiar enough to identify the downside(s). 

The box he's discussing currently runs WinXP and is used as a kinda,sorta file server as well as a desktop machine.  Now that he has the laptop(s) he wants to convert it.

My preference would be that he install Ubuntu desktop, then add server components as needed.  That doesn't seem to be, in a home environment, overly insecure, and he was born, in the PC sense, A.D. (After DOS), so I've got a life-sized picture of trying to help him with command-line over the phone.  He's accustomed to a GUI, and I'm not certain Webmin would be sufficient.

Haven't found anything definitive, one way or the other, via Google.  Thus, I've returned to the wealth of knowledge that is DC for information. 

40hz:
Depends on what he wants to do, but if this is his first foray into Linux I probably wouldn't go with a bare Ubuntu server since there's a lot of configuration that can go wrong if you're not careful.

Have him take a look at  Amahi Server. It's NIX-based, free for download, and has a feature set that gives Windows Home Server (another excellent choice BTW) a run for its money.

Link: http://www.amahi.org/

For something as "set and forget" as most modern servers are, going in via remote desktop or some other tool (Synergy, VNC, etc.)  is the only way to go.

There's really not much to say about running a server in a no-monitor/no-keyboard configuration. Most servers are "headless." It's probably the most efficient way to do it unless you have an old monitor lying around and you don't mind running over to the server every time you want to configure something.


Just my  :two:

Shades:
Webmin is a decent solution for managing headless servers. If it isn't, then you should consider to not give that person access to the admin group of the server. Try FreeNAS if the desktop PC only has to act as server. That is a small linux distro created to be used in headless computers. With small I mean basic and to the point.

There is also a server edition from Ubuntu, which is preferable if the desktop pc is designated to server duty. From personal experience I can say that 9.04 is actually very reliable. It hasn't crashed on me since I have been using it over here on 5 year old hardware and a "flaky" power grid. Unfortunately I cannot say the same from my favorite distro OpenSUSE (10.1).

Your mileage may vary ofcourse, but as a general rule: use a server OS on a server PC.

40hz:
+1 with Shades on FreeNAS. For straight-up file sharing it can't be beat.

Same goes for Webmin. Very nice solution so long as you know what you're doing when using it. It's a fairly powerful tool that lets you easily administrate your server. And it will just as easily screw it up royally if you start clicking away without understanding a bit about what's going on underneath it.

Another nice choice is the  eBox Platform. This is more of a small business server (i.e. overkill for home use), but some home users prefer it to Amahi or FreeNAS.

eBox is the proverbial 800 lb. Gorilla in a five pound bag - assuming you don't mind mixing metaphors...  :mrgreen:

Link: http://www.ebox-platform.com/

 8)

barney:
Whoosh!

I like FreeNAS, may install it on one of my boxes that I'm using for that purpose now.  eBox looks good, too, although as you say, it's kinda overkill (and I'm a bit leery of what normally comes in five (5) pound bags  :o).  Started to look at Amahi, but first thing I notice on the download is that it requires a bootable Fedora 12 install CD?  Starting to get scared already  ;D.

I have one box w/Ubuntu desktop that I use as a sometime server - never got around to doing the actual Ubuntu server, although that was always planned.  (Seems as though time always gets in the way.)  Point is, I can, with reasonable reliability, advise in such a situation.  Think the Amahi thing would be OK, but the Fedora install kinda throws me.  FreeNAS, from what I read, won't do - they both want a web server to test stuff out before uploading to their relative Web sites.

I'll install Amahi/Fedora locally as soon as the downloads are done, see if that seems more intuitive than Ubuntu, but any solution is likely to require a GUI for him (not so certain about her, though - she could end up local server admin, be SA as well as SO  ;D).

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