Which OS to run on these servers?

[thebigguyconnor]

I've got a couple of boxes (old off-lease type dell optiplex boxes, basic system specs, etc) that I'd like to use as home servers, running either windows or linux, and I'd like to know what you guys would recommend. I am going to run the servers headless most of the time, so I'd actually prefer that the OS I install not have pretty graphics, because it would just take up pointless resources.

I would like the option of going into a GUI when I need to hook up a head because I am not totally comfortable with the CLI just yet (especially on linux).

Ok here's the two machines:

Dell OptiPlex GX240 Tower

AGP Matrox Dual Head VGA Adapter
4 or 5 PCI Slots, can't remember
4 USB ports total (USB 1.1)
100 MBPS Fast Ethernet
40 GB IDE HDD
1 GB PC133 RAM
Pentium 4 - 1.8 GHz

Dell OptiPlex GX270 Small Form Factor PC (for its time - 2003)

Integrated VGA
PCI Slot, and AGP 8X Slot, both unused (also they're both half-height expansion slots)
8 USB ports total (USB 2.0)
Gigabit Ethernet
20 GB IDE HDD
256 MB DDR RAM (may be able to
Pentium 4 - 2.4 GHz

Here is what I'd like to run on these two:

Web Server (Apache or lighttpd)
FTP File Server (FileZilla Server if on windows, I don't know which sort of FTP servers Linux has)
Windows-Capable Networked Print Server (Both computers have Parallel Ports to work with my ancient 1990s era LaserJet 4P, want a print server that works with windows PCs, not just unix/linux)
SSL Server (if it's a linux box, but if it's windows then I'll use RDP)
Proxy Server (on windows I'd use Proxify, thru Hamachi, don't know of a linux alternative)
Hamachi Server (I know how to set this up already on both)
Video Game Server for a couple games (It wouldn't always be running but easy to launch - I know how to set this up on both windows and linux, but want to know which services I should run on which PCs based on their specs)
Music Server (don't know how to set this up - was hoping to learn how and which software to use to accomplish that task - want to share music from one hard drive to whole family so they can sync it to their MP3 Players, etc)

TL;DR:

I want to know your recommendations on which above services in the list to assign to which computer, and which OS to run on each computer based on their specs. Right now I'm leaning towards running Windows XP on the first one and some sort of Linux for the second one.

Hoping for some help,

Connor McBrine-Ellis

Thanks!

[Tony]

The internet is a hostile place. If those servers will be hooked up to the internet, they will get attacked. Windows XP is likely not the most secure choice that you can make.

[thebigguyconnor]

I completely agree, but keep in mind I'd only be forwarding port 80 etc thru the firewall. There are always many other sorts of exploits, but these would be mainly for my own use and nobody'd really know about them.

I've never had trouble with servers before (especially ones for personal use).

Thanks for your concern though.

Connor

[thebigguyconnor]

I'd probably use XAMPP if running on Windows XP just simply for easiness' sake.

XAMPP is really quite secure.

[rdrake]

thebigguyconnor @ Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:40 pm wrote:

I would like the option of going into a GUI when I need to hook up a head because I am not totally comfortable with the CLI just yet (especially on linux).

NoMachine is dead easy. It runs through SSH and uses your installed GUI.

Alternatively you can install a basic X11 installation and use X11 forwarding (there's even an X11 server for Windows called Xming.

thebigguyconnor @ Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:40 pm wrote:

Web Server (Apache or lighttpd)

Give nginx a whirl if you're feeling adventurous.

thebigguyconnor @ Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:40 pm wrote:

FTP File Server (FileZilla Server if on windows, I don't know which sort of FTP servers Linux has)

There are lots... proftpd and vsftpd to name a couple.

thebigguyconnor @ Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:40 pm wrote:

Windows-Capable Networked Print Server (Both computers have Parallel Ports to work with my ancient 1990s era LaserJet 4P, want a print server that works with windows PCs, not just unix/linux)

Samba can probably do this with cups. Cups prints, Samba allows Windows PCs to interface.

thebigguyconnor @ Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:40 pm wrote:

Proxy Server (on windows I'd use Proxify, thru Hamachi, don't know of a linux alternative)

My suggestion would be to use SSH tunnelling and on Windows connect via Putty.

thebigguyconnor @ Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:40 pm wrote:

Video Game Server for a couple games (It wouldn't always be running but easy to launch - I know how to set this up on both windows and linux, but want to know which services I should run on which PCs based on their specs)

Most servers should run just fine. Might need to restrict it to one or two per machine, though.

thebigguyconnor @ Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:40 pm wrote:

Music Server (don't know how to set this up - was hoping to learn how and which software to use to accomplish that task - want to share music from one hard drive to whole family so they can sync it to their MP3 Players, etc)

You have a few options here. If you want to let them listen to music via iTunes or similar, check out daapd. If you want to hook speakers up to the computer and play music remotely, mpd works great. If you want to make the music accessible on their computers as normal files, check out Samba

thebigguyconnor @ Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:40 pm wrote:

I want to know your recommendations on which above services in the list to assign to which computer, and which OS to run on each computer based on their specs.

With such little RAM, I'd almost suggest going with a BSD. FreeBSD has a Linux binary compatibility layer which lets you run just about any Linux application on it, and the typical RAM consumption by the OS and services numbers in the double digits. I've installed in in VMs with as little as 32 MB RAM.

thebigguyconnor @ Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:40 pm wrote:

Right now I'm leaning towards running Windows XP on the first one and some sort of Linux for the second one.

XP is over 10 years old now and you will probably be rooted in less than 10 minutes after connecting to the internet.

[thebigguyconnor]

Awesome! That was the sort of awesome concise reply I was hoping for! Thanks!

I am definitely going to check all of those GNU programs out.

Does BSD have a package manager like most Linux distros? Do you think Debian could perform as well as BSD with these machines? Perhaps it would just be easier for me to set up because I don't have much experience with BSD (any, actually).

Thanks for the reply.

Have now decided against xp.

[thebigguyconnor]

With BSD I'd probably have to compile everything manually?

[thebigguyconnor]

Now thinking about FreeNAS for one of the boxes.

[rdrake]

With FreeBSD you get a choice: compile under the ports tree or use pkg_add in order to install binary packages.

Debian is also a solid choice. If you want more up-to-date packages I guess Ubuntu or Mint might be worth looking into.

FreeNAS is quite nice. The web UI is really handy. Though, looking at the version comparison, you may need to go with FreeNAS 7 since 8 requires 4+ GB RAM.

[md]

You could always run Arch (or Ubuntu Server if your feeling particularly cruel) with libvirtd/linux containers hosting some VMs; that way you isolate different services from each other. CUPS will easily work with Windows for printer sharing and tends to support older HP later printers exceptionally well. Occasionally better then the original windows drivers. Game servers tend to work fine as long as they are relatively recent (library changes suck).

You could also do something similar with FreeBSD jails, but there's less easy management that way. CUPS still works though, and you could use FreeNAS then. Not that 20GB is really worth sharing...

Or, you could try and sell them and get yourself a new AMD powered (Intel will cost you a lot more with virtualization support) box with a lot more memory and a lot more HD space for relatively cheap.

[thebigguyconnor]

I've decided on running Debian on these boxes.

I have a 3TB usb drive that I have mounted on the box that has Gigabit ethernet and it works beautifully!

I have installed:

vsftpd
cups/hplip
webmin

and tons of other coolness like utorrent server for linux with the webui, etc

Just having a ton of fun learning about linux and stuff at the same time.

Remotely administering them via webmin/ssh, and I have a proxy set up the way that you described, rdrake - PuTTY running, forwarding port 8080 and then setting the proxy in FireFox to the loopback 127.0.0.1, which then goes thru my connection and out, bypassing the firewall at my school. Pretty awesome having your own proxy whenever you want, and on any school computer, using PuTTY and Firefox Portable on my thumbdrive.

Thx for the help guys!