In this feature I’ll be reaching out to those people who want to
take the next natural step in their home systems, and establish
a home server. It’s often a sign that, having discovered what
individual devices can do, that you’re ready to join up the dots
and deliver something more than the sum of the parts.
This isn’t something that everyone will do or want to do, but
the advantages of having a centralised server are convincing.
Why Have A Server?
At one time it was only businesses that had servers, and I
even remember a time that proceeded that when all PC’s were
standalone. So why did companies think they needed them, and
are the same reasons now applicable in the home?
Any business relies on a flow of information, and that could
be spoken in person or on the phone, in printed form or
electronic. What a server does is allows a business to centralise
it’s information, allowing all employees easy access to it, so
they
can do their jobs more efficiently. Servers provide a single point
of contact, and can help organise the information for more
general consumption. That might not seem appropriate for a
typical British home, but if you replace invoices and stock
control
databases with music, pictures and movies, then a server at home
makes considerably more sense.
With all your personal data stored centrally, you can access
it from multiple computers, and other devices, like tablets
and phones. You can secure it against the failure of any one
computer (including the server itself) and you can easily
distribute
it. You can also provide a single access point for peripherals,
like
printers, so that all computers have access to them, not just one.
What Do I Need To Have One?
Having a car without roads is pretty limiting, and in the same
way a server needs some infrastructure so that whatever you
store on it can be seen by other computers. In most cases this is
a
network, either wired or wireless. However, the best solutions are
usually a combination of the two.
To implement a wired network you’ll need a switch - the
central hub into which all systems are physically cabled -
although most broadband routers now come with at least four
Ethernet ports included, which you can use in exactly the same
way. If you need more ports, you can chain a switch to the
router and branch from that to provide 5, 8, 16 or more ports. In
practical terms the number of computers that this would support
without specialist management is greater than you’re ever likely
to have, so from that perspective this simple model is practically
limitless.
The downside of a wired connection is running the physical
cables through your home, which can prove challenging to
even those with good DIY skills. Homes in UK weren’t built with
cabling in mind, but there are alternatives for those that aren’t
prepared to drill holes and mount wall sockets.
One
of those is to subvert the electrical cabling of the house to
send
data along with the power. These solutions aren’t cheap, and
the
speeds they offer aren’t as high as gigabit Ethernet, but they’re very
easy
to deploy and will work to connect remote locations on the same ring-main.
The
final solution, and the one that most people use is standard IEEE 802.11,
or
wi-fi as it’s now generally referred. Depending how thick your walls are, this
can
either
be a simple and effective means to create a network without wires,
or
a complete nightmare.
What’s
critical to remember about wireless networking is that
it
extends beyond the physical limits of the property, that there
is
no guarantee of any specific speeds you’ll get, and the more
devices
using it the lower performance you should expect.
The
key advantage of Wi-fi, other than the lack of wires, is
that
if you’ve got broadband you’ve probably got wi-fi too, so
connecting
your system up doesn’t have any more overheads
than
your time in configuring it.
In
the context of using a server, I’d strongly recommend that
at
least that machine was connected to the router by wires, but
it’s
technically possible to make it wi-fi connected too, if wiring is
not
possible.
Once
you’ve got yourself a network, then you can think about
having
a server, and all that entails.
The Cost Of Ownership
Before I get into the mechanics of actually deploying a server, I
need to talk a little about the cost of ownership, because very
little these days comes without ongoing expense.
Assuming you’ve got your infrastructure and you’ve
budgeted for a machine to act as the server, what other costs
should you expect?
One point that many people don’t consider is the extra
demand on their electricity service, which if the serving computer
is running 24 hours a day could quickly mount up. Ideally, the
machine should have power saving features active, so that if it’s
not been accessed that it can sleep, and wake when required. If
you use a dedicated NAS box or similar device these can also be
set to automatically sleep between certain hours, reducing the
power consumption of the system.
If you have a computer that will be on 24/7, then it’s probably
worth using a power meter to determine how much it draws,
and from that you can work out the implications of running it on
your yearly power bill.
The other cost isn’t necessarily financial, it’s your time. Once
you’ve got your server running it isn’t really a fire-and-forget
exercise, it’s needs to be attended to on a regular basis. What
you don’t want to have happen is that the system fails and
takes what data you’ve placed on it away. To avoid this you
need to monitor it’s condition, check that any necessary updates
are installed and that whatever backup strategy that you’ve
employed is really working.
These all might seem dreary errands, but once you have a
server you’ll be awarded the honorary roll of home ‘IT Manager’
and you need to do the sorts of things that would be familiar to
someone paid to do that job.
That includes security sweeps, to make sure that it’s only you
and your family that has access to the server, and not anyone out
on the internet.
Some servers has software that will email you should anything
unexpected happen, and it’s well worth configuring these to
avoid unwelcome surprises.
A Choice Of System
If you are serious about having a server then you need to decide
exactly how you intend to deliver this technology. Here are a
number of ways you can do it, some of which are more expensive
than others.
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| Asus CS Series |
An Existing PC
This is how most people start off, by taking one of the existing
computers and subverting it to become a server.
At the simplest level all you need to do this is to add all your
users to that computer, preferably with the same password they
use on their own systems. Then you can share folders on the
server,
which can then be connected to using their logins from
their
respective PCs.
With
XP, Vista or Windows 7 this is very easy, and the only
limitation
is that generally you’ll be limited to 10 connections
because
of a cap by the operating system. If you use Linux you
won’t
limited, and it’s entirely possible to have a large number
of
Windows, Apple Mac or other Linux machines supported by a
single
Linux serving PC.
Any
services that you want to distribute, like iTunes, will need
to
be installed and configured on the serving PC by you - which,
depending
what you are trying to do, might get rather technical.
Advantages
It’s
cheap! What’s more, you’re dealing with hardware that you’re
familiar
with. If the computer dies you can pull out the drives
(unless
they died too) and access the contents from another
Windows
computer.
Disadvantages
What
I would avoid doing is trying to do this with a PC that’s
also
in use as a client, because it’s very easy to forget that other
people
are connected to you and turn off the PC. The action
of
serving also has an overhead in performance, so that PC
will
seem slow, or if it’s busy playing a game those connected
to
it will notice that it isn’t responsive. This shouldn’t really be
a
problem, because many people have an old PC tucked away
that’s
no longer used, and it’s probably powerful enough to be
a
server.
Also,
some desktop PCs aren’t especially quiet, and having it
running
for long periods might be problematic because of the
noise
and the heat they will generate. Basically, It will work, but
it’s
not ideal.
A
Dedicated Serving PC
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| Dell Home server |
While
it’s possible to turn a desktop PC into a dedicated
machine,
you can also buy such home/small office servers.
They
usually come with a minimal configuration, no mouse or
keyboard,
and drive slots that can take multiple mechanisms.
They’re
often built around a low power architecture that allows
them
to remain on for long periods without getting hot, and
they
can be provided with a licence for Windows Home Server. If
you’re
converting an existing PC, Windows Home Server will have
to
be bought separately, or you could use a Linux distro for free.
Advantages
In
a short phrase, dedicated servers are ‘designed for the job’.
Using
hardware made to be a server and an OS that’s also
specific
to the task is always going to be better than something
that
wasn’t. Low power consumption, and generally quiet
operation
are major advantages too.
Disadvantages
The
cheapest of these computers is still around £250, and you’ll
need
to buy additional hard drives to provide centralised storage.
Typically,
I’d budget at least £400 for a dedicated small server.
The
other caveat is administering the computer, which you’ll
need
to understand and monitor. Many of these chores are the
same
ones you’ll have experienced on a desktop PC, but some of
them
will be unique to the server environment.
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| LaCie 5big |
A
NAS Box
The
NAS (Network Attached Storage) box is an excellent
alternative
to the dedicated server, and in some respects it’s a
superior
solution. Depending what your budget will stretch to,
these
can range from a single drive solution to a massive rackmounted
array.
They
can be bought with drives installed or you can add
those
yourself, if you already have them handy. Most accept
3.5”
desktop SATA mechanisms, though a few take 2.5” SATA
laptop
drives.
My
advice is to avoid the single drive models and go for two
or
four drive systems, even if you only partially fill them, and
then
buy extra drives later.
What’s
great about these units is that they’ve been built to
be
installed and almost forgotten, and their (usually) Linux OS is
made
to be robust and easy to administer via a web interface. If
you
want a server that’s very little trouble, then a NAS box is the
way
to go.
Advantages
Like
the dedicated server, these devices are built to be installed and
then
left running, all day, every day. Therefore, they’re made to use as little power as possible, while offering the very
best levels of performance. They’re quiet, and
it’s possible to tuck them away in aquite part of the house where they won’t
disturb anyone.
Disadvantages
Cost, mostly. The better ones can be £400 or more, without
drives. But on the other side of that coin you need to balance
the limited administration you’ll need to perform. They can’t
run Windows applications, so you are limited to what software
modules come installed, and those that are released by the
hardware maker to extend the functionality.
If you don’t do a backup, and the NAS Box fails it could
be almost impossible to recover your data without an exact
hardware replacement.
Security
From the outset having a home server does make you more
widely consider security, because the best solutions usually
involve
you providing everyone with a named login and password to
access the server.
This might seem excessive for a home environment, but I
wouldn’t skip that stage as it’s critical to you having a system
that can’t easily be damaged or rifled by a stranger from
the internet.
As part of securing your system whatever server hardware you
use should be protected by both anti-virus and a good firewall,
and it should also be configured to automatically update both of
these facilities along with general operating system patches.
It is possible to configure the server to be only accessible
to specific computers (MAC address filtering) or from internal
IP addresses, though that would inherently stop updates also,
unfortunately. While cutting off the server entirely from the
Internet could be a prudent exercise, it would probably make
it much less useful, so I wouldn’t advise it. If you have ad-hoc
requirements for access, a guest account with limited privileges
is probably worth considering.
It’s your server and, as such, you need to protect it
properly, or you may just find that it’s been taken over for
nefarious purposes.
Hardware Suggestions
So you want to buy a home server, but have no idea what
to consider? Here are a couple of dedicated Windows
Home Server solutions and a bevy of NAS boxes that I can
recommend from direct experience.
This is a very cheap and cheerful server solution that’s made
for an office or home scenario. Based on AMD’s laptop CPU
the Turion II, it comes with 2GB of RAM and a single 250GB
hard drive with Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011 preinstalled.
You’ll need another hard drive at least to store your
data on, but other than that it’s essentially good-to-go.
If you prefer Intel over AMD, the Acer easyStore H340-L
used the 1.6GHz Atom 230 CPU, the Intel 945GC Express
chipset, and comes with a 640GB hard drive. It has room for
another three drives inside, and eSATA could connect more
storage externally. It comes with Windows Home Server
2011, and 2GB of RAM, but annoyingly you can’t expand the
RAM further because of the chipset. That said, with 2GB it’s
reasonably fast and certainly powerful enough for home use.
This is one of the lower rungs on the NAS box ladder, but the
Synology pedigree means that it has all the functionality you’d
expect. The DS212J is a dual drive option, meaning you could
put 2x 1TB in here for a total price of £270, and you’d have a
DLNA certified media server and centralised storage in one.
It’s low power consumption, can be expanded or backed
up via external USB drives and can operate as a print server if
needed. For the money, this is a wonderful piece of gear.
This is something of a bargain, because for the money you not
only get a 3TB hard drive but also a simple, effective NAS box.
Actually the term ‘box’ is somewhat misleading, because this
is just a plinth with the hardware to do file sharing duties. It
also has built-in wi-fi meaning that it can be connected without
needing an Ethernet network, although speed is impacted if you
do this. Seagate has recently released both iPhone and Android
apps, allowing mobile phones to get access to music and images
stored on the device.
Not as flexible a solution as more expensive options, but a
good starting point for those working to a tight budget.
For those wanting plenty of capacity then the DS413j is
certainly the way to go, as it can take four drives up to a
maximum of 16TB. However, that would cost more than
£1,000 when you’ve factored in the four 4TB drives. With 2TB
drives costing about £75, you can put 8TB in here for about
£575 inclusive, and you can map the system so that you
get 6TB of working space, but any drive death will not result in
data loss.
The Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM) is amazingly
featured and can be configured to perform many roles, such
as mail server, web server, security camera management, SQL
server, Torrent Client, iTunes server, and many more.
Final Thoughts
Having a home server opens up all sorts of exciting possibilities,
especially if you’ve got a growing family, and want to pool
resources. By having a centralised place, that’s not the internet,
files and services can be rapidly accessed and new contents
easily added.
There are many other things that a home server can do
as well, and some of them are truly impressive. One of my
favourite home server features is my internal version of Cloud
Computing, where my working documents follow me around
from computer to computer. This is achieved by a feature of my
Synology NAS box called ‘Cloud Station’.
To use this you need an account on the NAS box and to install
the Cloud Station software on any PC that you’re likely to use.
Then you can identify a folder as being a ‘Cloud Station’ one,
though for whatever reason it must be empty to begin with.
Once you’ve done that any files that you place in that folder
are immediately duplicated to the NAS box, and then replicated
to any other computer that’s also been configured.
This document that I’m working on will be on the NAS box
just seconds after I’ve closed it, and on my laptop in the lounge
before I’ve actually got to that room. In this way I can start
something in one place and then complete it elsewhere. The
really amazing thing about this facility, though, is that it works
beyond the bounds of this house and my network - because
Cloud Station is Internet aware, I can sync remotely.
That’s a very powerful feature, but it’s just the tip of a
very large technological iceberg that owning your own server
could expose.
If you’re unsure if this is for you, we’d recommend you dig
out that old Athlon rig in the attic, download a server version of
Ubuntu and experiment. If it isn’t useful then it doesn’t take a
few seconds to turn off, but I’d be surprised if you don’t find it
a
little bit useful, if not entirely invaluable.
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