marvell plug computer

[drozwood90]

Pete,

That is a good thought. What I'm hoping to do long-term is backup the server to the dockstar (using the above linked software).

Then, "replicate" that once a week to other locations around the house.

Also using that software, copy the "most" important stuff out across the NET to my brother's house...and vice-versus for him.

Hopefully the AES encryption is pretty high (I've not looked at how high it is be it AES128 or AES256 or better).

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

Someone opened a ticket regarding FreeNas8. Many unhappy campers right now.

#124

 

[drozwood90]

I found a new app I'm going to try to play with. It's called rdiff-backup.
http://www.nongnu.org/rdiff-backup/

Looks like it's rsync with incremental backup capability. Simple. That's what I want. Then you just connect over SSH and you can tunnel the information over the net.

Right now have 3 dockstars setup. Two will hopefully be touchscreen interfaces for Homeseer's HSTouch (thanks for the help Pete!). The other will be my backup NAS. Would like to run this rdiff on it.

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

Dan,

Let us know how it works for you.

I still Dockstar #3 in the box. Dockstar #2 is connected to a Temp08 and doing a custom written for mono mcsTemp0x. Works fine. Dockstar #2 is mostly sitting right now while I play with Chumby #3.

BTW still have just sitting on the side and still functioning fine with a 500Gb HD now for the last 3 years in a footprint case a bit bigger than the Hard drive is the NDAS box. A bit different methodology whereas I have to run an application to bind to the drive. It is formatted NTFS. Its only a 100Mb connection but it's kind of interested little box with both USB and NIC on it maybe 2" longer than the drive itself. The price was right at about $10 on sale. Not sure how many folks still use NDAS though.

Been playing with the FreeNAS box. Kind of disassembled it getting it ready for a new motherboard. It's in a large case with a 4 drive SATA hotswap setup and room for 4 more 3.5" SATA drives. The current motherboard has 2 SATA connections on it and I am using a 4X300 SATA raid card in it. Last week I bounced it a couple of times and couldn't get the Raid1 started so I brought up each drive individually and was able to get to all of the data. Meanwhile installed 4 new drives in the Intel SS4200 (AKA Fujistu Siemens) NAS with the DOM. Booted right up. Its not a bad setup with the EMC NAS OS on it; so leaving it be for a bit. Very well built box; looks like a suitcase. The concern is that I am familiar with the configuration on the Freenas box and have been able to do stuff to the NAS and always get to my drives. This setup in a RAID5 array I am not too sure if something were to happen how easy it would be to get my stuff back. Not a hotswap setup but small and skinny footprint. I can update the CPU to a core duo and up the memory to 4Gb should I choose to. Mostly the folks that have install Windows Home server have done this. I don't see any benefits yet to doing this. I'm currently now at three NAS setups; two with RAID5 (Linux OS), one with embedded W2003(Raid5 hot swap) on it (headless) and one (Freenas) with RAID1 (hotswap) setups. The new Freenas will be using a new Atom based D510 motherboard with 6 SATA 300 connections. Much lower power than the one currently being utilized. The cage is an older style hot swap 3Ware device that fits into 3 standard 5.25" slots. The only issues was having to use the right angled SATA connectors with metal clips.

 

[drozwood90]

interesting about the NDAS. I started using them as my backup dumping ground a while ago. I have 4 or 5 of them.

The issue I found, they didn't keep up with the driver. It puts WAAAY too much of a strain on any system I've installed it on. So, I just use them as USB drives now.

Will post as I have time to get to this. Finally got my main server back up and running.

Instead of using the mobo's RAID1, I'm going to use a Windows RAID1. So, I've been trying to get my drive backed up.

Right now, I've got 5 drives in the system.
2x movies
1xdata drive
1x to be used as the RAID1 match
1x used as dumping ground backup for when I try to do the RAID1. I'd prefer if after all the CRAP I've gone through to save what I have...I'd prefer to NOT lose it.

So, as soon as that's backed up, I'll RAID1 the other drives. If I need to, will restore from the backup. I'm hoping the Windows RAID1 utility will just let me copy from one drive to the other (i.e. let Windows do it). If not, then I'll have to format and restore from my backed up drive.

I have a sneaking suspicion that RAID1 is a strange case. It might be the only Windows RAID that does not use a dynamic partition. We'll see.

After all that, then I'd like to get back to getting HStouch on Dockstar #2. After that, THEN I'll start playing with Dockstar #1 (to be my backup box with all the USB drives on it).

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

I guess I've never really paid much attention to what the NDAS drivers do. I typically don't connect to the NDAS setup I have on line. I only backup docs to the one online.

Other than the embedded W2003 Raid5 setup; I haven't played too much with setting up Raid drives in W2003. I'm curious about the performance that you are seeing with the Raid1 setup.

I just did a quick test with the Infocast 8 which probably would be even a bit faster with the Dockstar. I tested both a VNC and RDP session from the Chumby to another box running HSTouch. HSTouch ran much faster on the remote session than running HSTouch on the Mono setup on the Chumby. Mono works fine with the Dockstar but its still slow and I could never get flash to work right. I'm going to see how fast RDP runs on the Dockstar in the next day or so.

 

[drozwood90]

interesting...so maybe I will need to setup a virtual box PER dockstar and just have the dockstar RDP into the VirtualBox running off of my server.

I'll keep that in mind. If it doesn't work out, with mono ON the dockstar, I'll see about removing it and just keeping the USB-VGA drivers and X, so I can RDP.

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

I am "testing" with the older Homeseer server (2 gens back). I have one Chumby running well.

I'm going to try 3 Chumby's plus the Dockstar (with the Mimo Monitor) running 4 RDP sessions off the server with hopefully unique configs for each.

For the time being just using the same Dockstar/Mono image to test. The 4Gb USB memory stick still has a bit of room on it.

The Dockstar/Mimo setup would be easy to put on a wall. Very small footprint and easy to power up. I made a small Mimo wall mounting bracket using a keystone wall plate. You could take the Dockstar out of its case and put it in a double plastic electrical box.

 

[pete_c]

Tested Dockstar with RDP/HSTouch. Works and is a bit faster than the Insignia 8" Chumby.

 

[drozwood90]

Good news for...me?



How are you getting so many RDP sessions to your server?

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

RDP works and is much faster with the Dockstar than the Chumby. Almost instant responses to the HSTouch screens. The colors seem much better than running HSTouch on the Dockstar. I don't have the sound usb stick plugged into the Dockstar. I've run out of USB ports though and needed to go to a small 2.0 powered hub. (bigger footprint). Its similiar to the Chumby. I am using the SD card slot, Trendnet USB NIC and a wireless keyboard dongle. The sound was a bit low on the Chumby and I was able to crank it up a bit.

I'm used to Citrix and I am not sure how W2003 standard does the per seat terminal licensing. Its working though. I only have the one Dockstar and one Chumby online.

I like too that I can run separate configurations. The Mimo touch screen size is unique and I haven't updated them from about a year ago.

 

[drozwood90]

You run Citrix at your house? That's nuts!

I suppose I'll have to give ti a shot with VirtualBox's.

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

I used to manage the Citrix boxes at work. Due to CAD licensing we set up Citrix boxes to handle multiple CAD workstations. It wasn't too bad across a WAN link. At home I have rarely used RDP or Citrix. For work endeavors my preference was always mainlining directly into boxes via VPN tunnels. I would have a HP Unix box sitting in the center of the core network; this allowed me to manage routers, switches and Unix boxes from one point in the network. I remembered one night turning up two routers in Shanghai. They were in some 100 plus floor skyscraper there; and I was working with one person on site. The issue was it took him about 45 minutes in multiple elevators to get to the top floor of the building; turning the endeavor into a lengthy process.

What is Virtual Box?

 

[drozwood90]

Kind of like VMWare...but by Sun.
http://www.virtualbox.org/

I like how it "feels" and how "easy" it was to pickup. I think it has 90% of the features that VMWare does. But I could not figure out VMware. Didn't have the time to read tons of manuals.

This was install and go.

--Dan

 

[pete_c]

Does it create autonomous user ID's with separate directories, etc?

I just use VMWorkstation for the test builds which I am running on my home office desktop. Its simple to set up a VM. I designate a directory and an allotment of space on said directory.

I then take an ISO (IE: like Umbuntu 10.10) and "build" the image. Then its kind of VCR like. You just highlight the configuration and hit the play button. It runs the VM.

Here are some pics.