Which Linux?

[jt1990]

Hi all!

I'm looking into using Linux as the OS on a backup server, and had some questions about this...

1. Is this at all possible? I'm going to be tying it in to a couple of Windows based computers via network for the backup system.

2. Is there a distribution of Linux that has RAID support? Right now, I'm thinking about setting it up with two mirrored drives (although the drives I've currently got are small (80GB) and so I was also considering the possibility of striping the drives instead... Anyone got any recommendations on the best way to proceed with this?

3. If there is a distro with RAID support, is there one that's newbie friendly?

4. Do I need to do anything for Anti-Virus software if I go with Linux?

5. Does anyone have any general advice? I'm completely new to Linux, but I'd like to make this work the best that I can.

Thanks!

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

You can check this poll for favorite server as voted by our membership:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...rs-2009-a.html

Yes, Linux has RAID support. User friendliness varies from distro to distro, and of course to the skills from user to user. Some new users don't find any of them particularly user friendly since they aren't just like Windows. It's best to experiment a little with some liveCD distributions and see what you think about them and how well they work with your own hardware.

Anyone running a server should use some added security precautions, in my opinion. Check this short guide to security to help you determine what you might want to implement:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...-security.html

Hope it all goes well for you.

[computerophil]

In my opinion Mandriva is userfiendly.
But to the raid. Linux supports raid. Do you have a real raid a software raid or the ichX-Chipset-Fake-raid?

[jt1990]

I do not have any software...Here's what I'm looking at. I've got the option of two different computers (similar specs) both older computers, one of them was mine and one of them my younger siblings. My siblings machine has RAID capability, but the case is lacking the tray which holds the hard drives. If I can find that, then I'll be all set.

My old computer is in working order, but it needs something for RAID software, and I'd rather not buy any if I can help it. That's why I was looking into Linux, and was wondering if any of the distros had built in RAID software (software, I guess, not support)

[oz]

The Linux kernel has RAID code built right into it, but you can check the Linux RAID FAQ and the Linux RAID wiki for more info that might help you decide what you want to do:

Linux RAID FAQ

Linux Raid - Linux-raid