The Glade 4.0

I know, two question type posts back to back. But what can I say, you guys are my go-to resource for this sort of thing.

We're setting up a data storage system for our lab (NIH requirements, among other things) so everyone (12 of us) can easily back up our research data to a centralized location.

The initial idea was an external drive connected to the router, but since some members have less-than-impeccable hygiene when it comes to virus detection and removal (they don't use an antivirus program and just wipe their computers every few months), I'm thinking a simple external drive will be corrupted really, really fast. Especially since we have a really big problem with USB drive rootkit stow-aways at my institution.

So I'm toying with the idea of taking an old PC we have and setting it up as a linux file server, with something like ClamAV to scan for viruses in files people drop onto it.

The downside is that my experience with linux is minimal. I've got colleagues who can help me troubleshoot, but I'd love some good suggestions of feasibility and where to start- what distro you recommend, GUI vs no GUI on the server, etc. Also, I'll only be here another 3 years, so it would be nice to set up something that someone less experienced can maintain after I'm gone.

So, suggestions, comments?

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Also, anyone got an opinion on the below?

http://neworleans.craigslist.org/sys/3161464611.html

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I'm thinking you're seriously underestimating the service cost of getting that thing running. It's good hardware, but you'll play hell with pricing and parts.

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Haha, that's why I asked.

I assume it's going to need specialized HDs?

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

And some cabling generally. Sun hardware is reliable and lasts closer to forever than not if properly treated, but it's expensive.

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Yeah, I wasn't sure if I could just throw some cannibalized 3.5" drives in there or not.

Solaris as an OS is quite expensive, but I was thinking I could throw FreeBSD on there.

We have grant money that could be diverted to this, but I still want to keep the cost reasonable, and we don't need something monstrous for a lab fileserver.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

If you have grant money, carry your *** down to your enterprise services people in IT, and ask them to help you write another grant for Sun hardware. Sun will likely give you hardware to do your research on for shipping.

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Hmm, definitely a thought.

But while tempting, you are probably right in the fact that it's expensive and overkill for the application (FileServer and backup for 10-15 people).

So off of the Sun, and onto generics, anyone have suggestions that they love or hate?

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

That depends on your users. A JBOD type NAS might be just fine depending on the situation, but I would still involve the local IT resources at your employer.

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My employer is a university with a very.... unhelpful IT branch.

For the maintenance they do, they're great, but for most other things, I'm better off just setting up my own system. Recently, some genius decided we needed to have a more secure campus, so they firewalled each building on campus.

Which cut everyone off from (a) the computing core in the library, and (b) the license servers in the library. It took them 3 weeks to figure out what went wrong where, while all of our modeling studies just got hung up in the wind.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I know that your employer is a university, Neph. That's why I'm suggesting you involve your IT department. It's not because they will do a better job than you; it's because they hold the accountability if you do.

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I had a long post written up, but Khross pretty much summarized it.

Hobby shop server projects are fraught with peril. I learned hard lessons about these things, and won't repeat those mistakes. Security, Support, Compliance (CPNI, PII), company policy about data retention, etc... all potential liabilities.

If someone starts dropping hints about needing a server, I refer them to the IT intake web form, and offer my assistance in formulating a justification worded properly as to guarantee approval.