Tag Archives: Linux

DIY cloud backup: Installing and configuring the server

Now that we have all the hardware (Server, USB3 disk cabinet and disks) we need to set it all up! This post will guide you through installing Ubuntu, setting up the storage and configuring the Minio S3 backend including how to deal with multiple tenants.

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DIY cloud backup: Server and storage hardware

To build our DIY multi-tenant, multi-client “cloud” backup solution we’re going to need a “server” and storage. I use the term server loosely because this is anything but serve grade hardware. But since it serves the purpose of holding home backups and nothing else, it also needs to be cost effective. I believe I have found the right middle-ground in that, creating a “fast enough” setup which is also cheap enough to run.

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CM11: Insert SD card / Cannot write to Storage

I’m a big promoter of ‘community’ driven Android ROM’s and in particular Cyanogenmod. For one reason or another all of my Android devices end up running Cyanogenmod sooner or later, stock ROM’s just don’t cut it, don’t get updated in time or are even just horrible with bloatware and other nonsense. But once in a while doing a flash I encounter a bug which Cyanogenmod/CWM or at least, something goes wrong. If you know what is going on, it’s easy to fix though, let me explain!


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A guide to iperf (network metering)

Both for my work and private tinkering I often have the need to do bandwith tests over a network connection. Sometimes it’s troubleshooting ethernet connections up to 10Gbit, sometimes it’s testing an internet line, a WiFi link or actual real-world VPN throughput potential. Whatever the case I often need a good mutli-platform bandwith testing tool.

For this I use a program called “iperf” and while it can be a bit daunting at first with a little know-how it’s actually pretty easy! Read on to find out how to use it in a variety of situations: 

A perfect Gigabit connection
  

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Home Server/Storage/Lab Setup Part 1.2 – x: Flashing an LSI 9211-8i/9220-8i / Dell Perc H310 / IBM M1015 to LSI IT firmware

Don’t have enough ports available in your (Storage/ESXi) server? Even though modern motherboards come with 6 onboard port now a days, maybe it’s not enough for you. Or you are using a little bit older hardware and don’t have enough 6G ports (Only important to SSD’s really). A quick and easy way is adding a PCIe based storage controller. And while True Hardware RAID can be good to have, on lower end controllers it’s often more of a hindrance then a benefit. Especially when using something life software RAID or ZFS.

This guide will show you how to flash an LSI 9211-8i or 9220-8i / Dell Perc H310 / IBM M1015 to LSI IT firmware. IT stands for “Intergrated Target”. This way the disks get presented to the OS is a raw form, much like your motherboard ports would do. This enables complete control, SMART data for your OS and Power Management such as spindown. It will also help you if you encounter the “Failed to initialize PAL” error while flashing.


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Home Server/Storage/Lab Setup Part 3 – x: ZFSguru Hardware and Layout (ZFS using FreeBSD)

This third part will be a hardware and design overview of the Storage server that I am using. This server combines a NAS with some secondary functions for me such as SabNZBd, Sickbeard, Couchpotato, FTP, CrashPlan, etc. I know that kind of taints it’s pure function (serve me storage) but since I used a pretty hefty machine for it, all seems to be working quite well and since this is not a company installation I believe the otherwise wasted CPU power can be put to good use! This article will be one of the most complex because it will hold the configuration I made and also partially the reasons why.

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