Repurpose Old PC. What to add?

[mau64]

I have an old Vista Dell I was working on reinstalling to try and make a quick $100 selling but decided to hang onto it to automate some stuff.

I'm finally playing around with WSUS which I plan on keeping updated with this old computer. No customer PC will ever be hooked up to this

I also have D7, and plan on keeping it updated on here to transfer to my USB stick. It's how I normally transfer D7 places.

Do you all have suggestions what else I could do with this? It's a smaller harddrive but want to make sure I'm not missing something I could be doing to make work and life easier. It's not a bench computer per se, but I still figure I could use it for other reasons.

 

[pc-rebuilders]

Add this

Driver pack
Not sure of the URL .

 

[smashedbotatos]

If I may I would like to suggest a few things. Maybe a little insight on how to use this to your advantage.

I suggest Ubuntu or CentOS Server. Here is why.....

You can install my PXE-Dust tool on it and save time on the bench PXE booting some of your tools.

SAMBA for file sharing. You can create users groups, and create shares to reflect them if need be. There is a lot you can do with SAMBA.

For SAMBA my shares would be as follows.
\\server\WSUSOffline <- This woudl get mapped to computers that need updates and hold your WSUSOffline files.
\\server\Customer Backup\
\\server\Software\ subfolders techtools and post-install tech tools for your tech tools, and post-install for your installers. Keep these updated.
\\server\Documents for various documents you use in the shop day to day.
\\server\DiskImages\ <--- Keep your dvd and cd images here. OS installers, bootable tools and the like for easy burning on any device in the office.

WSUSOffline
There is now a script that you can set as a cronjob that will update your WSUS files when you choose.

ScreenConnect Host
You can host ScreenConnect from here if you use it.

Apache HTTP
You can host a local copy of your website for internal use, or in case your web hosting goes down you can redirect traffic here temporarily.

Transmission Torrent Server
You can use Transmission as a web interface from anywhere in the office to get your favorite Linux Distributions.

SSH
It can be headless and in a closet somewhere, but you can use it from any computer in the shop via PuTTy.

This can all be done on the hardware you have all at once. I would suggest getting more storage space though!!

Linux is extremely powerful even on lower end hardware. If you install the OS on the smaller disk and then mount the a larger disks in Raid1 as /srv/ where you would put your file shares. You will have a mirror of all your file share data. You could even split drives up based on directory. Mount a 1TB drive as /srv/Software another as /srv/CustomerBackup.

It is very feasible and not that hard. If you need help there is a lot of data out there to help you. I would be able to help you as well.

 

[JustInspired]

..... you install the OS on the smaller disk and then mount the a larger disks in Raid1 as /srv/ where you would put your file shares. You will have a mirror of all your file share data. You could even split drives up based on directory. Mount a 1TB drive as /srv/Software another as /srv/CustomerBackup.

Does the RAID1 require him to get a RAID card?

 

[smashedbotatos]

Does the RAID1 require him to get a RAID card?

Possibly, and with a PCI raid card you would may see better performance depending on the card. It is a possibility that his Vista machine already has Raid capabilities.

I have a simple PCI Express Raid card just because I filled my on board controller with drives. I decided to make the customer backup archive share as a mirrored Raid1 for redundancy. I normally keep my customer backups for 60 days. Since it is so large I do not back up to external like the rest of the machine.

 

[bertie40]

If I may I would like to suggest a few things......

Wow, that's a cracking post, and that's given me a skipload of ideas for myself.

 

[smashedbotatos]

Wow, that's a cracking post, and that's given me a skipload of ideas for myself.

I have been thinking about adding to my PXE-DUST website. Bascially a separate site with guides on Ubuntu Server. Specifically how to create an amazing bench server.

Maybe even add a home server and business server section.

 

[PBComputer]

If I may I would like to suggest a few things. Maybe a little insight on how to use this to your advantage.

I suggest Ubuntu or CentOS Server. Here is why.....

You can install my PXE-Dust tool on it and save time on the bench PXE booting some of your tools.

SAMBA for file sharing. You can create users groups, and create shares to reflect them if need be. There is a lot you can do with SAMBA.

For SAMBA my shares would be as follows.
\\server\WSUSOffline <- This woudl get mapped to computers that need updates and hold your WSUSOffline files.
\\server\Customer Backup\
\\server\Software\ subfolders techtools and post-install tech tools for your tech tools, and post-install for your installers. Keep these updated.
\\server\Documents for various documents you use in the shop day to day.
\\server\DiskImages\ <--- Keep your dvd and cd images here. OS installers, bootable tools and the like for easy burning on any device in the office.

WSUSOffline
There is now a script that you can set as a cronjob that will update your WSUS files when you choose.

ScreenConnect Host
You can host ScreenConnect from here if you use it.

Apache HTTP
You can host a local copy of your website for internal use, or in case your web hosting goes down you can redirect traffic here temporarily.

Transmission Torrent Server
You can use Transmission as a web interface from anywhere in the office to get your favorite Linux Distributions.

SSH
It can be headless and in a closet somewhere, but you can use it from any computer in the shop via PuTTy.

This can all be done on the hardware you have all at once. I would suggest getting more storage space though!!

Linux is extremely powerful even on lower end hardware. If you install the OS on the smaller disk and then mount the a larger disks in Raid1 as /srv/ where you would put your file shares. You will have a mirror of all your file share data. You could even split drives up based on directory. Mount a 1TB drive as /srv/Software another as /srv/CustomerBackup.

It is very feasible and not that hard. If you need help there is a lot of data out there to help you. I would be able to help you as well.

A lot of great ideas. I use a few of them some I never thought of. But ssh is a must and the only way I access our 2 ubuntu servers.

 

[smashedbotatos]

A lot of great ideas. I use a few of them some I never thought of. But ssh is a must and the only way I access our 2 ubuntu servers.

I had almost forgot, Webmin!!! Webmin is an amazing asset to an Ubuntu based server.

I use PuTTy and WinSCP for my server. On my Win7 bench machine I have all the shared folders mapped as drives. Since I work from home office, my personal stuff is on there as well. Including a weather station, and my media server.

All on a AMD A6 with 8GB of RAM an old 80GB WD for the OS. Then 2 1.5TB WD Black in a Raid1 on a inexpensive controller. Then 3 1TB drives on the rest of the SATA ports. I use Ubuntu LVM for those and have 3TB mounted as my /home dir. Everyone in the house has a Ubuntu or Mint Laptop and automounts their specific home folder form the server. This is also where my media is kept under a user named media which doesn't have permissions to log in, but has permissions for his own folders.

I couldn't live with out my server. It is the bread and butter of my business, and home entertainment. It feeds my PS3 with streaming movies/tv and contains basically my life. Which is why it is rsynced to multiple external drives via USB3.0 weekly and those drives I change out every month.

Edit, I may even add Ubuntu One Cloud soon. So I can have a folder synced for on the road purposes. Such as my tech tools and post-install programs folder which I keep up to date.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOne/Headless
or maybe
https://www.dropbox.com/install?os=lnx

 

[Markverhyden]

I've used SAMBA since the late 90's and it works great accept for one thing. Time Machine destination. So I've moved to FreeNAS a while ago for storage since I can use it as a TM destination.

 

[smashedbotatos]

I've used SAMBA since the late 90's and it works great accept for one thing. Time Machine destination. So I've moved to FreeNAS a while ago for storage since I can use it as a TM destination.

There are ways around the limitation. They are not exactly good practice though. For Time Machine I always use USB. I don't really like saving images via network. However I will use Clonezilla now and again to a SAMBA share. I honestly don't see many Apple devices.

FreeNAS is a great solution, as well as Amahi. I just like the fact that I have complete control over everything with Ubuntu, and don't have to rely on plugins to make certain aspects work properly. That and I am a Linux command line and script junkie.

 

[coffee]

My older dual core I put in a new cheap case. Then I added 2 hotswap sata bays. Works great as a backup / cloning box. Right now I run Mint 14 on it but was thinking windows would be a better approach for scaning for infections.

Here is the case I bought:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353023



I use Xrdp (remote desktop) to access it.

coffee

 

[SilverLeaf]

If I may I would like to suggest a few things. Maybe a little insight on how to use this to your advantage.

I suggest Ubuntu or CentOS Server. Here is why.....

You can install my PXE-Dust tool on it and save time on the bench PXE booting some of your tools.

SAMBA for file sharing. You can create users groups, and create shares to reflect them if need be. There is a lot you can do with SAMBA.

For SAMBA my shares would be as follows.
\\server\WSUSOffline <- This woudl get mapped to computers that need updates and hold your WSUSOffline files.
\\server\Customer Backup\
\\server\Software\ subfolders techtools and post-install tech tools for your tech tools, and post-install for your installers. Keep these updated.
\\server\Documents for various documents you use in the shop day to day.
\\server\DiskImages\ <--- Keep your dvd and cd images here. OS installers, bootable tools and the like for easy burning on any device in the office.

WSUSOffline
There is now a script that you can set as a cronjob that will update your WSUS files when you choose.

ScreenConnect Host
You can host ScreenConnect from here if you use it.

Apache HTTP
You can host a local copy of your website for internal use, or in case your web hosting goes down you can redirect traffic here temporarily.

Transmission Torrent Server
You can use Transmission as a web interface from anywhere in the office to get your favorite Linux Distributions.

SSH
It can be headless and in a closet somewhere, but you can use it from any computer in the shop via PuTTy.

This can all be done on the hardware you have all at once. I would suggest getting more storage space though!!

Linux is extremely powerful even on lower end hardware. If you install the OS on the smaller disk and then mount the a larger disks in Raid1 as /srv/ where you would put your file shares. You will have a mirror of all your file share data. You could even split drives up based on directory. Mount a 1TB drive as /srv/Software another as /srv/CustomerBackup.

It is very feasible and not that hard. If you need help there is a lot of data out there to help you. I would be able to help you as well.

Great post!. This is very similar to the setup I had in the shop with my linux server (Ubuntu 12.04) running FOG. It was indispensable. Also, if you use D7, you can point it to the Samba shares in the D7 config dialog to access your WSUS Offline database, for Datagrab storage, etc. I also set up a share to which to backup the shop/office machines.

Just remember: If you map these shares to a drive letter in a windows box, you potentially run the risk of allowing the files to be found by cryptolocker and the like if you manage to get your windows install/VM infected.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I dunno...a rig that old, is it at least a full business class rig?
For more important services for your office...I'd lean towards something newer or more server grade.
For efficiency, virtualize some servers in VMWare or Hyper-V...share some server grade hardware.

We keep an old rig on the bench as our "bench rig"...the side is open, to swap out HDD's for scanning and cloning and what not.

But a Dell of the Vista vintage, probably a later model H/T or early Pentium D...if it's not an Optiplex I'd probably toss it or just keep in the boneyard for spare parts.

 

[kwisher]

WSUSOffline
There is now a script that you can set as a cronjob that will update your WSUS files when you choose.

Can you please prove a link for this script or more info?

TIA

 

[smashedbotatos]

http://helmut.hullen.de/Rechnerraum/wupdate.html

It is in German, I am decent with German. Use google translate if you can't understand. The script is included in the WSUSoffline download. Is is located in the folder sh.

Bascially on Ubuntu you run it with bash DownloadUpdates.sh answer a few questions as what to download. And you are done. Then you share the folder via SAMBA read only though.

You can also set a cronjob to auto run the script with parameters.
For example my cronjob runs these three commands.

 ./wsus/sh/DownloadUpdates.sh all-x86 enu /dotnet /msse /wddefs
./wsus/sh/DownloadUpdates.sh all-x64 enu /dotnet /msse /wddefs
./wsus/sh/DownloadUpdates.sh ofc enu

With that is downloads all english 32bit updates for all supported OS, with dotnet, msse, And defender defs.
The second line is the same as the first, but 64bit.
The third line is English office updates.