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guys I just got a brand new server from a friend who don't need it. the

Server is : HUAWEI Tecal RH2285 V2 Rack Server

Well..... it has 9 SAS HD each is 500GB , the thing is that I really don't know how to use it or benefit from it.

what can I do with it ? can I use it as a home server to store my files and valuable data ? and the hard part how can I configure and setup the server ? can anyone guide me ? I'm willing to buy any softwares/OS if needed.

and I really want to set it up by my self.

BTW I do have an Internet service 25MB/sec connection and I do have a local area network installed in my house.

2 Answers 2

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To answer your question - yes, it would be able to perform as a NAS unit just fine to store data on and configured correctly could be a very versatile backup solution for any sensitive/valuable files you might have.

Setting it up, you might want to consider Windows Home Server as an operating system, if you haven't had any prior experience setting up or managing servers before. WHS is a great starting platform for a home server and is a good place to learn. An open source alternative which I would personally recommend is Ubuntu Server, but it does require a little bit of persistence with the command line for setting up things such as Samba, CIFS and the like.

As far as other uses go, you could dedicate it to folding or SETI projects to use the idle CPU power for a good cause, or BitCoin mining if you fancy playing around with new and upcoming currency (although the practicality of this makes it nothing more than an experiment). If you play games you could host a Minecraft or Source-based server for free to play across your LAN. You could even virtualize the entire box using vmware ESXi or Xen to turn it into a hypervisor, giving you a sandbox environment to play with virtual machines and develop, test and break various operating systems you might not otherwise have the resources to.

You're internet connections upload rate would determine what web-facing services you could offer and I strongly suggest you read up on firewalls and securing your services before you expose anything to the outside world. There's a good article here on securing WHS. Go to Speedtest.net and if your upload rate fares okay for your region, you might be able to host a thing or two from it but again, not before properly securing it.

Whatever you choose to do, home servers are a great project to undergo, and I wish you the very best!

(apologies for there being only two links - I originally hard fourteen but superuser decided to not let me post them all! A quick Google on any uncertain terms will yield good results though.)

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It should behave like a PC in most cases. Just install your favourite operating system on it and setup whatever file sharing thing you like.

Desktop Windows might not come with the correct SAS drivers on the installation disk, so you may have some problems installing them, but nothing can't be resolved by the powerful internet. Almost all Linux distributions should install just fine though.

However, if you have never managed a Linux server before, I suggest you use Windows. You might be able to fine some cheap OEM license for Windows Server 2008R2 Standard/Essential/Storage Server or Windows SBS 2011 on Amazon/ebay (check M$ website to make sure your CPU don't exceed the license restrictions). DO NOT buy the 2008 (without R2) or 2012 version because they're quite slow and bad (they're based on Vista and Windows 8).

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