old G4, want to make into fileserver: how?
In 2 weeks we're receiving top of the line PowerMac G5... that means the one I'm typing on now is gonna either be turned off and left to rot in a corner, or, made into a central file server given that out division is running out of space to store their crap on.
So... what I would like to do is to simply attach this Mac on the network and let everyone store their files on it. Its a very mixed environment: mostly Linux and Windoze.
I had a quick look around but doesnt seem to be an easy way to do this. I dont want any authentication, no passwords, no nothing... just for the internal hard drives to be available to everyone on the network.
or...
should I have one of the local geeks just format it and install Linux on it and let them fool around with it?
So... what I would like to do is to simply attach this Mac on the network and let everyone store their files on it. Its a very mixed environment: mostly Linux and Windoze.
I had a quick look around but doesnt seem to be an easy way to do this. I dont want any authentication, no passwords, no nothing... just for the internal hard drives to be available to everyone on the network.
or...
should I have one of the local geeks just format it and install Linux on it and let them fool around with it?
Comments
Originally posted by ZO
..........or...
should I have one of the local geeks just format it and install Linux on it and let them fool around with it?
NOOOOO!
use the built in SMB filesharing service on Mac OS X on your old G4. it is quite easy to set up on the Mac OS X side, and the windoze users will access it okay.
you can leave the linux geeks to figure out how to setup linux-smb-client-access on the linux machines.
remember your old G4 can also be iTUNES sharing server for the whole office! in case your management starts clamping down (if it hasn't already) on internet radio, staff can load up their music collections on the G4 and it can be shared out to Mac iTunes clients, and possibly(?) PC iTunes clients
the Linux geeks here can code themselves out of a black hole, I'm not concerned about them
Originally posted by ZO
ok, I saw the "Windows Sharing" in the Sharing Pref paneas well, but people still need a login/pass to access the share. The people here just want something that appears as a shared drive...
the Linux geeks here can code themselves out of a black hole, I'm not concerned about them
If you edit your /etc/smb.conf file you can set up almost anything on your computer to mount with your Samba share. It's actually really easy. Check www.macosxhints.com for more information on this, but take my word for it: it's worth it and not very hard.
If you set up a share-point with "777" access rights in your smb.conf file, I think you'll achieve your desire. Any linux friend of yours can explain what "777" means, and may even try to persuade you to set it as "766"
Originally posted by ZO
ok, I saw the "Windows Sharing" in the Sharing Pref paneas well, but people still need a login/pass to access the share. The people here just want something that appears as a shared drive...
Why not just set up a single user on the G4, and give everyone the login and easy-but-not-too-obvious password? I know Windows can store logons so that the users wouldn't have to enter them every time, and I think Windows could even auto-mount the shared drive at boot. It doesn't seem like such a great idea to have a computer on your network with absolutely no authentication whatsoever required to access it.
Essentially what is needed is a NAS... and given that this G4 is so old (but damn, still a workhorse! G4 733MHz with first "Super Drive"... I think its the Digital Audio version) no one else would want it and so, rather than just let it rot in a corner, we/I thought of putting it on the network and let people use it as a NAS
Your machine sounds like a digital audio mac which I think has a 300 and something watt power supply. Depending on how many drives you put in the G4, available power and heat might both become issues.
If you want to know stats on the power supply for sure, get this app
MacTracker
And anyway, the drives are about 4 years old, I'm sure their failure time is just hovering around about now.
Actually, they are talking of adding an external 1.6TB Firewire drive to it and make it available to everyone as well..
Is that possible too if I use the Windows Sharing?
Originally posted by ZO
its already had 2 HDs in it since years (2 x 60GB) and still has the (now) wimpy built-in graphics card (GeForce2 MX 32MB). I should upgrade the internal drives actually... 60GB for a bunch of blood thirsty geeks is hardly enough...
And anyway, the drives are about 4 years old, I'm sure their failure time is just hovering around about now.
Actually, they are talking of adding an external 1.6TB Firewire drive to it and make it available to everyone as well..
Is that possible too if I use the Windows Sharing?
If OS X can mount it, it can share it. I really recommend that you do use the smb.conf workaround. It works.
One of the admins now just told me that, actually, everyone will need their OWN individual login/pass and space on the computer...
I have a feeling this can only be done with OSX Server? Or is there some gracious shareware that can allow this to be done? Maybe something like Share Points? I've never actually used it...
I don t intend to make actual accounts on the Mac for each and every person (in Preferences > Users) Heck, I dont even know if that would work...
Also... I dont understand why *I* am being asked to do this when instead there are some stellar networking and technical geeks here who could probably do it in a second...
One asked me that seeing OS X UNIX, in Linux its "easy" to do and is inherently built into the OS... is this easy to get done?
My 466 does.
what do you mean by that? 12GB ceiling?
There is a software hack that "solves" it.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Intech%20USA/SPEEDHCCD/
But as I said I don´t know if your machine type is affected by the limit...
I'll have to look at that later tonight. I currently have 3 160gig drives with only 128gig usable on each.
Originally posted by ZO
*sigh*
One of the admins now just told me that, actually, everyone will need their OWN individual login/pass and space on the computer...
One asked me that seeing OS X UNIX, in Linux its "easy" to do and is inherently built into the OS... is this easy to get done?
Pretty much anything you can do in Linux, you can do on a mac. OS X server buys you some preinstalled components and easy GUIs to everything, but ultimately you can do everything OS X Server can do on OS X client. It's just that it would be a pain in the ass to configure everything.
Presumably, you'll want to use the user-list from your domain server. I'm not sure what kind of server yours is, but there are several command-line programs that can hook up to it. Many have polished Cocoa UIs now, and they make it easy. A popular one is kerberos.
Jesus... it WEIGHS as much as the G4!!! The alumnium casing plus the 4HDs inside... crazy.
Anyway... in case anyone gets one and sees that it doesn't mount on the desktop, you have to take out Disk Utility and reformat it as HFS+ Journaled. Or at least HFS+.
Its crazy that a 1.6TB drive will format to 1.46TB in the end.. 140GB of "wasted" space... thats more space than both the internal drives Im using now.
Anyway... its an impressive beast. Kinda scary when you hear 4HDs spinning up at boot...
Originally posted by Splinemodel
Pretty much anything you can do in Linux, you can do on a mac. OS X server buys you some preinstalled components and easy GUIs to everything, but ultimately you can do everything OS X Server can do on OS X client. It's just that it would be a pain in the ass to configure everything.
Presumably, you'll want to use the user-list from your domain server. I'm not sure what kind of server yours is, but there are several command-line programs that can hook up to it. Many have polished Cocoa UIs now, and they make it easy. A popular one is kerberos.
Thanks... I'm just gonna let one of the locals have fun with it...
Any other tools you can recommend?