This is my home server. It performs these tasks:-
- Storage Server
- Backup Server
- Developing Web Server
Server Specifications:
CPU:
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300, 2MB Cache
RAM:
2GB RAM
Hard Drives:
1000GB SATAII (Boot and Data) Partitioned
1000GB SATAII (Backup)
1500GB SATAII (Betas)
1000GB SATAII (Media 1)
1000GB SATAII (Media 2)
Operating System:
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
UPS:
1200VA - ~35 minutes backup
Broadband
My broadband is Virgin Media 10Mbps download and 0.5Mbps upload.
Storage Server
My server performs this task so I don't have to keep storage in every computer I have. With a storage server I have a central place to store all my files and I can then access them from any of my computers.
The server has 5.5TB of hard disk space in the form of 5 internal hard disks. I also have 2x500GB external hard disks to give me an extra 1TB if necessary.
Backup Server
My server runs a very unique backup regieme compared to most you would find. My web server is hosted away from home in a datacenter. Since I want to keep all of the data on it I need a way to back it up. The providor offers an FTP backup with the same disk space as your hard drive which is great, except for two things. Its in their hands and its only accessible from your server inside the datacenter. This was no good. I needed it to back up to home so it was in my hands.
To do this I needed something to backup all the data to home and that would do it quickly and efficiently. I came across SyncBackSE and this was perfect. SyncBackSE is good because it is capable of doing:
- Sepecific folders to backup
- Compression on transferred files (great for text files and php, html, etc)
- Date and time check so as not to transfer data that is already the same on the backup
- Remembers what is on the other end so it doesn't waste time scanning.
This is a perfect setup and it works great. My average server backup is about 1.5GB/day. I run backups on the databases every 3 hours and they are around 100MB each and I do a full backup during the night.
All of this was great until I thought of a fatal flaw. If I delete a file on the server, within 24 hours its deleted from home too, with no way to get it back. I needed something to archive the backups. The answer? Make my own script, that uses XCOPY, RD as the backend and runs on a PHP front end. I now make tri-hourly backups of all my databases and keep an archive of them for 3 days, and daily backups of all other files. You would think this takes up alot of space, and it does if you don't have it to use. As it happens I have a dedicated 500GB drive for the task, so space is not an issue. It uses the total space used by the data multipled by 3, plus the mysql data multipled by 18 for the tri-hourly backups.
With this backup system, I can now retrieve any file from the last 3 days prior to needing the file. If its Monday, and I delete a file, I can still get it all the way up to Wednesday until the backup with that file in is removed in place of a newer backup.
Developing Web Server
Because I am a web developer, uploading and downloading from FTP's all the time is too slow for me. I like to work fast so I need a local server to act as a server for me while I develop. This server does that job as well as the jobs above.
The server runs the following software for web development:
HTTP: Abyss Web Server X2
PHP: PHP Version 4 and PHP Version 5
I don't code MySQL so I have no need for a local MySQL server (yet!).
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