Questions[home-server](ubuntu)

My old computer is a mac powerbook g4 that I am considering turning into an Ubuntu Server for my house of eight to share movies and music and whatever. I've never even thought about doing this kind of stuff before so I don't even know where to start. Can someone point me in the right direction?

My Concerns:

• Most of my house mates have macs. Will there be compatibility issues?
• Can I make it a wireless network?
• My old powerbook g4 might not have the balls.
• Money

Thanks!

I do not have a static IP because my external rarely changes. How can I connect via SSH and FTP via an external IP address.

I am trying to set up roaming profiles on Ubuntu Server. My goal is to be able to log on to the server from any computer in my house running Ubuntu, and have the profile for the user I logged in as loaded onto that computer. What is the easiest way to accomplish this?

Are there any guidelines for which storage scheme(s) makes most sense for a multiple-disk home server?

I am assuming a separate boot/OS disk (so bootability is not a concern, this is for data storage only) and 4-6 storage disks of 1-2 TB each, for a total storage capacity in the range 4-12 TB.

The file system is ext4, I expect there will be only one big partition spanning all disks.

As far as I can tell, the alternatives are

individual disks

• pros: works with any combination of disk sizes; losing a disk loses only the data on that disk; no need for volume management.
• cons: data management is clumsy when logical units (like a "movies" folder) are larger than the capacity of any single drive.

JBOD span

• pros: can merge disks of any size.
• cons: losing a disk loses all data on all disks

LVM

• pros: can merge disks of any size; relatively simple to add and remove disks.
• cons: losing a disk loses all data on all disks

RAID 0

• pros: speed
• cons: losing one drive loses all data; disks must be same size

RAID 5

• pros: data survives losing one disk
• cons: gives up one disk worth of capacity; disks must be same size

RAID 6

• pros: data survives losing two disks
• cons: gives up two disks worth of capacity; disks must be same size

I'm primarily considering either LVM or JBOD span simply because it will let me reuse older, smaller-capacity disks when I upgrade the system. The runner-up is RAID 0 for speed.

I'm planning on having full backups to a separate system, so I expect the extra redundancy from RAID levels 5 or 6 won't be important.

Is this a fair representation of the alternatives? Are there other considerations or alternatives I have missed? And what would you recommend?

This thing is one of the be-all-end-all solutions to people wanting to access their multimedia files around their house, but it runs Windows Home Server. Is there any similar device out there running Ubuntu Server, some variation on Ubuntu, or a version of Linux at the very least?

The whole idea behind the Windows based media centres that are out there is that you spend as little time as possible configuring them (in theory, if you have a Windows home, they should just work). An Ubuntu (Linux) based alternative should have the same sort of 'take it out of the box and start playing' setup.

What are my options?