Andy Smith writes:
Hello, On Thu, Jun 09, 2022 at 11:30:26AM -0400, rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:> For Gene, he could conceivably just rename the RAID setup that he has > mounted > under /home to some new top level mountpoint. (Although he probably has > some > scripts or similar stuff that looks for stuff in /home/<username> that > would> need to be modifed. For anyone with a number of machines, like Gene, there is a lot to be said for having one be in the role of file server. - One place to have a ton of storage, which isn't a usual role for a simple desktop daily driver machine.
I have always wondered about this. Back when I bought a new PC I got that suggestion, too (cf. thread at https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2020/10/msg00037.html). All things considered, I ended up with _one_ workstation to address desktop and storage uses together for the main reason that whenever I work on my "daily driver". I also need the files hence either power on and maintain two machines all of the time vs. having just one machine for the purpose?
- One place to back up. - Access from anywhere you want. - Easier to keep your other machines up to date without worrying about all the precious data on your fileserver. Blow them away completely if you like. Be more free to experiment.
These points make a lot of sense and that is basically how I am operating, too. One central keeper of data and multiple satellite machines :)
I factor out backups to some extent in order to explicitly store copies across multiple machines and some of them "offline" as to resist modern threats of "data encryption trojans".
Also, I have been following rhkramer's suggestion of storing important data outside of /home and I can tell it has served me well. My main consideration for doing this is to separate automatically generated program data (such as .cache, .wine and other typical $HOME inhabitants) from _my_ actual data. I still backup selected parts of $HOME e.g. the ~/.mozilla directory for Firefox settings etc.
It's a way of working that's served me well for about 25 years. It's hard to imagine going back to having data spread all over the place.
What do you use as your file server? Is it running 24/7 or started as needed? Thanks in advance Linux-Fan öö [...]
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