Buddy gave me a fileserver...

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ima_gnu

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Sep 24, 2012
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My friend gave me a piece of his old home rig, its a tower with a group of hard drives in it. He was running an enormous multi-tower super-raid command center. I guess he felt he was being a bit overzealous with his setup, and generously sliced off a bit for me. Trouble is, I have no Linux knowledge to speak of (goal to remedy) and minimal networking experience. My goal is to re-configure the whole thing, as I learn best by building with my own fingers and brain.

Now, why I'm here. is it possible for me to discover the local ip of this tower, using my Windows 7 pc? I have the login info that he gave me to allow access, but I don't know what the local ip is, or how to find it. I don't know what linux distro he installed, or anything pertaining to the system. If necessary, I can plug it directly into my pc, and if there is something to be gained by examining the innards more closely, I am at least moderately versed in the internal assembly of a pc.

I plan to have to network configured with the new tower acting as a fileserver and inline firewall for my windows pc. I don't know if the end network configuration goal is relevant, I'm sure I'll have questions regarding that, later, but I'm not there yet.

Any and all thoughts are more than appreciated. I'm here to learn everything I possibly can. Even if you just point me at a resource, I am undaunted by heavy reading.
 
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Assuming that there is no static or set IP address on the server box, then it will likely be assigned an address from what ever network device you connect it to using DHCP. It is likely that the Telus modem and Linksys router will do different addresses.

The server box came with no peripherals, and likely will not need them outside of initial setup. Once it is properly configured and attached to the network, you should be able to access it remotely. This depends on the operating system installed on the box as well. So we need to find out what is running on the box. If there is a lot of custom setup in that software, you may need to contact your buddy for details.

If you decide you want to start fresh, there are plenty of free options...
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frostedtim

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In Linux, type the command line "ifconfig -a" without the quotes. This should show you your IP address on that device.

Also, you can plug it directly into your network, and look at the router's list of connected devices and their corresponding addresses.

I should also mention, unless your buddy that gave you the system set a static IP address, it should be auto assigned by your network using DHCP. Most home networks default to that.
 
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ima_gnu

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Sep 24, 2012
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I forgot to clarify some stuff. Your answers are awesome but (to me) are somewhat complex.




The fileserver came as a tower only, no peripherals, and I can absolutely do some back and forth mouse/kb swapping (have 2 moniters) but I'm hoping for a software solution because it is likely I will need to simultaneously use both systems, and hotswapping my peripherals several times would make it tedious. If I have to though, I have to, and thats that.




This is a bit of a web of complexity, which comes back to why I'm trying to rebuild this myself, because it surpasses my understanding considerably. In order, from incoming wall jack to my windows pc:

Telus router/modem - as useful as a company-built piece of hardware, I guess. All devices in-house currently connect to this, and as its usefulness as a firewall is unknown, I'd like something a bit more... personalized. This was the end of the network prior to my friend coming over. All devices except those leading directly to my windows pc still connect to this access point.

Power-line network wall-warts - all I know is they encrypt data themselves, three indicator lights signifying power, successful incoming connection, and sucessful outgoing connection.

linksys router Here the whole setup drives far above my understanding. My friend has heavily re-configured this fairly ordinary Linksys WRT160N v3 router. It has a label on the top indicating half a dozen vlans, and a backwards map of a completely changed set of rear network ports. The "in port" doesnt do anything, and one (dont know which one, or how to find out) of the "out" ports is now the new "in" port. I'm assuming most of the vlans are disabled currently, as there is only one in my wireless network list on any given device.

From there the cables go into the new tower, and out again to my windows pc.





I suppose I could plug the new tower into my telus modem, as its interface readily displays the ip address of all currently connected devices: however, this would be self-defeating if I wished to use the linksys router, as it would probably assign a new ip, if I understand you correctly. I dont think the new tower has a static ip, but I may be wrong. When I plugged the new tower directly into my windows pc and entered what used to be the ip of my network drives (on the server), it returned nothing. I assume that means the server ip has changed.

Thank you for your help

 
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frostedtim

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Jul 1, 2014
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Assuming that there is no static or set IP address on the server box, then it will likely be assigned an address from what ever network device you connect it to using DHCP. It is likely that the Telus modem and Linksys router will do different addresses.

The server box came with no peripherals, and likely will not need them outside of initial setup. Once it is properly configured and attached to the network, you should be able to access it remotely. This depends on the operating system installed on the box as well. So we need to find out what is running on the box. If there is a lot of custom setup in that software, you may need to contact your buddy for details.

If you decide you want to start fresh, there are plenty of free options out there. I would suggest FreeNAS or NAS4Free. Im including a link to a good article comparing the two:
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/06/the-ars-nas-distribution-shootout-freenas-vs-nas4free/

As far as your configuration goes on your Linksys router, is it running its normal firmware, or was custom firmware installed, like DD-WRT?
 
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ima_gnu

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Sep 24, 2012
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I believe the router is running custom firmware, but I dont know what firmware.

I'm going to start fresh on the server box, got ahold of my buddy and he suggested running debian with proxmox and zfs on top of it. I think freenas is what is running currently, at least, he mentioned that the way he did it is not as good for performance, and that the above method cuts out freenas. I think he's going to come over on the weekend to give me a hand, there are a lot of variables and unknowns in this for me, and he can help directly, since he configured all the stuff to start with. Thanks for the advice and help. :)
 
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ima_gnu

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Sep 24, 2012
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So it turned out to just be a matter of plugging everything in right. Discovering which way was the right way was a challenge, but we got it. Now to the next step. Thanks for your answers frostedtim! +1!
 
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frostedtim

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Happy to help! Hope all works out as intended.
 
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