Good OS choice for NAS

[captvash]

I'm trying to decide on a good distro choice for a 12Tb NAS I am currently building. The server will be pushing HD content to at least 3 computers and running data backups on 1 computer locally. Ideally I'd like to use something like XBMC to push out to my mobile devices remotely.

What's the best distro for managing 2 RAID configs, media content, network backups, and media cloud pushing?
Also, is XBMC the best choice for remote media distribution?

I will probably need a stable and secure distro so no live distros I'm assuming. I was thinking maybe Ubuntu Server? I dunno, I need more info.

 

[skittle]

*Best Distro* is very subjective. How comfortable are you on linux? Some good choices are ubuntu (and its derivatives), arch, and fedora.

That being said everything you want to do will not work out of the box on ANY distro. It will take some work on your part to install and configure some (probably a lot) of stuff.

BTW when you say "pushing" do you really mean pushing (ie broadcast) or simply setting up a NAS? If NAS you will have to decide between FTP, NFS, SAMBA...

 

[captvash]

*Best Distro* is very subjective. How comfortable are you on linux? Some good choices are ubuntu (and its derivatives), arch, and fedora.

That being said everything you want to do will not work out of the box on ANY distro. It will take some work on your part to install and configure some (probably a lot) of stuff.

BTW when you say "pushing" do you really mean pushing (ie broadcast) or simply setting up a NAS? If NAS you will have to decide between FTP, NFS, SAMBA...

Yes I am thinking about using a service to "push" my media content. Preferably a free one like XBMC which I'm pretty sure can stream my content on the internet to my devices (the iPhone app has to be updated, but allows HD streams from XBMC). If that doesn't work I can always just pay $3/month for UbuntuOne to stream to my devices.

I'm pretty comfortable with Linux, I'm not afraid of Terminal if that's what you mean.

I'll probably just go with Ubuntu, the new release is coming out and it's just a solid distro.

 

[skittle]

Do you need it to transcode on the fly for your device? If not then you can mount a samba or NFS share on your device and stream that directly. IIRC XBMC has a similar feature using UPnP. Of course there are many other free open source DLNA/UPnP servers if you want something lighter than a full XBMC package.

IMO Ubuntu is ok... but it tries to hard to throw everything in the kitchen under the sink. For a server I would look at ubuntu server and only start the UI when you need it. Or Arch and do the same thing.

In any case dont go throwing away your money on ubuntuone service, thats just silly!

 

[captvash]

Best answer selected by captvash.

 

[captvash]

Do you need it to transcode on the fly for your device? If not then you can mount a samba or NFS share on your device and stream that directly. IIRC XBMC has a similar feature using UPnP. Of course there are many other free open source DLNA/UPnP servers if you want something lighter than a full XBMC package.

IMO Ubuntu is ok... but it tries to hard to throw everything in the kitchen under the sink. For a server I would look at ubuntu server and only start the UI when you need it. Or Arch and do the same thing.

In any case dont go throwing away your money on ubuntuone service, thats just silly!

Good advice. What is the primary features of Ubuntu Server?

 

[skittle]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ServerFaq

Basically all of the goodies from ubuntu, but without a "desktop enviorment" (can add this later if you want) and some server specific packages installed by default. You can get the same results using the ubuntu desktop alternate CD and doing a minimal install. This is nice because you can pick a light window manager (like xfce) and only start it when you need it.

I prefer arch because its easier to set up start up daemons and kernel modules.