Linux "server"

So linux PC #3 at my desk is going to become a server of sorts. Backup server for borg is one of the key roles it can do. Another one is Virtualbox server or PC running vboxes natively, depending on how I set it up. Another way of working around disk space limitations on MainPC without spending a lot (or virtually any) money. 

I have a pile of old disks lying around and there should be enough WD Blacks or REs to give it a 1 TB RAID-1 array with mdadm without it costing me anything. However it has only 8 GB of RAM which isn't really enough for its new role. The memory from the other computers isn't likely to be compatible with it and memory is expensive (this motherboard only has two memory slots which is an unusual choice for me, but the PC was expected to have a low usage when I built it and cost was important). I would have to decide whether to put 8 GB or 16 GB extra into it, but 8 is much more likely, but too much to pay for at present.

It will run Debian, but a desktop version with GUI for the present time. For borg it will be able to act as a server to back up the other two PCs on this desk which have all the stuff stored on them (which adds up to a lot of stuff) and the backup disks can be optimised by having stuff from both PCs stored on them.

Linux backup solutions

So since I started to use Linux I have used rsync as a backup system. This has some limitations, and this week I decided to see if there is an actual backup solution. Well it turns out there are a number of FOSS backup packages to choose from. As usual the Gnome one (sbackup) isn't being maintained currently like so many Gnome Desktop packages. Fortunately I found BorgBackup which comes in the Debian repositories and seems to be a good package that is well supported.

There was some drama when I tried to update my system to the 1.1.4 edition of Borg. Because I tried using a sid package instead of looking to see if there was a stretch backport, a lot of the dependencies for qgis and some other software got trashed in the process. So I had to reinstall MainPC twice. However reinstallation is something I have got down to a fine art and can be completed in a couple of hours including all the application software packages. One of the reasons that makes it straightforward is that the home drive is on a separate disk (actually a RAID-1 disk array) from the install volume (which is an SSD). So reinstalling is just a matter of setting up the SSD as the / mount point and installing there, and then reconnecting the RAID array and bringing that back up as /home. 

So I have spent the evening reinstalling but as usual it has been straightforward and trouble free and at least I have the latest edition of Borg. The first backup took up much less disk space than rsync backups did and because of the deduplicator built into it, subsequent backups will be fairly small. This means much more efficient disk space usage. After due consideration borg will be the backup software for both mainpc and mediapc, and I am sure it will do a great job.

Debian 10, bye

So I had this computer running Windows and then I put Debian 10 on it for testing. And now, I am putting Debian 9 on it. Because just as I wasn't prepared to have a valuable computer sitting there hardly being used for the few times I would need to run Windows, I can't have a valuable computer sitting there running a test version of Debian that other software can't run on. That computer is much more use to me as a secondary for mainpc or mediapc running some additional software when I need extra processing power for the other two Linux computers that are on my desktop.

Mostly this has been influenced by the fact I am not now involving myself very much in the development of Qgis as I was before. I am not developing the maps on a day to day basis using development editions of Qgis any more, I have switched back to using stable editions of the software, and this computer will run 2.14 to work around some 2.18 issues.

So if I run a development edition it will be possibly on mediapc but it will not be on any computer that has a screen at the lowest (eye) level on my desktop, except as a VM. To clarify that I have screens stacked three high, a total of seven screens, with two levels of three and one on the third level (that is mostly used as a TV). I haven't actually used any development editions for some time for anything at all, not since I was in Dunedin at Christmas and had a development master running on the computer I took with me down there. And as for beta editions of operating systems, they will have to run in a VM.