Re: GROUND: I can host, but I need someone to help set up

[The Wizard of Oz <wizard@emeraldcity.gov>]

On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 11:16:04 -0800, jboothbee wrote:

> hi,
> 
> I have a few computers online all the time,
> high speed connection.
> 
> I'd like to host ground ftp.  If someone can
> provide the archives, and instructions on how
> to setup hosting, I would appreciate it.
> 
> also, if anyone has any IDE hard drives to donate
> to the project, it would be great.
> 
> Jen

	The hardware is fairly easy. Take one of your machines (hopefully a
fairly hefty PC with a pile of RAM), install some form of *NIX. Look at
what's available for an ftp server. Look at the config file for the
tweaks. Set it up so it supports anonymous login. It took me less than an
hour once the OS was installed.

	There are all sorts of high availability configurations you could use. I
don't think people would complain too much if you were running it off of a
single machine as long as you maintained a backup of the data. The next
step up would be to use two machines with a heartbeat going between them
and rsync every few minutes to keep the data current. This is the simplest
configuration and gives 99.99% availability. The use of *NIX (preferably
BSD) gives you stability. Just keep power bars away from your UPSs.

	Having said this... I've talked with a couple of guys who are a couple of
months ahead of you. It's not a competition, so when you both are running
you may want to talk with them about mirroring the data between you.

				Later
				Mike