possible file server setup

possible file server setup

[Daniel Morandini]

Hi folks,
I’m setting up an home file server and I have a rpi4 available together with a WD Red Sata hard drive.

I was just going to buy the geekworm x825 hat for connecting the two pieces together, but when I saw the USB 3.1 bridge connecting the two boards I thought that maybe it was better to drop an email here first.

Do you foresee any problem with this setup?

Best,
dan

Re: [9front] possible file server setup

[hiro]

>  Do you foresee any problem with this setup?

yes.
a proper sata disk connected via a usb3->sata conversion *might* work
better than the internal SD card, so it's worth the risk i think.

on a linux i've been using external hdd via xhci, and apart from linux
and cable and connector glitches it seems that this mostly works
(especially in comparison to older rpi with the broken/incomplete usb2
hardware).

i wish you luck.

Re: [9front] possible file server setup

[Daniel Morandini]

> i wish you luck.
Thank you hiro! I’ll let you know how it goes, if there is interest.

I eventually purchased this version https://geekworm.com/collections/nas-storage/products/raspberry-pi-x828-stackable-2-5-sata-hdd-ssd-shield?variant=31948675612760

I want to see how it goes building a 9front CI server. The idea is to let the CPU server pool hg for commits. When new stuff goes in, mk install everything and mail me a little report. The new kernels should be available for pxe/tcp booting afterwards on the file server.

Re: [9front] possible file server setup

[Daniel Morandini]

Hi folks,

> Thank you hiro! I’ll let you know how it goes, if there is interest.
> I eventually purchased this version https://geekworm.com/collections/nas-storage/products/raspberry-pi-x828-stackable-2-5-sata-hdd-ssd-shield?variant=31948675612760
It works, zero issues, only fun :)

I was wondering wether it is possible to have a separate auth server that TCP/PXE boots from the fileserver. It looks like the idiomatic way on one end, a “chicken and egg” problem on the other!

dan

Re: [9front] possible file server setup

[Silas McCroskey]

> I was wondering wether it is possible to have a separate auth server that TCP/PXE boots from the fileserver. It looks like the idiomatic way on one end, a “chicken and egg” problem on the other!

you can auth to another machine without using an auth server as long
as you're authing as the server's hostowner.

You can use this trick to bring the auth server up second via PXE
(with nvram on a USB stick or something to make it automatic, if
desired) and then use the auth server for everything else.

I don't know how common this is... I'm pretty sure I did it with VMs a
while back, but on hardware I've always run combined file + auth.

- sam-d

Re: [9front] possible file server setup

[hiro]

yeah as sam-d says.

on boot you can enter the password into a keyboard. then there is no
need for nvram.
and dp9ik uses only passwords, no complicated certificate chains that
need special storage...

On 12/2/20, Silas McCroskey <inkswinc@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I was wondering wether it is possible to have a separate auth server that
>> TCP/PXE boots from the fileserver. It looks like the idiomatic way on one
>> end, a “chicken and egg” problem on the other!
>
> you can auth to another machine without using an auth server as long
> as you're authing as the server's hostowner.
>
> You can use this trick to bring the auth server up second via PXE
> (with nvram on a USB stick or something to make it automatic, if
> desired) and then use the auth server for everything else.
>
> I don't know how common this is... I'm pretty sure I did it with VMs a
> while back, but on hardware I've always run combined file + auth.
>
> - sam-d
>

Re: [9front] possible file server setup

[Daniel Morandini]

> you can auth to another machine without using an auth server as long
> as you're authing as the server's

> hostowner.
Ah I see. The machine in that particular case knows how to authenticate the hostowner!

> on boot you can enter the password into a keyboard. then there is no
> need for nvram.
Can I use nvram for this purpose anyway? Populated with auth/wrkey as usual?

dan

Re: [9front] possible file server setup

[hiro]

if you have a free disk you can put nvram on that, yeah.
it's in the fqa, been added recently.

Re: [9front] possible file server setup

[Daniel Morandini]

Then I’ll use the sd card for the bootloader and nvram.

Thank you hiro and sam-d!
dan