Ghetto Home Backup Server

FairladyZ · May 25, 2015

Remember that Dell Dimension case I painted a while ago? If not, here's a refresher:

Anyways, I actually built a system inside it.

System Specs:

Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.00GHz (HyperThreading Enabled) (LGA775)

Generic Intel Desktop Board

2GB 400MHz Crucial DDR RAM

320GB Hitachi Deskstar

IDE R/W Drive (Dell)

Onboard shittio, 64MB onboard memory

Purpose

Originally, I was going to do nothing with the system. Then I had the bright idea to back up my PC, but I didn't want to do it through Windows. I had some spare P4 gear lying around, so I decided to make myself a nifty home backup server.

How It Works

How this system works is monthly, if both systems are active, the server will send data through a short patch cable I had left over from work, and it will initiate the gaming PC to start backing up its data through Wi-Fi, where the server will then snag it and write it to its hard drive. If there is no power to one or either system when backup wants to start, the server will wait until the other PC has power to begin backing up. The server is running Ubuntu, with a wack ton of programs to make this process happen. The server has no risk of compromise. It is running Trend Micro, and the antivirus is set to cut power to the system if there is a threat, to keep the data on the hard drives safe. The server doesn't boot directly into Ubuntu, it takes about 15 minutes to perform security checks and it once-overs the data to ensure that it's all there and that it's all secure. If it isn't secure, the server is set to shut itself down. I had found a series of YouTube videos about how to do all these things to make the server as safe as I could possibly make it. The server runs 24/7, and it is constantly communicating with the white system, when major changes happen to the hard drive in the white system, so it can schedule a backup.