Best OS for proliant 5000

[chuck_48]

I have a Proliant 5000 that I will be using as a basic file server, in my home (music, pictures, videos, etc...). I have been running 2000 Advanced Server, but I think it's probably overkill for my situation. I also have 2000 Professional, NT4, and a Demo of Server 2003.
My thinking is that the Advanced Server is too new of an OS for such an old machine and NT4 or even 2000 Pro would speed up the processing a bit. (Does this make sense?)
As for the demo I would have to start over again anyways.
There is also the option of a multiple OS install and see which one works the best.

Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks, Chuck

[Ian Vaughan]

Howdy,
For basic file serving - gotta be linux running Samba every time! Free up your Windoze licece for something more worthy.
Give it a try - you might even like it.

Fedora will work a treat on that machine.
HTH
Ian

[chuck_48]

That's what a friend of mine said too.I got my hands on a redhat disk a while back and loaded it to an old pos machine. I couldn't even figure out how to make it find my network, let alone do something useful with it. I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box though.

[Doug de Werd]

I would run Windows 2000 Advanced Server. It's the most recent one that has downloadable driver support. No point doing NT4 when 2000 is better. And 2000 Professional may not have all the right drivers since it's targeted as a desktop OS. And the demo of 2003 might have a limited license (like 180 days). Even though 2000 AS might be overkill in that you probably won't use all the features, if it's doing the job, who cares?

Driver support for ProLiant 5000 and Windows 200 AS can be found here:

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/20_1109.html

Cheers,
Doug

[Ian Vaughan]

Hi Chuck,
If you just want to take a look at linux to see what it can do you can't beat knoppix IMHO.
It boots from the cd so you don't even need to install it and it picks up all the hardware perfectly on my HP nx9010 laptop. It uses DHCP to pickup my network settings & if there's anything I want to save I use my USB pen which it automounts. Also very useful as a recovery CD for Proliants as it has the cciss driver which you can use to get at disks under a smart controller.
Slightly off topic but hope it helps

http://www.knoppix.org

Cheers Ian

[C. Beerse_1]

For a home-based server, you should have a look at ClarkConnect (http://www.clarkconnect.org/index.php).
It's a linux distro (RedHat/Fedora based) that gives you a nice server/router without the need to dive direct into linux.

For others, that need some commersial support or such, peek at http://www.clarkconnect.com/