Amahi Forums

Is it possible to run the server when required rather than 24 seven

short answer: yes

long answer: yes, but you'll need to tweak some settings, especially the DHCP server settings need to be disabled since you'll probably want your router to handle those if you still want internet when the hda is not running. You can earch on the forum or wiki on how to do this, this question is already answered somewhere.

Thank you for the information I didn't like the idea of the server being on all the time I would like to use when I go on line with my main computers and close down when I am not using them.

is there any reason why you prefer the server to be off? eg power consumption etc?

i am curious as to why you want to run amahi then?
if you only want file sharing, then setup a simple windows workstation, or even linux can do that..
because you might break more then you do good this way, i think.

after release 4.1 (or 4.2) the secondary DNS is the opendns server, so turning off the server should work for a while, since we changed the DHCP lease time to be longer (hours).

i know some days i could turn off the server for 6 hours.

i am not sure how long i would have to have it off to justify the increase energy usage of shutting it down and then back up. it would be an interesting study.

that and the other factor: the wear and tear of the components. i am not sure how to account for that. but i know it does matter. the components will not last as long when subjected to temperature variations and powered off and on often.

Hi everybody once again my thoughts are turning to building a server I have several old computers which would fit the bill I think. Is it necessary for a server to be running day and night. Or is it possible to simply run the server when you boot up your computers any thoughts or suggestions would be helpful.Remember I am a complete beginner and know very little about server is except the basic concept thank you all once again for your previous answers to my question is and I apologise if this post appears rather disjointedI'm using a program to dictate this post once again thank you everybody

By default the Amahi configuration is set up to be both the DHCP and DNS server for your local network.
If the server is turned off, other computers wont be able to get IP addresses and unless they are set up with alternate DNS servers, they won't be able to find anything on the internet.

You certainly can turn your server on and off when you want to use the network if you want. It's a bit of a hassle, but functional.

Other configurations are possible (but not necessarily supported). One example is Wake-on-Lan, where the server can turn itself off when not being used and then waking up again based on a network message. I don't know if anyone has been able to make this work yet. Check around in the forums for discussions about this.

I suggest you read through the forums to get a feel for how easy/difficult it might be change the configuration.

Install Amahi and try it!

Agreed that there are a couple of options, not 100% perfect. We tried to switch DHCP to the router and back automatically (we have hooks for that now).

I think Amahi Energy Saver app does some of that. You can see more details in the Amahi Energy Saver wiki page.

For anyone wishing to turn off a server because of power consumption issues...
I think you should consider scaling back the high wattage components in your HDA.

No need for a 125w CPU.... get a much more fficient 65w CPU... or even less. HDAs don't need all the CPU craziness.

No need for a 750w PSU, get a 80+bronze/silver/gold efficient PSU and limit to a 500w PSU for future expansion. 500w is more than enough if it's not a gaming PC.

Also... use a motherboard with onboard video, and once your server is headless, make sure it stays headless.

Use 'green' hard drives for storage, and faster drives (SSD ?) for the LZ and OS drives. Just another way to save on power.

Maybe try running a HDA off a laptop. Most laptops have eSATA and USB ports so you can mount external drives. Laptops tend to average about 90w of consumption on heavy usage. The peripheral external devices coupled with the laptop could maybe hit 300w of consumption on heavy usage. There's another way to save.

... Just another way to look at it