Several newbie questions before moving to Amahi

[Tartifless]

Hi,
I am currently a happy user with WHS 2011 but will pretty soon change my network set-up and move to a Amahi solution in order to get rid of licence cost for WHS2011 and some bugs I had.
Before doing that I would like to ask some questions:

1) HDA:
I understand that to work at full capacity, it is better to set-up Amahi as the DHCP / DNS server for your network:
a) What happens if the HDA computer crashes ? Will all my computer loose internet connection ?
b) If I want to keep my fixed IP addresses assigned by my "provider box", what functionnality do I actually loose ? (internet access to my files ? Amahitunes ? Sabnzbd+ ? Logitech squeezebox server ?)

2) Applications:
Following requirements have to be met for me to switch:
- Sabnzbd+ access from outside my network
- Logitech squeezebox server in my network
- Itunes music sharing in my network
- Access to my personal files from outside my network
- Access to my shares from inside my network
Basically I need full access to shares (for XBMC, itunes, squeezebox) inside of my network and access from outside my network only to my files (by webaccess is ok) and to Sabnzbd web interface.
==> Would that be possible without having Amahi as the DHCP server on my network ?

3) Hard drive and backup:
- Can my hard drives be read from a windows computer if I remove them from my HDA ?
- Is Greyhole reliable, can I add/remove disks as easily as with WHS V1 driveextender ?
- Can Amahi backup win7 64 bits and MacosX ?
- Does Amahi support 3TB hard drives ?

Basically, the goal of my HDA would be:
- To share music inside my network (ipods + squeezebox)
- To share videos in my network (only through a share XBMC could access)
- To share my personal documents all around the world
- To backup all my computers
- To download from my newsgroups (So i need to be able to put nzb files to Sabnzbd from all over the world: by the web-interface or by putting them in the nzb folder)

What hickups would I encounter ?

Thanks in advance for your feedback, hope I'll be joining the happy Amahi-users community soon !

For information my hardware would be:
- Z77 chipset motherboard
- I5 processor (35W)
- 10 HDD
- RJ45 gigabit network all around my home (gigabit switch behind my ISP provide box)
- wi-fi from my ISP provider box
- 3 home computers (XBMCbuntu / Win7 64 / OSx)
- 3 squeezeboxes

Regards,
Benoit

[spline]

Hi Benoit,

puh, lot of questions. I will try to answer some of them.

What happens if the HDA computer crashes ? Will all my computer loose internet connection ?

No, not directly loose it, but it will be useless. The connection is still there. You will be unable to access pages since your computer can't resolve the names to the IPadresses. That's why i do not recommend to use amahi as DHCP and DNS. A router don't have a hard disc that can fail, runs less software on it that can get out of control, consumes less power if runs 24x7. Not all of us wants to run the amahi box 24x7.

If I want to keep my fixed IP addresses assigned by my "provider box", what functionnality do I actually loose ? (internet access to my files ? Amahitunes ? Sabnzbd+ ? Logitech squeezebox server ?)

I didn't get this point. The IP of your work station? You can assign your workstation a static IP in amahi. You will not loose any functionallity.

2) Applications:
Following requirements have to be met for me to switch:
- Sabnzbd+ access from outside my network
- Logitech squeezebox server in my network
- Itunes music sharing in my network
- Access to my personal files from outside my network
- Access to my shares from inside my network
Basically I need full access to shares (for XBMC, itunes, squeezebox) inside of my network and access from outside my network only to my files (by webaccess is ok) and to Sabnzbd web interface.
==> Would that be possible without having Amahi as the DHCP server on my network ?

Yes, all of the above is possible even if amahi does not run as DHCP server. You have to add port forwarding in your router to get access from outside your network. But this independant from DHCP. Be sure to use a secured conection to access files from outside!

3) Hard drive and backup:
- Can my hard drives be read from a windows computer if I remove them from my HDA ?
- Is Greyhole reliable, can I add/remove disks as easily as with WHS V1 driveextender ?
- Can Amahi backup win7 64 bits and MacosX ?
- Does Amahi support 3TB hard drives ?

- Depends on what filesystem you choose during installation. As most (or maybe all) Linux file systems are open source and well documented it's very likely that there is a driver for Windows. Ask google about this. Normally ou will use extfs4 on Linux.
- I think greyhole is reliable. It sits "on top" of Samba which is used bei millions of users world wide. Samba is also usen in commercial environment. Greyhole uses standard funcionallity of Sambe (log files) and the OS (copy, setting links, etc). For me, greyhole was the "killer application" to use amahi.
- Use a backup software on your Win7 and Mac and let it store the backup on your amahi box. It's not amahi specific
- I think yes (but maybe not as boot drive). I think there is an article in the wiki. This is also not amahi specific. Ask google about "Linux 3TB" and filter the search results to be newer than one year.

Basically, the goal of my HDA would be:
- To share music inside my network (ipods + squeezebox)
- To share videos in my network (only through a share XBMC could access)
- To share my personal documents all around the world
- To backup all my computers
- To download from my newsgroups (So i need to be able to put nzb files to Sabnzbd from all over the world: by the web-interface or by putting them in the nzb folder)

What hickups would I encounter ?

All of the above is standard functionality. My setup is quite similar.
If i should you suggest you a solution. If you you are willing to invest some time in reading, googeling and configuration, you could go for a combination of Ubuntu (a Linux distribution, well supported, up to date, easy to use) as operating system.
Than you can add samba for all the file sharing stuff and greyhole for a little bit security and as "drive extender".
With this you will have a very flexible solution.
You have to install all the stuff on your own, but there are tutorials and how to for all of the stuff out there.

But you could also use amahi. When disabing the DNS and DHCP you will loose a little bit of comfort (you have to access it by IP or you add it's name and adress to your host-file or router). Setting up is easy (normally), you don't have to edit the conf files by hand.



Hope this helps.

Juergen

[Tartifless]

Hello,

Thanks for your answers, I think I'll give amahi a try.
So my last question: you tell me that I can access my files from the internet EVEN when amahi does not run as the DCHP server.

So this means that with Firefox, typing https://xxxxx.yourhda.com I will access to my HDA files without issue ?

Basically this is one of the main functionnality in my WHS2011 setup I want to keep.

Regards,
Ben

[ciscoh]

There are a couple ways you would be able to access the shares from outside your network.

One would be by using a VPN client,

http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/VPN

the second would be using Amahi Sync.

http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Amahi_Sync

[bigfoot65]

You can use web apps such as OpenVPN ALS or AjaXplorer to access files.

http://www.amahi.org/apps/openvpn-als

http://www.amahi.org/apps/ajaxplorer

The only additional setup required is to expose it to the internet as stated earlier. The guidance below shows how to access a web app outside your network.

http://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/Hosting_a_website

Hope this helps.

[Tartifless]

Hello,

So you mean that there is no web access interface ?

That's a no-go for me, basically I cannot install a VPN client or a sync tool on all computers I use (friends, work, etc...) to access my files...

Regards,

[bigfoot65]

The web apps I mentioned are the web-based file managers. Neither requires install on the client, only the HDA. You access them via a web browser and log in to see your files.

[Tartifless]

Ok thanks, so AjaXplorer can be installed as webapp, accessed through something like https://ajxplorer.yourhda.com

I guess the same can be said for Sabnzbd+: http://yourhda.com:8080/sabnzb (or something like that) ?

And the last question would be:
What happens if my internet IP changes ? Will my https://yourhda.com still be accessible from outside my network (dynamically updated) or not ?

[bigfoot65]

Yes that is correct. In order to access multiple web apps on the same port outside the network, you have to use the Amahi Web App Proxy.

http://www.amahi.org/apps/amahi-web-apps-proxy

If you need to access one on 80 and one on 443, that app is not needed. We are working to make this easier in future versions of Amahi, but it will most likely be only supported on Ubuntu and Fedora 17.

If your ISP changes the IP address, Amahi will get updated as well so there should be no issues with access.

[Tartifless]

Hello,
So thanks a lot for all this information ! That answered most of my questions.

I'll give a try in a few weeks and hope this forum will be a great helping place in my configuration issues.

Regards,
Ben