New Server

Over the past few nights I have been working on getting my Linksys NSLU2 to become my primary web server. Out of the box, it is a small file serving device that uses a USB 2.0 hard drive to store the files, and it also uses very little power (under 15 Watts, which includes the external USB hard drive).
The folks over at http://nslu2-linux.org/ have turned the NSLU2 into a full-fledged Web/Mail/SSH etc server. The site you are currently viewing is being served directly from my NSLU2, still using Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP), and the content is still being managed by WordPress. (See the “Powered by” on the right for details on any of these topics).
I can now save electricity and money by not having to run a power consuming full PC for my website.
If you�d like to buy your own Linksys NSLU2, it is available on Amazon.com for $79.99, with free shipping.
Lastly, if you are interested, here’s a picture of mine in action:
My NSLU2, Linksys wireless router, and Maxtor USB 2.0 Hard Drive.
My NSLU2, Linksys wireless router, and Maxtor USB 2.0 Hard Drive.
From top to bottom: My NSLU2, Linksys wireless router, and Maxtor USB 2.0 Hard Drive, all sitting on top of my old web server.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • jim Jun 16, 2005 @ 14:03

    I am trying to do the same thing. I have Apache, MySql and PHP running on my slug, but it is dog slow. I have read that you should disable the unnecessary modules in httpd.conf, but I haven’t found a good resource yet on what can be disabled. Have you modified your conf alot, or can you send me a copy of your conf file?
    Thanks!
    Jim

  • Kev Jun 17, 2005 @ 9:33

    Jim, I think you can turn off many of the modules without a problem. Of course you’ll want to leave the PHP module on. I’ve copied my httpd.conf to the public part of my server if you’d care to take a peek. Remember, I built this from scratch, it’s not from an ipkg, so keep that in mind when making changes to paths, etc.

  • Kev Jun 17, 2005 @ 12:25

    You’re welcome. Yes, in my experience it is normal to have several instances at once. I beleive you can control how many you want in the httpd.conf though. I just checked the output on my server, here’s what it said:

    bash-2.05b# ps ax | grep httpd
    414 ? Ss 0:00 /usr/sbin/thttpd -C /etc/thttpd.conf
    19207 ? Ss 0:04 ./httpd -k restart
    20667 ? S 6:21 ./httpd -k restart
    21408 ? S 4:31 ./httpd -k restart
    21452 ? S 4:56 ./httpd -k restart
    21635 ? S 5:20 ./httpd -k restart
    21636 ? S 4:44 ./httpd -k restart
    21637 ? S 5:15 ./httpd -k restart
    22621 ? S 2:23 ./httpd -k restart
    23448 ? S 0:28 ./httpd -k restart
    23449 ? S 0:38 ./httpd -k restart
    23450 ? S 0:42 ./httpd -k restart
    bash-2.05b#

    Hope this helps.

  • Jim Jun 17, 2005 @ 12:09

    Thanks for the great response, Kevin. I will compare your file with mine. I notice that when I do a ps -ef, I see several httpd -k restart running, which looks to me like the daemon is continually restarting. Is this a normal thing to see? It happens even when nobody is accessing the server.
    Thanks again.
    Jim

  • shiki Jun 29, 2005 @ 10:43

    Hi Kev,
    I am new linux user, ever since i brought the NSLU2. I begin to love linux.
    I also tried to doing the same thing… installing apache,mysql and php on box too. But i dun know why the box often hang or no response after running a few day. Do u experience that before?

  • shiki Jun 30, 2005 @ 4:28

    Hi,
    Do you have any ideas of installing mail server in NSLU2. I a linux newbies… i dun understand the guide well.
    can u help me ?

  • Kev Jul 1, 2005 @ 0:27

    Shiki, I have never experience it hanging up after a few days. If it did, I would try to restart each service from the console. As far as installong a mail server, you can install the ipkg for sendmail or postfix. Run ipkg list | grep -i mail to see what’s available. I hope this helps you. If not reply to this thread.

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