[Cialug] Lots 'o questions....

[jrnosee at gmail.com]

Awesome.  I think that gets most of what I wanted to know.

on the
If it's a RAID mirror then... maybe. Are you planning to use the linux
software RAID driver? Get familiar with the mdadm commands. If you're using
a hardware RAID controller, then being able to rebuild your RAID sometimes
depends on having a compatible controller available.

It's probably going to be a hardware RAID...I think.  I know once upon a
time just having a controller card didn't always mean it was a full hardware
RAID.  I bought a cheap SATA controller (probably Silicon Image based) some
time back that I'll probably use, but I forget it's capabilities.  I guess
my question was whether or not I could access the files without rebuilding
the RAID or if it's even possible (i.e. just plugging the one drive I
grabbed into say an eSATA port on another computer...worst case would be if
all I had was a basic windows computer available to me.  Say, at my parent's
house.).

And on:
Yes and no. Using a VM offers other vectors of attack... for instance
someone has demonstrated reading information directly from the CPU buffers
between VM's on the same machine.

Is this something that can be executed from the exposed VM, or on the host
machine, and by exposing a VM am I inherently exposing the host?

Thanks again,

Justin

On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 3:12 PM, David Champion <dchampion at visionary.com>wrote:

> I can offer answers on some of these... see replies inline...
>
> -dc
>
> jrnosee at gmail.com wrote:
>
>> I've decided to take on a new endeavor and I'm looking for any thoughts,
>> suggestions, tips, etc. I can get.
>>
>> I'm going to set up a box running Ubuntu (not sure if it will be server
>> (or server w/ gui) or desktop yet).
>>
>> This box is going to be 2 things.
>>
>> 1.) VMware Server
>> Currently this runs my NSLU2 "slug" embedded linux development
>> environment.  I may also add a web/email server VM* (see below)
>> 2.) Media File and Backup Server
>> I'm going to set up a mirrored 500GB raid to hold multi-media files and
>> backup files from my home windows pc's.
>>
>> The OS will either be on a separate drive, or the same drive as the VM's.
>>  The RAID will be a share as a whole (unless suggested differently).  I want
>> to make as much room available to this share as possible.
>>
>> My primary questions involve the RAID as I've never set one up before.
>>  There are 2 things I'm hoping the raid can do for me, but I don't know if
>> it can, or how to set it up.
>> 1.) Pull 'n go in an emergency.  You know, the house is burning down and I
>> have time to grab...one drive tray from the server.  If I pull out one of
>> the two raid drives and my house goes up in flames, can I just stick the
>> drive in another computer later as a single drive and get my files back?
>>
>
> If it's a RAID mirror then... maybe. Are you planning to use the linux
> software RAID driver? Get familiar with the mdadm commands. If you're using
> a hardware RAID controller, then being able to rebuild your RAID sometimes
> depends on having a compatible controller available.
>
>  2.) Windows/Linux accessable.  I'm going to be sharing to a Windows PC.  I
>> want the linux OS to be able to read the drive too.  I'm going to have large
>> (4+GB) files on it and I know FAT32 won't go that big.  Should #1 happen, I
>> may want to get at these files from a Windows PC.
>>
>>
> The store's local filesystem format is irrelevant, you only care that the
> network file share is readable... which will probably either be Samba or
> NFS... unless you want to make an iSCSI share or something like that.
> Probably best to use a linux native fs, like ext3.
>
>  My other questions involves Security & VM's.
>> 1.) If I open up a VM to the web for webhosting and email, are my other
>> VM's and my host OS still safe from attack?  Sadly for years I've pretty
>> much sat myself behind a router firewall and lived happily...I doubt that'll
>> be enough sooner than later.
>>
>>
> Yes and no. Using a VM offers other vectors of attack... for instance
> someone has demonstrated reading information directly from the CPU buffers
> between VM's on the same machine.
>
>  Odd question out:
>> Going along with #2 from the RAID questions, is there any format I can use
>> on a portable drive that would store large (4+GB) files, and be readable and
>> writable in Linux and Windows?
>>
>>
> The linux fuseblock driver should be able to read & write NTFS (I've been
> using it without any issues). You can also get linux filesystem drivers for
> ext2 & 3, reiserfs and probably others for Windows. If you're worried about
> being able to plug it into any random Windows box and read it, you'll
> probably want NTFS.
>
>  Thanks,
>>
>> Justin W. Richeson
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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