044-046 Tonido-Bubba.Pdf

ReViews Review: TonidoPlug and Bubba Two Linux Server at Home SERVE YOURSELF Fotolia Kwest, Two ready-to-go Linux-based servers make it easy to set up your home tasks Bubba Two is designed to perform. The back panel of the server (Figure 1) network. BY DMITRI POPOV sports two Gigabit Ethernet jacks marked as WAN and LAN, two USB ports, and two eSATA ports for adding f you want to add a Linux-based back book – and it sports a clean and more storage and connecting a printer. server to your home network, you slick design. Bubba Two’s enclosure is Bubba Two is available in several config- ihave two options: build a server made of thick aluminum, which serves urations with different hard disk capaci- yourself using a spare machine or buy a two purposes: It provides excellent pro- ties: from a modest 80GB to a humon- ready-to-use solution. Choosing the tection against bumps and knocks and gous 2TB. If you have a spare hard disk, ready-made option will save you a lot of helps to dissipate heat generated by the you can also order Bubba Two without a hassle, but it leads to the perennial ques- processor and the hard disk. disk. In case low noise and minimal tion: What Linux-based home server Thanks to a low-power processor and power consumption are your primary should you buy? At least two home passive cooling, the server is whisper- concerns, you can opt for a version of server solutions deserve a closer look: quiet, and the only moving part inside it Bubba Two with a 32GB solid-state disk. Bubba Two from a Swedish company is the hard disk. The server is also ex- Excito also sells Bubba Storage, an exter- called Excito [1] and TonidoPlug from tremely energy ef- Texas-based CodeLathe [2]. But how ficient, requiring good are they and can they meet your only 7-12W of needs? power. Bubba Two is based on a Bubba Two Power PC proces- Despite its slightly silly name, Bubba sor running at Two is a rather competent little server 333MHz and with many talents: It can serve files and backed up by stream media content; act as a web and 256MB of RAM. print server, firewall, and router; has a This might not built-in torrent downloader and group- sound like much, ware software; and even fetches email but this configura- for you. The server itself is surprisingly tion is perfectly Figure 1: Bubba Two sports eSATA and USB ports as well as two small – about the size of a thick paper- adequate for the Gigabit Ethernet jacks. 44 ISSUE 110 JANUARY 2010 Review: TonidoPlug and Bubba Two ReViews Figure 3: Bubba Two comes with a few useful applications, including Figure 2: Bubba Two’s file manager sports a powerful backup feature. the Firefly streaming server. nal SATA hard disk enclosure that can be services in the Services section. If you for home, whereas the bundled group- ordered with or without a hard disk. add external storage to Bubba Two, you ware and email software turn Bubba Because Bubba Two can act as a router can set up a RAID solution in the Disks Two into an appealing solution for small and firewall, it can replace a dedicated section, and you can tweak the network businesses and workgroups. A slick and router on your network, and the sup- and firewall settings in the Network sec- user-friendly web interface makes it easy plied quick start guide explains how this tion. Instead of – or in addition to – the to configure and manage Bubba Two, can be done. Of course, you can also web-based interface, you can connect even for users without technical chops. choose to use Bubba Two solely as a and manage Bubba Two via SSH, which Linux power users, in turn, will appreci- server. The initial configuration of Bubba gives you unrestricted access to the serv- ate the full access to the underlying De- Two takes only a couple of minutes. To er’s inner workings. bian system. All in all, if you are looking connect Bubba Two directly to your Bubba Two comes with a vast collec- for a flexible and powerful server that is computer via LAN ports (you need this tion of preinstalled software, which easy to maintain and extend, Bubba Two computer to configure Bubba’s settings), makes it suitable for a wide range of should be at the very top of your list. use the supplied crossover cable, then tasks. For example, you can use Bubba turn the server on, wait until it boots, Two as a file server with support for the TonidoPlug then point the browser on the connected HTTP, Samba, FTP, and SCP protocols. TonidoPlug looks nothing like a conven- computer to http://bubba. Using the de- The Apache server lets you use Bubba tional server (Figure 4). The device itself fault username and password, log in as Two as a tiny web server, and publishing is based on the Marvell SheevaPlug plug administrator and choose Settings | web pages is as easy as copying them to computer, which looks like a slightly Setup wizard. The wizard then guides the web folder in your user directory on oversized power supply. TonidoPlug is you through the process of setting up the server. Because Bubba Two comes powered by an embedded Marvell She- Bubba Two and configuring its settings. with both PHP and MySQL, you can use eva CPU core running at 1.2GHz backed Bubba Two sports a user-friendly, the server to host web-based applica- up by 512MB of DDR2 RAM and a web-based interface that lets you easily tions. Fetchmail lets you retrieve mes- 512MB flash disk. The device sports an control all of the server’s functions and sages from multiple email accounts, and Ethernet jack for network connectivity gives quick access to built-in applica- you can read them in a browser via the and a single USB port. The default tions such as a file manager, down- web-based PIM and email front end. The 512MB of storage can be expanded by loader, and photo album. The file man- Firefly media server (Figure 3) can plugging a USB stick or a USB hard disk ager (Figure 2) comes with a powerful stream music stored in the music direc- backup feature that supports multiple tory to DAAP-compatible music clients. backup jobs, scheduled and remote And because Bubba Two runs Debian backups, and data encryption. The Etch, you have access to thousands of download tool can handle HTTP, FTP, Debian packages. For example, if the and torrent downloads, and the photo built-in backup feature doesn’t cut it for album lets you turn any directory con- you, you can install the excellent rsync taining photos into slick web-based utility. photo galleries. As administrator, you can also use the Final Verdict web interface to control and configure Bubba Two is a great little server that the server. The Users section, for exam- can handle pretty much any task you ple, lets you add new user accounts, and throw at it. The small size and low noise you can enable and disable individual level make Bubba Two a perfect machine Figure 4: TonidoPlug. JANUARY 2010 ISSUE 110 45 REviews Review: TonidoPlug and Bubba Two you’ve done that, you can access your TonidoPlug server via the address http://<tonidoid>.tonidoid. com:<port>. Although the Tonido suite provides a well-rounded collection of easy-to-use applications, there is a caveat: Tonido is based on peer-to-peer technology, so the users you want to collaborate and share your stuff with must also use the Toni- doPlug or the Tonido software. Depend- ing on your needs, this can be an advan- tage or a drawback. If you want to set up a secure collaboration or sharing envi- ronment in which you have full control over who has access to the shared data, then Tonido can be the right tool for the job. However, if you want to share a few Figure 5: TonidoPlug ships with the Tonido software suite. photos with your friends, and they don’t have either TonidoPlug or Tonido, you into TonidoPlug. As soon as you do that, The form factor is not the only un- need to look somewhere else. Fortu- TonidoPlug automatically detects the usual thing about TonidoPlug: Instead of nately, you are not limited to the Tonido connected storage device, and you can popular server applications and tools software. The server runs a slimmed- use it right away. Better yet, TonidoPlug like Apache, Samba, and MySQL, the down version of Ubuntu, and you can makes the storage device available on server offers its own Tonido server appli- access the server via SSH. This means the network, so you can use the server cation suite (Figure 5). By default, that – with a bit of perseverance – you as a simple NAS solution. Tonido comes with a torrent manager, a can install and run whatever server soft- Installing TonidoPlug is a complete no- file sharing application, a PIM and col- ware you want. Obviously, this option is brainer: Just use the supplied Ethernet laboration solution, a file manager, a reserved for Linux users that feel com- cable to connect TonidoPlug to your net- photo sharing tool, a music manager, fortable working from the command work, plug the device into the mains, and a personal blog application (the line, but the possibility is there. and the server is ready to go.

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