Raspberry Pi Forums

Hello!

I was thinking of starting a home server with some functions like torrent and e2dk downloads, file server (NAS), web server, git server, etc. For those all functions I will need a good computer (RAM, CPU, etc.) but I also need a silent and "green" server. So I read about Raspberry Pi.

I'm thinking about buying one, but first I need to know the performance of the Raspberry Pi. I know it is a limited computer but what about a server with:

• torrent downloads (transmission or rutorrent) + e2dk downloads (amule or mldonkey) + direct downloads (pyLoad)
• Print server
• SCM server (with GIT)
• eBook catalog (a repository with .epub files)
• A simple NAS (samba to read/write music and movies files)

My Raspberry Pi will be up 24/7 with an external HDD of 7.5 TB.

What about performance with this configuration? Will I have problems?

Would use a 300MHz Pentium to do the job? If not...you may not want to use a Pi to do it.

It should be able to handle that sort of stuff, although maybe not all at once.

As a NAS it will not be ideal, since all hard-drives have to be on the same USB as the network interface.

Your mileage will vary ... it all depends on how many people are going to be banging on the system at any given time. The Pi could support any one of the things you've listed with varying numbers of users depending on the particular service you're considering.

Lightweight web serving, not a problem. I wouldn't try to run an e-commerce site for anything more popular than used Popsicle sticks, though

It should have no problem serving up torrent (seed) files, if the Pi is only one of many nodes serving up the actual content chunks (and you may not want to even have your Pi loaded down with that - your Pi can be the conductor, but let others provide the orchestra).

Acting as an SCM server should not a problem as long as you're not trying to support more than a few people at a time by serving up all 30,000+ packages in Raspbian (or maybe that's the file count - "In all the excitement, I lost track, was it 30,000 or was it 40,000? Do ya feel lucky today, punk? Well, do ya?" ).

Supporting an eBook catalog would depend again on how many downloads, of what sizes, you're trying to serve simultaneously.

A media NAS is going to be OK if all you're doing is watching one movie or listening to one song at a time. Serving up multiple movie and music files to more than one user is going to grind things to a stuttering halt, even if they're just on the LAN.

Running any random combination of all of these services simultaneously will most likely bring the Pi to its knees, bees' or otherwise, especially with more than one user.

The Pi is really a graphics workstation in sheepish clothing, not a server in most senses, even if anything without a monitor and keyboard is considered by some to be a server these days. It should be noted that the Pi may not be the bottleneck - your Internet connection will most likely be the slacker among all resources (well, the 256 MBs of RAM comes in at an extremely close second, if not a twin for first). You can support 1,000 network users if the bandwidth is only a few Mb/s and each user can only extract a few hundred bits of data per second.

As always, Your Mileage May Vary, Do Not Spindle, Fold, or Mutilate, and Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

Thank you all for the responses. I decided to buy a Raspberry Pi, I think it is mostly what I want.

But I will go step by step. First of all I will do a downloader server, then git server and so on, and I will stop when the Raspberry Pi can't go on.

IaRRoVaWo wrote:Thank you all for the responses. I decided to buy a Raspberry Pi, I think it is mostly what I want.

But I will go step by step. First of all I will do a downloader server, then git server and so on, and I will stop when the Raspberry Pi can't go on.

An alternative is to set up single use servers...one Pi for each service.

I'm thinking about buying one, but first I need to know the performance of the Raspberry Pi. I know it is a limited computer but what about a server with:
-torrent downloads (transmission or rutorrent) + e2dk downloads (amule or mldonkey) + direct downloads (pyLoad)
-Print server
-SCM server (with GIT)
-eBook catalog (a repository with .epub files)
-A simple NAS (samba to read/write music and movies files)

I use my PI currently for a bit-torrent server with Transmission-CLI (web interface). It runs better than Utorrent on my main pc.
At standard clock, full speed downloads (40mbit - max 40 connections) whilst even using a NFS (network file system) mount on my windows PC as the download location.

I've found major issues with NTFS. Simply because of its CPU usage. Any active Samba/NTFS connections (even USB/networked) are majorly slow and hog the CPU at 50%+.
You would be best using the NFS (network file system) protocol which has the least overhead. Or, you could use EXT filesystem as a usb drive, would run just fine.

Apart from the above, and trying out stuff for yourself, the PI will do anything you want it to (within reason). I cant see any of your suggestions being a problem. Just be aware of NTFS/Samba CPU usage and stick with EXT or NFS for storage.

Heres a htop image of my headless server, 12MB usage ram, swap disabled.