Headless Servers And What They Can Do For You

Headless server defined: A computer box that acts as a server and has no monitor, keyboard or mouse attached to it once you’re done installing the OS. There are only two cables connected, that being the power and network cable.

What’s the advantage of running a headless server?

You can turn it on, place it in the corner next to the router (only so you can easily attach the network cable) and simply not worry about it.

Using a headless setup is in fact cheaper than using a ready-made solution like a “MyBook” or anything like that. Why? Because of the ability to add in, upgrade and/or replace things like hard drives and memory. You also save time by having a hard-wired network connection which is much faster than USB.

What type of computer can act as a headless server?

Any. If you have an old computer box lying around not doing anything, you can easily use it in a headless setup.

The bare minimum speed requirements are a Pentium III processor with at least 512MB of RAM on board. You will be dealing with IDE ribbon connectors for hard drives instead of SATA for that type of old setup, but being IDE drives are still readily available, this isn’t a problem.

What’s more important than the CPU and RAM is the network card. If it’s a really old 10mbps card you should upgrade that to a 10/100/1000. Fortunately these are very cheap and usually acquired for under $15 just about anywhere.

What’s the best operating system for a headless server?

Linux. This is because that OS doesn’t give any complaint when there aren’t any peripherals attached whereas in certain instances Windows will. And being that you’ll probably use it for file storage and not much else, the journalized file system Linux uses ensures no need for defragmentation.

Also – and this is important to note – if the power goes out while the box is running where Linux is forcibly restarted, you’ll be happy to know the journalized file system will take care of everything on boot and the risk of corrupted files is at a bare minimum at best.  This is a big reason why Linux makes for such as good server OS.

“I don’t like terminal prompts. Can I access my Linux headless server using a GUI?”

Yes, you can enable remote desktop sharing easily. Ordinarily I tell people to use a VNC client like TightVNC, but the standard Windows XP remote desktop client can also connect to Linux easily when set up.

What’s the best way to run Linux in a headless setup?

First, you should configure Linux in such a way where its GUI does not load as that does nothing but eat up cycles and RAM.

Second, enable Samba for Windows  shares.

And that’s more or less it. Start pushing files over after that.

What flavors of Linux are better suited for a headless setup?

Any Linux distro will work fine, however you should focus on the ones that aren’t labeled as “media editions” as you will have no need for graphics/video editing, DVD playback or any of that other stuff. All you need is the core OS so you can get up and running quickly.

The ever-popular Ubuntu is a good choice, but also check out Fedora, CentOS and Arch.

Arch in particular is very good in a headless setup due to the fact it’s “light”. This means less space used by the OS and faster operation overall.

Also be sure to checkout the “biz card” distributions like Damn Small Linux and Puppy Linux. These are extra-small flavors of Linux that do very well as home headless server OSes. And wow are they fast.