hardware for a linux server

[jsskate]

a friend of mine who is part owner of a small engineering firm asked me a few days ago if he needed a server to run his network of 6 computers (all win95/98). Long story short they need it to be a file, print, internet gateway (very likely a web server in the near future too) server.(x86; nothing exotic)

The OS and software side i'm not worried about, it's gonna be linux due to expenses. What hardware do i suggest thou??? Should they bother with DDR? Is IDE Raid better than scsi (i think scsi is the only way to fly but...)? Is dual cpu a good idea if they're gonna host their own website? How much ram is too much, or too little? Basically what would be an overkill and what woulkd be just stupid to overlook. I've worked with really basic workgroup servers both rackmounts and slaped together systems (nt4 & FreeBSD) but this is a bit more involved thou.

I really appreciate it guys. Thanx in advance.
jsskate

 

[Pettytheft]

Here are some more questions:
1. How much will this network expand to eventually.
2. Will this server be used to backup essential data.
3. Would you mind buying two machines.
4. Are you looking for a rack solution or desktop.
5. How much traffic are you expecting?

I wouldnt recommend using a machine as a web server plus file/print/gateway. You could easily buy a very cheap machine and use it as a file/print/gateway solution. Or even buy a hardware router that also doubles as a print server. Definately stay away from IDE Raid. Go SCSI all the way! You'll thank yourself in the long run.


<i>If you take a truth and follow it blindly, it will become a Falsehood and you a Fanatic.</i>

 

[Kelledin]

I would say 64MB should be plenty of memory, at least until the planned webserver gets implemented. About 16MB of that would end up going to the system's use as a gateway.

The only services you should need are lpd, syslogd, klogd , smbd, and nmbd. Once the gateway's in place, you should block outside access to the ports these services listen on; this can be done at the kernel level via ipchains or iptables (iptables is kernel 2.4 only). Most of the ports are listed in /etc/services; netstat can also help you determine which ports to block.

As for CPU speed, an old Pentium or Pentium II should do quite well.

As for hard drives...if you use IDE, make sure the motherboard has a PIIX3 or higher IDE controller, otherwise that will bottleneck your IDE performance. A good 7200RPM hard drive should be enough to max out the box's network connection (unless it's using Gigabit). If the box is using a Gigabit connection, you could reasonably build a large SCSI RAID array without maxing out its connection--but with only a few 10/100 connections to it at a time, the network connection becomes the bottleneck again.

As for how much power to give for the webserver, that depends a lot on what the webserver is going to be used for. Do you have any definite idea of what kind of content it will host? You can include the hardware to support it ahead of time, or you can build a separate webserver system later.

Kelledin
<font color=red>"Step away from the gimp suit and put your hands on top of your head."</font color=red>

 

[Guest]

I'll second PettyTheft's recommendation on two machines. Your web server/gateway is directly exposed to the internet, so you're going to want it locked down as much as possible. And if it does get owned, you'd probably rather not have all your internal files on it.

Also, it's very hard to make hardware recommendations without knowing some more about what you intend to do with it? How much traffic do you expect on your web-site? Static or dynamic content?

As for the file server...what kind of capacity? what kind of performance are you looking for?

I'll have to disagree with Pettytheft a little on the IDE RAID question. You need to stay away from software based IDE RAID (that's what comes built in on many motherboards). But I think that the hardware based 3ware IDE RAID card is a good option if you don't need all the performance or very high price of a SCSI RAID system.

I have a 3ware card, and it is VERY well supported under Linux, although I've only tried RAID 0 and 1 with it.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.

 

[Pettytheft]

I only prefer SCSI over IDE because array's of IDE drives over 4 tend to bog down the system under heavy use.

I have the Promise RAID controller on my system at home. I cant say I've tried it under linux (I have a seperate machine for it). But I dont have too many complaints from it.

I guess if you were to keep the network small and simple then IDE would be the way to go. The main reason I prefer SCSI is it's expandability. If you need more space you just keep slappin drives in.

Ahh who know's, I could end up sticking my foot in my mouth if this guy is hosting some text and a couple of jpegs.

<i>If you take a truth and follow it blindly, it will become a Falsehood and you a Fanatic.</i>

 

[Guest]

>Ahh who know's, I could end up sticking my foot in my
>mouth if this guy is hosting some text and a couple of
>jpegs.

Yea, it all comes down to the scale & scope of what he needs. He could likely get by with an old pentium and a few disks ... or maybe he needs a terabyte of NAS


In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.