Server Hardware recommendations wanted (UK)
Hi All I want to put together a small server to run SuSE Linux which will form a central point between a small Solaris network and a small Windows 2000 network used for Cisco router courses (Totals around 20 machines initially). The machine would be the gateway to internet services and email (and anything else I can think of). I'd like to experiment with a raid based system possibly dual CPU (Not strictly necessary for a small network but I want to play with these things myself and also have plenty of room for expansion should the nix side of things take off). Any recommendations gratefully received. Cheers Paul Geary ___________________________________________________________ Mae'r e-bost hwn ac unrhyw ffeiliau atodedig yn gyfrinachol ac at sylw'r unigolyn neu'r sefydliad a enwir uchod. Bydd unrhyw farn neu sylwadau a fynegir yn perthyn i'r awdur yn unig ac ni chynrychiolant o anghenraid farn Coleg Sir G�r. Os ydych chi wedi derbyn yr e-bost hwn ar gam, rhowch sylw i'r gweinyddwr ar y cyfeiriad canlynol: postmaster@colegsirgar.ac.uk This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Coleg Sir G�r. If you have received this email in error please notify the administrator on the following address: postmaster@colegsirgar.ac.uk ___________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by MessageLabs.
On Thu, 2003-06-26 at 14:26, Paul Geary wrote:
Hi All
I want to put together a small server to run SuSE Linux which will form a central point between a small Solaris network and a small Windows 2000 network used for Cisco router courses (Totals around 20 machines initially). The machine would be the gateway to internet services and email (and anything else I can think of).
I'd like to experiment with a raid based system possibly dual CPU (Not strictly necessary for a small network but I want to play with these things myself and also have plenty of room for expansion should the nix side of things take off).
Any recommendations gratefully received. Cheers Paul Geary
We'll build you one. Contact chris@irlcomputers.com. Strictly speaking dual CPUs don't make that much difference when compared with their cost. We did some tests on a Linux thin client which with 16 concurrent users all on OpenOffice.org Draw you would think would make a big difference. In practice even with a 1 gig P3 the processor was never saturated, but RAM makes a lot of difference particularly if the machine starts swapping. Also the thing that makes servers expensive is the disc subsystems and backup. SCSI, RAID etc put the price up a lot. If you have plenty of RAM, and RAM is cheap, better to put money into RAM than disc drives because delivering files from solid state is always going to be faster than from a mechanical disc. Windows tends to be more disc intensive so SCSI, RAID etc will make more of a difference. A good reason for using Linux is that it saves you in hardware costs as well as software licenses. Probably cheaper to have 2 lowish spec servers and make one redundant but benefit from two in parallel than buy one all singing and dancing machine which in practice gives little real performance advantage. Actually probably two servers will out perform one anyway. Another reason people tend to buy one mega server with Windows is again licensing costs. Doesn't matter how many Linux servers you have the licensing cost is still zero. Hope this helps.
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Mae'r e-bost hwn ac unrhyw ffeiliau atodedig yn gyfrinachol ac at sylw'r unigolyn neu'r sefydliad a enwir uchod. Bydd unrhyw farn neu sylwadau a fynegir yn perthyn i'r awdur yn unig ac ni chynrychiolant o anghenraid farn Coleg Sir Gâr. Os ydych chi wedi derbyn yr e-bost hwn ar gam, rhowch sylw i'r gweinyddwr ar y cyfeiriad canlynol: postmaster@colegsirgar.ac.uk
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Coleg Sir Gâr. If you have received this email in error please notify the administrator on the following address: postmaster@colegsirgar.ac.uk ___________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by MessageLabs. -- ian
If all it is doing is being a gateway then anything from a 486 up will do All depends on what you actually want it to do. We have a hand built Single P3 1G with 512MB ram and 2 18GB SCSI drives. It acts as filtering proxy for 350 workstations, e-mail server ( including real time virus scanning of e-mails ) it's our intranet and web server and our global Primary DNS. Never breaks a sweat. If you want something well built then buy an old Compaq or Dell Server off EBAY. Something like a Dell Poweredge 2300 with a single P3 500 would be good, and you can add a second processor and play with raid if it has the PERC controler. RAID controllers are always on EBAY. Rob.
On Thu, 2003-06-26 at 16:11, s-clarob@st-aidans.cumbria.sch.uk wrote:
If all it is doing is being a gateway then anything from a 486 up will do
All depends on what you actually want it to do.
We have a hand built Single P3 1G with 512MB ram and 2 18GB SCSI drives.
It acts as filtering proxy for 350 workstations, e-mail server ( including real time virus scanning of e-mails ) it's our intranet and web server and our global Primary DNS.
Never breaks a sweat.
If you want something well built then buy an old Compaq or Dell Server off EBAY. Something like a Dell Poweredge 2300 with a single P3 500 would be good, and you can add a second processor and play with raid if it has the PERC controler. RAID controllers are always on EBAY.
On the other hand, if you support local Linux suppliers you are likely
to strengthen their business so they can devote more time and effort to
supporting free software initiatives ;-).
--
ian
On Thu, Jun 26, 2003 at 03:24:12PM +0100, ian wrote:
We'll build you one. Contact chris@irlcomputers.com. Strictly speaking dual CPUs don't make that much difference when compared with their cost. We did some tests on a Linux thin client which with 16 concurrent users all on OpenOffice.org Draw you would think would make a big difference. In practice even with a 1 gig P3 the processor was never saturated, but RAM makes a lot of difference particularly if the machine starts swapping. Also the thing that makes servers expensive is the disc
You do not want a thin client application server to start swapping. Since it is more likely to thrash than swap neatly.
subsystems and backup. SCSI, RAID etc put the price up a lot. If you have plenty of RAM, and RAM is cheap, better to put money into RAM than disc drives because delivering files from solid state is always going to be faster than from a mechanical disc. Windows tends to be more disc
Even expensive drives tend to have only a few meg of cache on the drive itself.
intensive so SCSI, RAID etc will make more of a difference. A good reason for using Linux is that it saves you in hardware costs as well as software licenses. Probably cheaper to have 2 lowish spec servers and make one redundant but benefit from two in parallel than buy one all singing and dancing machine which in practice gives little real performance advantage. Actually probably two servers will out perform one anyway. Another reason people tend to buy one mega server with Windows is again licensing costs. Doesn't matter how many Linux servers you have the licensing cost is still zero.
Or however much you paid for your distribution :) -- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763
I think it all depends on your budget (I assume you are asking what hardware
is needed/reccomended). I run a dual XP2100+ system as my home machine, and
I am very impressed with AMD's attempt to break into the server market. A
pair of AthlonMPs can be had for a reasonable price, and a dual CPU board
should cost no more than £200 with IDE. SCSI will knock up the price a bit.
I would reccomend a Tyan Thunder board, with SCSI onboard, and some good
Crucial/Samsung PC2100 ECC Registered DDR RAM.
If SCSI is too expensive, try a few Western Digital 'Raptor' hard drives in
a RAID array: they are apparently extremely fast (10000RPM, 8MB cache).
David Nelson
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Geary"
Hi All
I want to put together a small server to run SuSE Linux which will form a central point between a small Solaris network and a small Windows 2000 network used for Cisco router courses (Totals around 20 machines initially). The machine would be the gateway to internet services and email (and anything else I can think of).
I'd like to experiment with a raid based system possibly dual CPU (Not strictly necessary for a small network but I want to play with these things myself and also have plenty of room for expansion should the nix side of things take off).
Any recommendations gratefully received. Cheers Paul Geary
___________________________________________________________
Mae'r e-bost hwn ac unrhyw ffeiliau atodedig yn gyfrinachol ac at sylw'r unigolyn neu'r sefydliad a enwir uchod. Bydd unrhyw farn neu sylwadau a fynegir yn perthyn i'r awdur yn unig ac ni chynrychiolant o anghenraid farn Coleg Sir Gâr. Os ydych chi wedi derbyn yr e-bost hwn ar gam, rhowch sylw i'r gweinyddwr ar y cyfeiriad canlynol: postmaster@colegsirgar.ac.uk
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Coleg Sir Gâr. If you have received this email in error please notify the administrator on the following address: postmaster@colegsirgar.ac.uk ___________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for viruses by MessageLabs.
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participants (5)
-
David Nelson -
ian -
Mark Evans -
Paul Geary -
s-clarob＠st-aidans.cumbria.sch.uk