[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
Robin Cornelius wrote: > On 10/23/06, Richard Brown <rich@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> Hi Guys > >> Secondly, servers! I spent a little bit of time with Neil and get some >> questions answered which then brings another four hundred that need >> answering! I have to build a server for someone with about 8 computers! >> I am looking at using either Pentium 4s or Amd 64s and possibly rack >> mounting them. However, I discovered to rack mount you need adequate >> cooling or stick them in 4u cases. Then I discovered Xeons and >> opterons! Is it necessary to buy server chips or can I run an 8 user >> network with p4s and amd 64s please? Rack mounted stuff simply saves >> space - is there any other benefits please? > > Are you just file serving to windows clients? or what. 8 Client PC's > is not a lot I have double that here and only have an AMD duron > running at 1.1GHz and only 128Mb ram (which is a bit low for me). This > does the file serving via samba, handles dovecot for IMAP mail, > incoming mail filtering and hosts internal company databases and > intranet. > > If you are serving windows then look for info/books on samba, there > are loads of free online resources and i think the samba guys make > stuff available on line or for purchase hardcopy as a book. > > Memory is important especially for databases etc having enough free > mem to avoid swapping is desirable and easily achieve able these days. > > No specific advantages to rack mounts, they might be a bit more > robust, and have dust filters etc but they do look the business and > give a professional image which is important to middle management who > don't understand the technical details :-) > > As this is a file server have you considered a data backup plan? > > The fileserver here is a 3Ghz P4, with 2gb memory with raid 1 harddrives. It is not rackmounted but sits happily in a tower case. It is supporting 4 Win Pcs, 4 Macs and 1 Linux machine. It has run without a hiccup since installation. We use samba, from the default Cent OS 4.4 install. Tbh it is a bit of a pain to get set up working exactly as wanted. Basically, it was a bit of trial and error - particularly to get certain shares only available to certain people. It was a while back but I recall that "Home" versions of win xp, wouldn't allow you to have a different user name to log onto the share from the one you login windows with. Or at least would but would never remember it. But apart for that I found the standard documentation quite useful, particularly if you start with one of their config files and modify it to your needs. There were also a few problems with dropped connections, I believe due to a poor dhcp / dns setup (particularly reverse look ups). They seemed to have gone away, no idea why. Weirdly, the mac os x machines didn't play as nicely as the windows machines. As well as serving files, it runs a wiki, svn, and a slave backup database. I am intrigued as to what people think for a backup solution. I couldn't find one that matched these three criteria 1) Reliable 2) Practical 3) Cheap W -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html