UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

;-) i dont think he really needs that all, and i tryed to show with my post that even that kind of already dead hw can do some tricks! if fits needs and hardware from good brand. Anyway it is his money and he will choose what he really needs, we just wish him luck and give some advices.

kargooliw tell us what you plan to run on your web server, and how much of traffic per day, users, what services so we could advice you the best hardware configuration of your webserver.
The hardware, i recommend you to use as gozer13 already told the brand, you may watch ebay for compaq / dell / ibm servers, they should serve you for a long time. If you plan to run Xserver too (bad idea) then watch for supported cards on www.xfree86.org, i can tell old ati@work 8mb are good ones,i could even watch moviez and play some games,but thats on wrs,i dont think you will need good videocard on weberver. In my previos post i told i use sis card,it was just an example as builtin 2mb videocard is working w/o any troubles there.
for 40 working same time users,some php+perl scripts and database it is enough about 1 ghz of processor time, 256-512 mbyte RAM. But it all depends on needs as i already told above. So, good luck, i think its pretty enough info to you to make webserver.

Okey... Two NIC:s sounds like a great idea. But how does it realy work?

Please tell me a little bit about it:
Should I install both NIC:s into the server, then use two N. Cable's and connect them to a Switch?
(Does the bottleneck disapear? or do I need to make some advanced configurations?)

As gozer13 says I'd also like to "dig out my CPU:s from someones trash".

But if I find some "betterused/new" stuffs at a low price, then I'll buy it. (I'll check out Ebay etc)

For graphic I'd prefer cheap/quality.

Backups:
Do you recommend me to do the backups to an other computer (weekly/daily), and then save a backup on the server every day.

RAID-5
I'll check out the prices and compare. Is it possible to mix RAID-5 disc's and IDE's (In the computer) ?
I mean, the most important is that I can build-out the discspace after a while.


OK. I'll try to explain my porposes with the server.

First: I'm going to set up a fileserver (UNIX/APACHE/Other Freeware). The purpose with the server is the following.

A limit number of users are suppose to enter my webbsite, login and be able to store and share different cind of information. (Word-docs, PDF-docs small pictures etc). (So YES, I'll need databases).
The number of users are not going to exceed a 100 users at the same time.

Second: I'd also like to use my server for Filesharing (Sharing Pics, music, himevideos and so on) (At a legal/secure way).
Here I want the files to be accesable from both my homesite, sFTP, and FTP.

For exaple: When I am in [my fathers house]. I'd like to be able to connect to the server in [my mothers house] and transfer files easaly and secure with etc FTP.

Should I divide the server into partitions (One fileshareing partition and one webbserver partition?) necessary?
If it mathers: I Use PHP and MySQL, my Webbhotel is a Linux server.


I hope you've got a picture of my project now.
Thanx alot for you help!

/Kargooliw

Kargooliw,

Server Function:
Based on what you said your goal is for your server, you may want to setup a clunker box to use as a login valuator and page host; and a chunk of Angus beef for you file repository. That way you can ensure that if one crashes, you don't have to worry about the entire site failing, plan ahead, your 100 user database site is going to explode with demand, once people start to see you have done things properly.

NIC's:
Two cards, two patch cables, you will need a hub, and/or a switch. If you are going to do file sharing, maybe a switch that supports v-lan segments, so you can isolate your file from your validation server. I am also new to the Unix world, so not of much help on the specifics of explaining the Unix how-to of bridging connections etc., so I will punt, and let someone else fill in. With Windows and IIS the full duplex configuration employs the Microsoft monkey-tech mentality... pretty basic.

Backups:
If you have the ability to do remote backups all the better. Everyone has there own opinions on proper backup schedules. A good basic scenario is a weekly full backup, and daily incremental, meaning only archive changes. Make sure you have a minimum of two weeks worth of tapes (if your using a tape backup), basically the more tapes the better.

RAID-5:
RAID is used on SCSI drives, and is possible to mix with IDE, but is always difficult to administer. RAID is kind of like a protocol for setting up disk sets. RAID-1 is just mirroring, meaning you have two HDDs, one master, one slave, and is ideal for you system volume. The slave is identical to the master, doing the exact same read~write at the same time the master does it. In case of a failure to the master, you break the mirror, and activate the slave. RAID-5 is taking 3 or more HDDs and writing information in a “stripe set”. Basically (very basically) if you save a file that contains the word CAT, C would be on disk 1, A on disk 2, T on disk 3. Further, if disk 2 fails, you can still read, edit and save the file because the controller card assumes that the word C?T most likely means CAT, based on error correction rules. Once you replace the failed disk 2, the controller then rebuilds all the missing information that it contained. RAID can be simulated with software, but it's not a good idea. If you going to drop the cash on SCSI drives... well you get the point.

It appears you have a great idea of what you want to do, and an ever better one for a private/public service web site. I hope that things work out for you, and may you never get hacked by the bastards!