[wellylug] Distro for a server

[Jethro Carr]

On Wed, 2007-10-24 at 20:48 +1300, tim_oflaherty wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> Am looking for a distro that I could use as a file
> server/cache for a small business employing approximately 6
> staff. The server would probably be a new one, and so if
> anyone would like to advise on specs that they think are
> suitable, I would be most grateful.
> 
> In fact, any advice would be greatly appreciated ;)

hi Tim,

I recommend Redhat Enterprise Linux as a suitable choice. If you're not
familiar with Redhat, do a lookup online and you will find they are one
of the largest and most successful commercial Linux vendors.

It is a commercial distribution which you pay a yearly subscription for,
but this provides you with support as well as upgrades.

If you want to save money and don't want the support from Redhat, you
could look at CentOS, which is a basicly identical free rebuild of the
Redhat Enterprise Linux distribution.

I've installed both CentOS and RHEL for many customers and myself and it
always performs well, is very reliable, and has everything you need in
it for a server.

Make sure you factor in the support life of any distribution that you
choose. In the case of RHEL 5, it will receive security updates until
Mar 31 2014, which will outlive the life span of any hardware you
purchase today.


In terms of hardware, don't mess around with building whiteboxes. Just
go and buy a server from some vendor you like (eg: Dell or IBM) and get
a 3yr or 5yr hardware next day repair contract. Nice and worry free.

If you buy a Dell, you can actually purchase RHEL at the same time, but
if you want to save money use CentOS.

For a company your size, pretty much any of the new servers available
will suit your needs. Get 1GB of RAM and 2 disks which you should mirror
in RAID 1.


Also consider virtalization - RHEL 5 now has built in Xen support, and
if you purchase one of the new CPUs with build in hardware virtalization
you will be able to virtalize non-paravirt OSes like WinXP on it.

This is very handy if you ever need to run a single Windows server
program and don't want to have to spend the money on a new server for
it.

If you do want to do this, it might be worth getting 2GB or even 3GB of
RAM to offer future resources for guest OSes.


cheers,

-- 
Jethro Carr

www.jethrocarr.com
www.jethrocarr.com/index.php?cms=blog

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