[gurusan]

My boss is counting on me to build him a web server that is able to host 2000 blogging websites comfortably. Each page is updated almost daily...but it has maybe a few paragraphs of text and maybe a few (2-6) 200-400 kb jpeg pics.

Basically, I'm in over my head.

Does anyone know about anything like this? I was thinking...

-some tyan socket 939 mobo...dual CPU even though I'll start with only 1
-Dual Core Opteron 170 (2.0 ghz, 1mb cache)
-4gb ram
-2 500gb 7200rpm hard drives in a mirror RAID array (so 500gb total)
-some UPS
-Maybe a distro of linux....although we are willing to pay for user friendliness....is Windows Server 2003 ok? OR even XP???

That's all for the major hardware stuff. Can ANYONE here help me? How about bandwidth?

I get 10mbit download/256k upload for 30 dollars a month. I can get 10mbit download/1mbit upload for almost 65.

Or....100mbit download/100mbit upload for 400 a month.

What do I need? ahhh

 

[Rev ATARI]

The system specs look to be above par with what you need, especially if using Linux. Using win server 2K will be user friendly but will hog a lot more resources and some bloging software will not run on a win server….

Bandwidth, you say the blogs will be updated once a day, yet you don’t count into people viewing them. Start small and think like this, 1 blog with maybe 20 people viewing it a day time 2000 is 20.000 hits the server will take a day. Now think about it on a moderate level with a 100 views a day per blog….. get the 100 mbit

 

[dom yo]

The system specs look to be above par with what you need, especially if using Linux. Using win server 2K will be user friendly but will hog a lot more resources and some bloging software will not run on a win server….

Bandwidth, you say the blogs will be updated once a day, yet you don’t count into people viewing them. Start small and think like this, 1 blog with maybe 20 people viewing it a day time 2000 is 20.000 hits the server will take a day. Now think about it on a moderate level with a 100 views a day per blog….. get the 100 mbit

agreed, and you really dont want to use xp for a webserver, its not built for that kind of thing

2k3 isnt bad, but like Rev said, linux is going to be the fastest cause it uses less resourses, linux is just a bitch if your somewhat new to it

 

[IISaiNtII]

only thing i would add to that hardware list is a hot-swappable drive into the array... so 3 500gb drives.

definitely want the higher upload bandwidth as well.

who's going to be setting up and maintaining the software on the server? that should ultimately decide if you'll be using 2k3 or a linux distro. gui linux i didn't think was that bad (used fedora C4 for awhile), but I still know very little about it. having said that, server 2k3 is quite easy, and the learning curve is a major plus.

don't think you're over your head, until the deadline is a week away and you've still got nothing.

 

[IISaiNtII]

forgot to mention...

for a linux distro, i would check out debian, ubuntu, or apache.

 

[Rev ATARI]

apache.

ALL THE WAY

 

[IISaiNtII]

ALL THE WAY

*supposedly* ubuntu is really coming up in a way no one imagined. their name is getting tossed around with redhat server, and suse. so they're definitely worth a look imo

 

[Rev ATARI]

*supposedly* ubuntu is really coming up in a way no one imagined. their name is getting tossed around with redhat server, and suse. so they're definitely worth a look imo

Realy, i will look into it..... as i have neverheardof it atall <----sorry spacebar is all fubar

 

[gurusan]

yeah I have Ubuntu 64-bit installed on my machine and it's pretty cool.

I have too many damn operating systems.....Ubuntu, Win2k, WinXP x64, Vista....argh

 

[5gencivic]

I'm going to go ahead and start suggesting some stuff here that you people probably won't want to hear. This is how, as my boss puts it, the big boys play.
First is this your job on the line? Or better yet, if your solution fails will you lose your job?
Second, is this a mission critical website?

If you can say yes to the above two questions then you need to get the idea of building a server from scratch out of your head. Just let it go, throw it out the window and go with me on this.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, ever EVER got fired for hiring IBM.
What I mean is the following. In 3 years, when this machine is still hosting these blogs and the motherboard shorts out on you where do you get a spare part? When a hard drive dies who do you turn to? When the raid controller dies and you've lost all of your data then who's to blame?
If you built the system then you are. If the hardware dies it's your butt and you're fired. However if you purchase the items that HP/IBM/(Insert other manufacturor here) tells you to buy and it fails you have a scapegoat.

Now that I have that out of my head here is what I have learned in my experience that you want when building a Webserver.
Firstly because most of what a webserver does, serve webpages, is transfering data you want to make sure, as the Rev said, that you have a good connection. If you don't your hardware won't mean a thing.
Adding to that point you should probably drop the RAID1 configuration from your plans because it won't be fast enough. I would settle for nothing less than a 4 drive RAID 0+1 or 1+0, it's basically going to net you the same thing. I would also make damn sure that the RAID controller I'm getting is a hardware RAID controller and not software RAID.
Your CPU's are probably a little more than you would really need. Honestly a dual system with only 1 processor and 1 spare socket for future growth is what you should probably get. I would suggest, however, getting as much ram as you can afford, and a 64bit O/S to take advantage of all of the ram. I like Windows based operating systems because they're flexable, reliable and secure if you know what you're doing.
For the power system of the server you're now considering just how mission critical this device is. If it must be as reliable as possible then you should seriously consider redundant power supplies with separate UPS's on separate breakers from your power grid.
For your operating system I would highly suggest running Server 2k3 x64 either Web or Standard depending on the additional jobs of this server. Stay away from XP and Vista they aren't designed for server duties they're for workstations. I won't touch on linux because I honestly haven't used it. However I will say that whatever you decide on you should make damn sure you're as comfortable with it as humanly possible.
There are other things I would like to say here but for now I'm all out of time.