Building New Linux Server

[jb567]

It has been about six months that I have been using Linux here at my office and it only gets better everyday. We are currently looking to add a couple more servers to our outside offices, but I would like some suggestions as far as compatible hardware. There are a couple of requirements I would like to have. I have looked around a little bit, but I have never found a really good list of compatible hardware. If anyone knows of one it would be greatly appreciated. The specs that I would like:

1 Tb of space ( I would like three 500 gb Drives raided together so if one goes out the data is preserved Raid 5 I believe but I could be wrong)

1 - 2 Gb or Ram suggestions are welcomed. (Being just a file server I think I might be able to get away with 1 Gb let me know what you think.)

Onboard video is sufficient I think

Onboard Networking card Gigabyte would be best.

DVD Writer

I have used in the past the Intel Duo Core 2 Processor it has done well but not absolutely necessary for this system. I would however like to stay with the i686 (i386) archeticture I think. It seems to be more compatible from what I have read.

Lastly it will have Fedora Core 6 on it. I have not yet had a chance to experiment with Fedora 7 although I look forward to getting the livecd to try it out.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[SlowJet]

There as some posts and some hardware mention in the lsits about LSI raid controls.
avoid the inboard e1000 and get a real nic card, that way you can get another when the drv burps or somenew advantage comes out - like 10G/s.

Are you really talk SCSI drives or are you talking fake scsi SATA.?

I think you could use the fake SCSI controller and SATA set up as Raid 1 (mirrored)
Raid 5 is showing age because it was for thruput on slow drives.
Todays drives are 4 or 5 times faster.
If you use raid 6 you need six drives to make it top out.
I think LVM offers RAID 6 but you can also connect multiply disks as PV's to a VG to get 16TB of ext3.
By set up mirrors with underlaying striped sets you can get RAID 10 (that would only need 4 disks to get about a TB.

Memorex DVD work with Linux. They also make the media.

I would stick with the Intel dual core 2 as it will last a few years yet in the support area and it fast enough for growth and added sever functions.

2GB mem now, add 2 more latter if needed. Dual channel memory.

Now for the mobo. That is often the show stopper so get one that you know works and has Linux drivers, updated / updatability bios, no design bugs, less add-ons, etc.

SJ

[jb567]

Ok That makes sense on the nic card. I will also go ahead with the 2GB of RAM and the INTEL DUO Core 2 Processor. Also the Memorex DVD sounds like a good choice.

My questions then come down to what to do about RAID. Apparently there are two types of RAID, software raid and hardware raid. Which is better? Which is easier to use? Also what other advantages are there... I did a little bit of research on RAIDs to build on what I already knew.

A RAID 0 - is used to combine two disks to increase performance not fault tolerance.
A RAID 1 - Mirrors two or drives
RAID 3-5 - sounds like will still work if only one drive fails, meaning you need one extra drive than you have space, but SlowJet you mentioned that they are aging... meaning they are not as reliable, not as stable, fast... Could you please elaborate.

RAID 6 - Basically it can sustain two drive failures.
RAID 10 - ??

This is what I understand them to be it does not mean that it really is this way. Please clarify me if I am wrong.

Lastly the MOBO what are some recomendations or where can I find out about compatibility...

Thanks so much for your help.

jb

[LLS]

You may find some good information here--
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/HCL

[SlowJet]

I almost thoht those lists was an April Fool's joke. :eek:

SAD, very, very SAD.

Well, that answers the long running post about why isn't linux used bu more people?

I say we put a freeze on any more python gui's until we have drivers for off the shelf devices. :)

SJ

[A.Serbinski]

Few suggestions;
1) Mainboard - look at TYAN for server boards. You don't want a desktop board in a server - high failure rate.
2) CPU - A lower Opteron, try for a socket F. Very economical and a good match for a server. I say go for a DUAL CPU mainboard, start with a single CPU. If more performance is needed later, add a CPU.
3) SCSI disks are expensive. Do so only if you REALLY need the performance, otherwise use SATA.
4) Memory - Your choice. Any big brand name should be fine, just make sure that the memory is compatible with the mainboard. This is especially difficult in servers - check the mainboard manual for memory recommendations.
5) DVD writer. These are DIRT CHEAP. You can pick one up for $30 or less.
6) You might want to go for power supply redundancy. There's some really nice 3 module power supplies around, one blows up, buy another and swap it hot.

Contrary to above recommendations for avoiding integrated network card, no need to worry. You can always disable the onboard cards later when its time to upgrade to 10Gb.

Note: You can build something like suggested above, with 2GB ram for ~$2000. This place has everything you need; http://www.serversdirect.com/

[A.Serbinski]

Forgot to mention one thing;
No Fedora on a server. Go RHEL or CentOS.

[jb567]

Thanks for the advice and the website. I did a little bit a research and liked what I saw. I think what they have with the server sytems is possibly more than I need and want for right now. The server will be used solely as a Samba Fileserver. I was thinking about using a Desktop system with multiple hard drives as currently each of the offices are only using Windows XP machines with shared drives. My goal is to mainly consilidate the information they have. I also am trying to keep the costs down as it is a new thing we are trying and we do not want to spend a lot of money. We were hoping to spend about $1000 for the box. Eventually I will want to build a new system for here at our main office at which time I will want to have about 5TB+. At that time I definately will want a full server system with redundant powersupplies and probably Red Hat operating system.

Thanks