[OT] Server choices?

[Burn Alting]

On Thu, 16 Jan 2003 11:26, Rob Shugg wrote:
> Hey
> My company is starting to think about buying some server hardware and I
> wanted to get some feedback on what makes a good server.
> At the moment we are using an old pentium II on a transact connection for
> apache/python connecting to a MySQL server. The pages we are serving are
> quite processor intensive in that they can take up to 3 seconds each to
> generate. At this stage bandwidth isnt such an issue as we can upgrade as
> the need arises.
> What I would like to know is, what do you really get when you fork out for
> a server as opposed to a standard pc? 

Basically the 64bit PCI buses and the resultant higher data 
bandwidth/throughput. For a normal PC, except for AGP, all devices hang off 
the one SLOW 32 bit PCI bus.


> and what are the main questions you
> need to ask yourself in specifying one?
>
> Thanks

You want to look for (the motherboard decides it all for you, then
the case). For the motherboard
	- onboard scsi, typically it's Ultra 320 now
	- If you are going to use SCSI disks, then ensure the
	  on-board scsi is dual - two scsi channels.
	- 533MHZ FSB if you want Intel CPUS
	- as many separate data busses (not PCI slots, but
	   busses)
For the case
	- decent POWER SUPPLY
	- decent POWER SUPPLY
	- decent POWER SUPPLY
	- oh, did I forget, decent POWER SUPPLY

Gotchas
	- NEVER put 32bit cards into a 64bit slot, it cruels all other
	  devices on that bus
	- The on-board devices (scsi, gigabit) share one of the busses
	   so if you are adding, say a Fibrechannel card, then put it on
	   the same bus as your on-board scsi. Don't let it share the a 
	   bus with the ethernet -  bascially, keep it away from very "noisy"
	  data ... data which is short in duration and happens a lot (EG 
	  ethernet) ... disk data is not noisy by the above definition.
	- Ensure that Linux (if thats what you are going to run) will run
	   on the board and support any on-board chipsets.

Research your motherboards first. Decide on cpu (Intel/AMD) then on the 
motherboard. The decision on motherboard also needs you to have a nice
feeling about support ... mail the support organisation about support for 
Linux on your board and depending on how they respond may be an indication of 
their support (eg Motherboard manufacturer A responds with "yes, we support 
Linux on our XYZ board, Motherboard manufacturer B responds with "yes, we 
support Linux on our XYZ board, and here are the modules you need or 
references to sites that you need to download from, Motherboard manufacturer 
C just doesn't respond to such questions, it says, go ask your supplier. .... 
natually I went with B).

Please excuse my lack of hardware technical terms, I write code for a living 
and only suffer the hardware it controls!

Regards

Burn Alting