New server required

dodgem

dodgem

dodgem

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Wiltshire
I'm surprised that there isn't more talk in here of Linux servers...?

Is it just that most businesses use Windows because it's easier to get competent IT staff with MS qualifications than it is to get competent Linux users?

The real reason i'm posting though, is that for the last 10 months i've been running desktop Ubuntu Linux as a server for my company (it's very small - 3 people, and we don't have much money atm). It has been running on a desktop pc we inherited and to be fair has coped admirably with file sharing (NFS and Samba), and serving a web based front end to a MySQL database. However, the other day, after being powered on for about 8 months without a reboot it finally locked up. A reboot sorted it out, but it is now causing lockups of our desktop machines when transferring a large amount of data, or locking up itself. It's definately the hardware that has gone **** up as i have reinstalled the OS (and moved to a Debian install without all the desktop stuff - no X server etc) and am still getting lockups.

So i need a new server, but i cannot afford to spend near £1000 on a Dell or HP server so was going to simply buy some new parts from here and put them in the case i'm already using:

Gigabyte GA-G33M-S2L Intel G33 (Socket 775) PCI Express DDR2 Motherboard £49.99 (£58.74)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £38.99 (£45.81)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (ST380815AS) £21.99 (£25.84)
2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3250410AS) £57.98 (£68.12)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £22.99 (£27.01)
Antec TruePower Trio 430W PSU £37.99 (£44.64)

Total cost, £230 +VAT -- i know it's not the most powerful beast in the world, and i ought to get a new case with some decent cooling when funds allow, but does this seem reasonable for running a LAMP server with file sharing on a budget? Anything you would change?

Cheers :)
 
Go and buy one of the cheap Ml115 or ML110 which are kicking around. Both can be had with a half decent spec for not much over £100 and you can then add additional disks in to bump the storage to where you want it. They come with next day 3 year warranty.
 
dodgem said:
I'm surprised that there isn't more talk in here of Linux servers...?

Is it just that most businesses use Windows because it's easier to get competent IT staff with MS qualifications than it is to get competent Linux users?

The real reason i'm posting though, is that for the last 10 months i've been running desktop Ubuntu Linux as a server for my company (it's very small - 3 people, and we don't have much money atm). It has been running on a desktop pc we inherited and to be fair has coped admirably with file sharing (NFS and Samba), and serving a web based front end to a MySQL database. However, the other day, after being powered on for about 8 months without a reboot it finally locked up. A reboot sorted it out, but it is now causing lockups of our desktop machines when transferring a large amount of data, or locking up itself. It's definately the hardware that has gone **** up as i have reinstalled the OS (and moved to a Debian install without all the desktop stuff - no X server etc) and am still getting lockups.

So i need a new server, but i cannot afford to spend near £1000 on a Dell or HP server so was going to simply buy some new parts from here and put them in the case i'm already using:

Gigabyte GA-G33M-S2L Intel G33 (Socket 775) PCI Express DDR2 Motherboard £49.99 (£58.74)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £38.99 (£45.81)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (ST380815AS) £21.99 (£25.84)
2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3250410AS) £57.98 (£68.12)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £22.99 (£27.01)
Antec TruePower Trio 430W PSU £37.99 (£44.64)

Total cost, £230 +VAT -- i know it's not the most powerful beast in the world, and i ought to get a new case with some decent cooling when funds allow, but does this seem reasonable for running a LAMP server with file sharing on a budget? Anything you would change?

Cheers :)
Click to expand...


If you really must spend less than £500 then thats fair enough. I would recommend spending more and getting a server thats designed for the job and comes with a decent warranty.

Also, i don't see any backup device there. What are you taking backups to ?
 
Ah good point - i had forgotten about backups... atm i backup the database manually to my desktop, and every so often i copy the entire shared drive over to one of the desktop pcs over the network. Not very elegant or scheduled!

What would you recommend for backing up the DB each night, and backing up important, frequently changing files each night, and a more extensive backup say weekly or monthly?

I had thought about an eSATA drive as that could be moved off site as well incase of fire etc, but i haven't thought in depth about backup though i really need to!

Cheapness is the name of the game atm, i'd rather spend £300 now and £1500 in 2 years than £1000 now :)
 
Ok I'll try again then...

ML115 G5
AMD Opteron Dual Core 2.2
512MB Ram
160GB HD
DVD Writer
Keyboard
Mouse
3 Years Next Business Day Warranty

£100+vat

Then add

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £22.99

2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3250410AS) £57.98

You then have your server for £181 with warranty on the base hardware.

Get yourself an external drive of some type then look at doing a daily dump of your data to it.

Steve
 
J1nxy said:
Ok I'll try again then...

ML115 G5
AMD Opteron Dual Core 2.2
512MB Ram
160GB HD
DVD Writer
Keyboard
Mouse
3 Years Next Business Day Warranty

£100+vat

Then add

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £22.99

2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3250410AS) £57.98

You then have your server for £181 with warranty on the base hardware.

Get yourself an external drive of some type then look at doing a daily dump of your data to it.

Steve
Click to expand...

or go for the ML110 that comes with 1GB ram and a 250GB disk already for 99 rather than 95.
 
Cheers for the responses :)

Looks like a blindingly good choice there J1nxy - hadn't realised the pre-built and add a few bits option could be so cheap!

Nice one :D
 
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