web servers

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2003
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Just wondering if anyone who has a web server, there are plenty on here I know, could post their specs, o/s, setups etc, as I'm thinking of building one for home rather then use my current development pc. Cheers.
 
Depends on how much code load you're gonna be running on it. I've got an Ubuntu server running with apache/php/mysql etc running off a XP 1800+ with 512MB ram and although my code isn't too system strenuous it's still lightening fast to render pages and obviously as it's on LAN there's no lag in download time, so you'll likely get away with any old PC you've got lying around :)
 
X2 5200
3Gb DDR2 ram
Windows 2003 Server/Sql Server 2005 (licensed)
3 hard drives

I did however have a web server that ran perfectly fine on a PII-400 with 380Mb ram, depends on what you need :) If you start hitting a db server more than occasionally, you will get slowdowns..
 
Aye, I'm really not bothered about a multi-processor system with gigaquads of ram and terajips of storage, a low spec pc should be fine, aslong as it can handle database transactions.

Was wondering if people preferred windows, or what types of linux they ran. I don't have a copy of 2003 server, only XP professional, but can get hold of linux's of course. Never used Debian before, do have Ubuntu somewhere..in my experience setting up mysql, php, apache etc is much easier on linux (running it on windows atm but its more of a pain).

Hmm. I have a pIV 3.0ghz with 2gb of ram and lots of disk space I was going to sell..what am I thinking, turn it into a server! :p
 
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Think I'm gonna try Ubuntu, it looks noice. Getting Samba working used to be a pain in my experience (seems limited now!), any tips as development would be largely on a windows pc?
 
platypus said:
Never used Debian before, do have Ubuntu somewhere..in my experience setting up mysql, php, apache etc is much easier on linux (running it on windows atm but its more of a pain).
Depends if you let the terminal/shell scare you. If you're fine with it, its pretty much a case of:
1. Do a minimum install of Debian from the net installer CD.
2. Run apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5 mysql-server mysql-client php5-mysql
3. Done!

Hope this helps :)

Edit RE development.

1. Run apt-get install openssh to install the SSH server.
2. Download and install WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/index.php) on your Windows box.
3. Download and install Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/about.php)
4. Change WinSCP preferences to set Notepad++ as default editor.

Now you can edit files on the server, from Windows, without having to constantly upload/reupload (when you save in Notepad++ a file which you have opened from your WinSCP session, WinSCP detects it and reuploads automatically). Works great for messing around with PHP, not sure how well it would work for other types of development.
 
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I currently run an Ubuntu Server box on an old dual P3 as a file server, and occasional web development stuff. The nice thing about Ubuntu is there's a load of excellent documentation on getting it set up.
 
Mr. Brightside said:
Edit RE development.

1. Run apt-get install openssh to install the SSH server.
2. Download and install WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/index.php) on your Windows box.
3. Download and install Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/about.php)
4. Change WinSCP preferences to set Notepad++ as default editor.

Now you can edit files on the server, from Windows, without having to constantly upload/reupload (when you save in Notepad++ a file which you have opened from your WinSCP session, WinSCP detects it and reuploads automatically). Works great for messing around with PHP, not sure how well it would work for other types of development.
I'm gonna try Xubuntu first, reading a guide from the linux forum it looks like a nice low print o/s that I can get my teeth into - I might try debian at some point.

Regarding the development bit..cheers! I'll probably have to pick your brains at some point when I finally get round to setting up; will take me a few days to prepare my pc.
 
I chose ubuntu simply becuase it's the easiest (IMHO) distro out there atm, although some would argue it's strictly for desktops and not for servers but if you're just running a local dev server than it's more than adequate. In regards to setting up samba, the easiest way by far i've found is using Webmin, simple 4 commands to install it from the shell, and then you just login via a webbrowser and every config option for you system is there, including samba and setting it up to work in a Windows workgroup is a synch, making development on a windows box so much easier as you can just map a network drive and work direct :)

You can get webmin from www.webmin.com :)
 
I used to have a box for testing which ran Apache/PHP/MySQL under W2K Pro. It was a P2 350 with 64MB of RAM and that was adequate, it took ages to boot though.
 
Dell small form factor rig with
733 MHz PIII
512 MiB PC100
one 40 GiB drive (OS and /home) one 120 GiB drive (incremental backups of my other systems, music, video)
headless running Ubuntu Server 6.06 LTS

I installed X on it a while back when it was drafted for desktop duty in a pinch and it was darn fast, considering I garbage-picked it and addes drives and RAM. I was impressed with this little thing.
 
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