Server recommendations

[Eric "Shubes"]

Darrin Chandler wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 06, 2006 at 04:05:46PM -0700, Jason Etchason wrote:
>> My company is currently looking to purchase a Linux server for a web
>> app that comes with the specs listed at end
>>
>> My questions are:
>>
>> Does this sound reasonable for a LAMP stack w/ additional resources
>> used for a backend app?
>>
>> Is Fedora a descent distro?  I'm only familiar w/ slack for toying
>> around at home.  Unfortunately I'm the guru here, which says naught
>> for the company.  Which leads me to the next question...
>>
>> Any recommendations for support on this stuff?  We're located on the
>> west valley, 59th & Bell.
>>
>> Here are the specs:
>>
>> Intel Xeon 1.6 GHz with 2 Gb. (Minimum) 4 Gb. (Recommended) Memory
>> * Recommend SuperMicro motherboard.
>>
>> Seagate 36 Gb. SCSI hard drive with Adaptec SCSI Controller)
>> * SCSI Controller comes standard with SuperMicro motherboard
>>
>> Standard CD Rom for installing Red Hat Linux Enterprise 3.0 or above or
>>  Fedora Core 1
>>
>> Standard 1.44 Floppy
>>
>> 3Com 10/100 base Ethernet Card
>> * (2) 1 gigabit base TCP/IP ports (standard on SuperMicro motherboard)
>>
>> Standard AGP video card
>> * Standard on SuperMicro motherboard
>>
>> Estimated Total Hardware
>>
>> System cost: approx. 							$6300.00
>>
>> With RAID 5 system							$8800.00
> 
> Unless I'm missing something, you that's WAY more pricetag than what
> you're getting! There must be something you're leaving out.
> 
> I've got a dual Opteron at 3GHz with RAID 5 on a SuperMicro mobo in a
> nice 2U case for around $3.2K. That's 2 processors running at a full 64
> bits, and 205G of RAID-5.
> 
> Tell you what, I'll sell you the same thing I have for a mere $4000. Or
> let me know who you got that quote from and I'll let you know where I
> bought mine. ;)
> 
> Reall, really, either there's something I don't know about the system
> you're talking about or you're paying WAY, WAY TOO MUCH.
> 

I agree. (Hi, Darrin!)

$2500 for raid 5? Do you really need raid 5? Would LVM do?
I could see using raid 1 however. I'd consider using Linux software raid
too, if you think raid is necessary.

What sort of web app are you talking? That's an awful lot of horsepower for
a simple web server. What does the application require? That should lead you
 in the right direction.

I'd certainly have a look at what Dell can offer. Their prices have always
been competitive (at least) when I've shopped there.

I'd buy a bare bones box, and load CentOS4.4 on it. CentOS is essentially
the same as RHEL4, simply repackaged. Security updates are timely, and the
system is quite stable (much more so than Fedora!).

-- 
-Eric 'shubes'