MartaLualdi

Okay, so I used to have a reeeeally old computer I used as a server but I found it wasn't enough anymore so I ditched it. Now I am going to rebuild a new one but I need some pointers on what to use particularly for the case and such, plus I am out of the loop on good server hardware. Below are the requirements for my server:

-must serve routing for all my network (currently 6 machines)
-must act as a fileserver (ftp, nfs, whatever)
-must allow remote access so I can check on it from out of the house(ssh or whatever)
-must be able to host webspace for a couple websites (nothing too large atm but with potential to be large)
-must be able to log all network traffic and store it in log files so I can monitor what goes on (via packet capture like wireshark or whatever)
-potentially may need to host a game server or two (crysis, COD, etc)
-must be rack mountable

So yeah, I was thinking a quad Xeon or two and such but I am not sure. Thoughts anyone?

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the_beast

A single quad will easily be able to handle all that. If this is going to be on a home connection there is no point going any more powerful than that anyway - no websites you add will be able to be any more taxing than a single quad could manage due to the crap uploads home connections get.

If there is a relatively tight budget stick with s775. Get a Q9550 or similar, pop it in a Supermicro or Intel server board. Add 8GB ECC DDR2. Your board will likely have 2 decent NICs on it already - add in a pci card - something like an Intel Pro/1000 MT is good and cheap. You need 2 NICs for routing (1 in, 1 out), and another for the server itself (you can run with only 2, but I believe it is more secure to have them separate). Throw the whole lot in a cheapo rack case from Newegg.

That lot should have more than enough horsepower for you. In fact you can probably go much cheaper on the cpu front. If you want more power you could always go i5 instead. I think dual Xeons are a little over the top.

As an OS, go Windows Home Server. Install VMWare Server, and then use Endian running in the VM. Endian will handle all the routing, and act as a full UTM for the network. It can also handle full VPN access, and even do virus scanning on all the incoming connections.

WHS will be able to do all the rest for you, except maybe the game server stuff. Never run them, don't know if it can be done. You may need to change the host OS to Server 08, 03, or even plain old Windows 7.

This should get you started at least...

MartaLualdi

Well I already have Windows Server 2008 so that's no problem using that. How much power do you think I would need?

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the_beast

As in power supply?

Get a Corsair CX400 or VX450 or similar. Your power requirements are pretty much negligible, you just need something stable.

Forgot disks by the way - if you have 2 reasonable SATA drives already use them in RAID1 (onboard) for your OS. If you don't have anything get a couple of Samsung F3s or Seagate 7200.12s. How much storage do you need? I would recommend Green drives for low power and easy cooling. Obviously your case & psu choice depends on your storage requirements - if you need lots of drives you may need more psu...

ComGuards

Hi MartaLualdi,

I don't know what the general consensus here is regarding pre-built / OEM servers, such as HP, IBM, Dell, or if you have something in particular against OEM servers, but I would seriously suggest you look into them. Now I'm partial towards the Dell PowerEdge series because you get more bang-for-the-buck as compared to HP and IBM, but in general, there are a couple of things you might want to consider.

Pre-built servers, well, being pre-built, the components will work together right out of the box. They are also server-grade components, designed for 24x7 operation. You also get server-specific components, of particular interest being the server-management cards available to each brand. One of the really neat things about these cards is that you can completely manage the server remotely over a network / internet; the server runs without keyboard or mouse or monitor.

If you get the right server, you can also easily run VMWare ESXi as your "base" operating system, instead of Server 2008, and instead you can install 2008 as a virtual machine, along with any variants of Linux or the such. This gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of what you want to run.

I'll agree that there are certain server components that will seem like they're not worth it, in particular the hard-drives, but (at least with Dell), you get Western Digital RAID Edition drives. But at the same time, you get a lot more variety of choice on the processor. There are a lot of Xeon-varients of the Core i7 and i5 processors, and some of them are more worth it than their desktop counterparts; for example, you can get a Xeon-varient of the i5 processor that has hyperthreading enabled, so you still get 8 logical processors instead of the normal 4 that's available on the current i5-750.

Some other "nice-to-have" things that are available on OEM servers are redundant power supplies. I know it's possible get white-box variants, but the price isn't usually worth it, and getting replacement PSUs might be difficult / pricey as well.

Honestly, for a rackmount system, I can't really give you any suggestions on a white-box. I've never ever built one. Well, okay, I take that back. I did put together an old old white-box Pentium-3 based "server" once, but it was simply a desktop in a rackmount case, so that doesn't really count.

Anyways, I think, with a rackmount system, if you get a Xeon 3xxx or 5xxx series processor with hyperthreading, 8GB of RAM, and 4x hard-drives in RAID-10 mode, you would easily be able to run at least 7 Windows 2008 virtual machines, each with 1GB of RAM and "quad" processor. And that's saying a lot. Drop out a couple of 2008 VMs, and you can run quite a few Linux versions with 512MB RAM. Based on my current experience (see my sig), you'd run out of either RAM or hard-drive space before running out of processing power =P

ComGuards

Oh, and before I forget, I'm fairly certain that all of the 11th generation Dell PowerEdge rackmount servers come with 4x integrated Broadcom Gigabit LANs. They're fast as heck. I get a sustained transfer of about 500-700mbits / sec to my second (older) server that's got an Intel Pro 1000/MT server adapter.

portauthority

If you are OK with tower servers, Dell is selling their PowerEdge T110 server for $400+tax+SH.

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1619549

It comes with Xeon X3430 quad core CPU (I think this is the server version of i5), 2GB RAM, and 160GB hard drive. When you order, change the hard drive quantity to 1 so the price drops (they charge $99 for a 160GB drive)

It's a great bang for the buck. Should be able to handle most things you throw at it.

P.S. VMWare ESXi does not work on the T110 yet - a future update will let you use it.

ComGuards

Actually the Xeon X3450 isn't exactly the equivalent of the i5-750.

The X3430 is quad-core with no hyperthreading running at 2.4GHz, but the QPI link runs only at 2.5GT/s.

The i5-750 is quad-core with no hyperthreading running at 2.66GHz, and the QPI link runs at 4.8GT/s.

Hard to find an exact equivalent The closest equivalent to the i5-750 would be the W3520. 2.66GHz, 4.8GT/s QPI, quad-core, 8MB L3, but it also has hyperthreading technology.

Useful links:
http://processorfinder.intel.com
http://ark.intel.com

ComGuards

Actually if your budget allows for it, I'd suggest the Dell PowerEdge R410 or R510 models, so you at least have 4 hard-drives to play with. If you spread the cost out over a few years, it doesn't appear *too* bad.

Also, I'm sure you can probably find a Dell partner that can get you a better price than the list price on website. If you were in the vicinity of the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada, I could certainly do that for you.

the_beast

Just a quick reality check - the OP used to run an old computer as a server. This is to serve a 6 machine network.

Now OEM servers are great, and for business use I would not recommend anything else. But this does not appear to be business use to me - just someone who wants to put their files somewhere and host a website and some games.

Now I may be wrong, but I very much doubt the OP is going to want to spend the kinds of money you are talking about. The base model R410, with only a single dual core 1.86GHz cpu, 1GB RAM (!), a single 160GB HDD (!!), no remote management, no SAS card, no add-in NICs, no redundant psu and no OS still comes in at $3000. The R510 is even more again, and this does not even get you a system that will do what the OP wants.

Enterprise systems are great. For enterprise users. But I very much doubt they are appropriate here...