On Sat, 22 May 2004 06:31:21 +0000, Noozer wrote:
"[H]omer" wrote in message
news
Why use Windows for the server?
I know Windows. I don't know Linux (yet). I would not trust a server that I
couldn't administrate properly. I do plan on moving away from Windows
eventually, but since I have a legitimate copy of Win2K3 server, why not use
it?
Honestly, it's not that difficult. In fact (and in IME) I've found
administering Windows as a server considerably more difficult than either
Linux or *BSD. You've got a distro, try it. It will take a while to learn,
but once you have, you'll wonder how you could possibly have ever
tolerated Windows as a server. IMHO Windows is a *great* gaming and
multimedia platform ... but it's not a server - not even Win2K.
I do plan on putting a Linux server up eventually, but not until I know
what's going on under the hood. I've seen too many Linux boxes "rooted"
even after being configured by an "expert".
In 20+ years of, first UNIX, then GNU/Linux administration, I've yet to
see a rootkit penetrate my defences. My experience of Microsoft servers
has not been as comfortable. In fact, I refuse to work with them at all
now.
Bear in mind, that a true server is not a machine that you sit down in
front of and play solitaire, it's supposed to be invisible and silent -
It sits in my basement serving my document files to the LAN and webpages/FTP
to the internet. Very low bandwidth machine really. Terminal Services over
my gigabit LAN is definately nice to use.
Ah OK, so you've already got a well established network. It should simply
be a question of swapping disks, partitioning and re-installing then.
Here's what I'd do:
Drives:
3 x 40GB - disks 1, 2, 3
1 x 60GB - disk 4
1 x 80GB - disk 5
1 x 120GB - disk 7
Recommendations:
Buy as much memory as you can afford.
Buy a second 80GB drive to Raid 0 with disk 5 - (disk 6).
Replace disk 4 with an 80GB drive (sell the 60GB drive).
The point is not to buy any more hardware. The fact that I have a 60gig
drive sitting on the shelf shows that it's not space that I'm lacking.
The suggested drive configuration, uses only the hardware you've already
got, however I simply recommended one additional drive and one replacement
drive for the sake of a) speed and b) backup. Useful, but not necessary.
Server:
Disk 1 - primary master:
Grub MBR
Linux System, ReiserFS, 40GB.
(Running Samba and/or NFS.)
Like I said previously, the server may eventually run Linux, but not until
I'm confortable with it.
Sure, I appreciate that. Simply replace Linux/ReiserFS with Win2K/NTFS in
the suggested layout, but please hurry up and learn about Linux
I've also left optical drives out of the equation. I've got a 52x CDRW
in a USB2 enclosure and a 4x DVDRW in a Firewire/USB2 enclosure. They
are moved to machines as they are needed.
I take it your systems can boot from optical drives connected via
USB/Firewire then? (For the purpose of installing the OS, and disaster
recovery)
I should also have mentioned that I'll probably use the XP Boot menu to
switch between XP and Linux. Again it's just a matter of what I'm
familiar with.
AFAIK, neither the Win2K nor the XP ntldr supports booting to anything
other than Microsoft Operating Systems. If you're set on using a
proprietary solution, then you'll need PowerQuest's BootMagic, however
GRUB is more versatile, more Linux friendly, and free.
In order to install Fedora (Core 1) onto ReiserFS partitions do the
following:
snip
Reiser what available to Suse and Mandrake, so I didn't consider that I
might not be able to use it with Fedora. ext3 would be my next choice.
It is a pain, but for reasons best known to the folks at Fedora/Red Hat,
they have (until now) made using ReiserFS unnecessarily difficult.
Additional recommendations:
Consider moving the server to OpenBSD in the future.
Definately a consideration. I know OpenBSD is quite secure.
LOL! *There's* a quote for the OpenBSD developers mailing list.
Physically remove disk 4 (USB) when not in use. Store in another room.
Develop a backup policy and stick to it (simple 1 2 3 method will do).
The data we have is not that critical. I've used computers long enough
not to trust them (or users) with information that is critical. : )
I may be a bit paranoid with computer data, but let's put it this way:
you'll miss it when it's gone.
Future expansion:
Upgrade disks 4, 5 and 6 in tandem, identical sizes. Upgrade disk 7,
whenever disks 1, 2 or 3 are upgraded. (i.e. sizeof [7] = sizeof
[1+2+3])
Ack! This started out as a simple reallocation of my current hardware.
Disk 4 is your all-important user data (the server's raison d'être), you
need to a) make it as fast as possible and b) back it up religiously.
That's what the 3 disk arrangement is about.
Disks 1, 2 and 3 are system disks. If any of them bite the dust then
you'll need to reinstall the respective OS (possibly on a replacement
disk). What would you rather do, spend the whole day installing Operating
Systems, or spend less than an hour restoring disk images?
Hope that helps,
Definately... and it is appreciated!
No problem, and have fun with your Fedora distro.
PS - If you must Xpost, please set a followup.
I've had this argument before. I watch all the groups I've posted to
Ah yes, but by not setting the followup you are forcing everyone else to
watch those groups also ... unless they're happy to watch threads appear
and disappear half way through a conversation, usually out of context, and
therefore meaningless.
-
[H]omer