On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 12:11 AM, V G wrote: > For one of my for-university projects/products, I need to provide a > web server (which will have other daemons running as well such as > FTPD, SSHD, crond, etc.) which will serve the entire university (but > obviously not everyone at the same time). It is primarily a web and > file server via HTTP. I'm guessing that at peak, it will need to be > able to serve 1000 or more people downloading one or more files at a > time. This number could be wayyyy more or wayyy less, I've never done > anything with servers before. > > For this purpose (non intensive php pages, posgresql, and intensive > file downloading server), how would I go about > building/buying/commissioning such a server? > > - I don't mind assembling it myself if I have to. > - Cost (to the university) should be reasonable (nothing SUPER expensive) > - Should be able to serve simultaneously (pontially wayyyy) =A0more or > less people as described above. > - I'm thinking about 8TB worth of disks to start with in RAID 5 > configuration (with parity disks and hot standby). > - What form factor should I go for? Full tower? Rackmount? > - How many ethernet ports and stuff? > - Will I need multiple servers to handle this volume? If so, how is > storage handled... leading to: > - Should I go for a storage area network (SAN)? > - How should backup be handled? > > Answers? Tips? Comments/suggestions? There's a lot of other related > questions left out that I can't think of at the moment. Any help is > much appreciated. Update: I'm probably going to go for a prebuilt server like one of these http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/poweredge-tower-servers http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/poweredge-rack-servers http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/express/servers/x/index.html but have NO idea what to look for in terms of processor/memory/PSU/everything else. Any ideas on how to get started? --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .