Building a Server

[bennyfofenny]

I've had plenty of experience building desktop PCs, but I'm looking to build a server to put on my university network (and I don't know much about servers). My budget is almost unlimited, but I am looking for good value for my money. The server will mainly be used for file sharing among a small group (around 10) and perhaps for hosting a game server. After I get familiar with the basics I do plan to experiment some. I prefer Intel chips, but I don't have strong brand preference. I plan to run Ubuntu on it. Any suggestions or advice?
Thx 😀

 

[JackMDS]

Because of the unique demands of solid/stable hardware for Servers. In the professional realm the Rule is Not to build but to buy a Solid Server.

Very popular ae the lines of Dell Servers.

Log to Dell see what they offer, and if you insist on building, choose the class that fits your needs and try to see if you can emulate the principles that you see there.



😎

 

[DominionSeraph]

Is this a university server or a personal server you're going to run on university cabling? From the '10 user' thing, it sounds like the latter; and so all it looks like you'd need is something like a mid-tower desktop.

 

[klocwerk]

I've been building desktops since the 90's, been working in IT since 98, and I'd NEVER build a server for a production environment.
Buy it from a reliable vendor, with 1 day (preferably 4 hour) service.
I like the HP DL3** series these days.

 

[mfenn]

I've been building desktops since the 90's, been working in IT since 98, and I'd NEVER build a server for a production environment.
Buy it from a reliable vendor, with 1 day (preferably 4 hour) service.
I like the HP DL3** series these days.

x11ty billion

When (not if) the shit hits the fan, it's your ass on the line. In the case of a hardware issue, you need to be able to get the part same-day (next-day at the latest).

Since you say unlimited budget, just hit up HP or Dell. Since it sounds like you don't have rack space, a decently powerful tower server.

 

[mvbighead]

Game server, for ten people, doesn't know much about servers... doesn't sound like a LAN admin to me. I'd guess this is a guy, planning to build a box, that he intends to share with 10 or so buddies, connected to his University's network (I am assuming he is a student).

All that said, and if my assumptions are correct, I'd either find something with a decent RAID controller, or find a RAID controller that fits my budget, and then find a board with the necessary port to plug it into.

IMO, your best bet is to build something that'll support VmWare ESXI (which is free), and run your Ubuntu Server as a virtual host, and perhaps build other virtual servers as needed (to serve games, etc.). You don't have to, but it'll give you some separation between your file server and game server, thus allowing you to toy around with one and not render the other unavailable to the 10 or so people you'd be sharing it with.

As to the hardware, a Quad core CPU is recommended. And as much RAM as is feasible for your budget. 8GB+ would be a good bet.

If this is a personal server, you can save a lot of money by buying SATA drives for your RAID array.

As others have stated though, if you are in fact needing a server for a production (IE - work) environment, definitely buy pre-built with warranty support from the manufacturer.

If it's for personal use though, research what your needs will be, and go from there. You can generally do whatever you need with a low-end quad core, and a heap of RAM. I am running a VmWare ESXI server with an old, old, old Athlon X2-4000+ and 6GB RAM. Have a Windows server connected to my two 2 TB harddrives for a file server, run an Ubuntu server with Apache, etc. etc. for piddling around, and a PfSense firewall for the internet. I'd love to have a quad in that, but I'm pretty sure the wife would kick my arse if I buy any more computer hardware in the next 6 months.

 

[bennyfofenny]

I'm a student, and I won't be using it as a production environment. Rock solid stability isn't too important to me. I'd like power over reliability, support and warranties. :/ But in any case, I'd probably be best off mimicking professional server setups? What about hard drive setups and network settings if I want to maximize the server's upload and download speeds? Also, is there any good tool for measuring network performance. thx 😛

 

[azev]

if you want to build your own reliable server get supermicro barebones, but they arent cheap. All supermicro servers/MB comes with 1 or multiple gigabit nics, and there are variety of tools to measure network performance... networx, even task manager now days can monitor your network traffic. If you want to monitor the port utilization, get a managed switch and run mrtg on your server so you can monitor the bandwidth utils.

 

[bennyfofenny]

Alright, I checked it using task manager and it looks like I'm on a 10Mbit/sec connection. I've got 4 ethernet ports in my room. Are those most likely split (sharing the same 10Mbit/sec connection)? How would I go about testing them? Would it be possible to use ethernet bonding to increase my connection speed (I've got dual gigabit lan on my desktop so I can test it)? thx

 

[RebateMonger]

Consider two servers.

Put together a Windows Home Server in a case and power supply that will hold enough disks for your needs. With WHS you can easily add additional storage up to the limit of your disk controllers). Then leave it alone. The one restriction with WHS is it's limited to 10 individual accounts. If you have more than ten people who need PRIVATE storage, then you'd either need different server software or a second WHS server.

Build a separate game server that you can play with. You can use whatever OS suits you and if it crashes due to unstable game software, it won't take down your data server.

Consider if you'll be needing backups.

 

[bennyfofenny]

Like an NAS + a server? I won't be needing backups and the game server would probably just be a CS1.6 server, nothing demanding. Does anyone have experience with ethernet bonding?

 

[piasabird]

We use IBM Servers at work for our databases. It is really the Dependability that you are paying for. However, no matter what you use will ware out eventually depending on the amount of use you will have.

 

[Davidh373]

ok... here's one thing no one has asked yet. Do you live in a dorm? If so, do you like sleep? because enterprise servers are LOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUD lol! They also take up a fair amount of what one does not have in a dorm, SPACE!
For your situation I would recommend a Xeon 3520 with matching motherboard, or an i7 920 (they are both the same thing, but the Xeons are made with longer lasting materials and are a little more expensive), or at very least a Core 2 Quad. Make sure you have a fair amount of memory, 12GB would probably do it... i'm not sure about this since I'm not that into multi-user servers. You may also check with your University IT and be sure it isn't going to be blocked by the firewall. A lot of business/ School networks do this to prevent illegal content and virus' from leaking into their servers and to others on the network thereafter. If this is a "shared" media server, it is likely some, if not all of it was/ will be downloaded on the downlow...
Another option if this is the case is having some sort of off-site server you connect to via remote apps. I know I wouldn't want to get excited about getting new, cutting-edge technology to figure out I can only use it as a very large paperweight or doorstop.

EDIT:
If you're not using it for anything beefy, go the athlon x4/ core 2 quad route. Do as the mfenn is suggesting below.

 

[mfenn]

Alright, I checked it using task manager and it looks like I'm on a 10Mbit/sec connection. I've got 4 ethernet ports in my room. Are those most likely split (sharing the same 10Mbit/sec connection)? How would I go about testing them? Would it be possible to use ethernet bonding to increase my connection speed (I've got dual gigabit lan on my desktop so I can test it)? thx

The ports most likely go back to a switch, so bonding would enable you to increase the speed to the outside world. It's pretty much the difference between slow-as-dirt and 4 x slow-a-dirt though. 😛

OK, so since we've gotten more info about your intended use for the server, it looks like you don't really need that beefy of a setup. The VMWare idea that mvbighead suggested is a great idea.

You should be looking at:
A cheapie quad-core (Propus 620)
8GB of DDR3
A hardware RAID card supported by ESXi (e.g. LSI 9260-4i kit w/ cables)
Some WD blacks
Mobo with an IGP (785G) so that you can use the x16 slot for the RAID card
Typical PSU, case, optical disk, etc.

 

[bennyfofenny]

Any suggested motherboard? Is it necessary to get a RAID card if the motherboard supports it?

 

[mfenn]

Any suggested motherboard? Is it necessary to get a RAID card if the motherboard supports it?

Here's a good mobo. It's got 2 PCIe x16 slots and 4 DIMM slots, you you'll have plenty of room for expansion.

Motherboard RAID is called "fakeraid" for a reason. The SATA controller doesn't really support RAID, the RAID logic is all in the driver. At that point, you might as well use pure-software RAID. A real RAID card has a processor on it that handles all of the RAID calculations, thus taking the load off of the CPU.

 

[Knavish]

Why is everyone telling this guy to run a RAID card? This is a personal / gaming server, probably running Ubuntu, so he's much better off going with software RAID. The RAID card is just a waste of money. I suppose it might be required for VMware virtualization stuff, but the only reason to run virtualization on a personal box like this is to learn how it works. He'll get *plenty* of uptime by just running stock Ubuntu.

If you want a nice little server for a dorm room, I'd say get a *cheap* low end quad core with 4GB (8 is probably unnecessary ... how much do game servers use?) and put any extra dollars towards a quiet case & heat sink. I like the suggestion of the AMD AthlonII-620 + a 785G board with integrated video.

One more comment related to RAID -- do you really need it? If you're satisfied with 1.5 or 2TB of disk space, just use a single drive. Buy a second drive & a usb enclosure to backup via mirroring or snapshotting with one of the popular linux backup utilities.

...edit...
When I'm talking about software RAID in linux, I'm not talking about the junk motherboard-RAID. I'm talking about the kernel-supported software raid available in linux or BSD
http://linux.yyz.us/why-software-raid.html

 

[mfenn]

My budget is almost unlimited

Why is everyone telling this guy to run a RAID card? This is a personal / gaming server, probably running Ubuntu, so he's much better off going with software RAID. The RAID card is just a waste of money. I suppose it might be required for VMware virtualization stuff, but the only reason to run virtualization on a personal box like this is to learn how it works. He'll get *plenty* of uptime by just running stock Ubuntu.

If you want a nice little server for a dorm room, I'd say get a *cheap* low end quad core with 4GB (8 is probably unnecessary ... how much do game servers use?) and put any extra dollars towards a quiet case & heat sink. I like the suggestion of the AMD AthlonII-620 + a 785G board with integrated video.

One more comment related to RAID -- do you really need it? If you're satisfied with 1.5 or 2TB of disk space, just use a single drive. Buy a second drive & a usb enclosure to backup via mirroring or snapshotting with one of the popular linux backup utilities.

...edit...
When I'm talking about software RAID in linux, I'm not talking about the junk motherboard-RAID. I'm talking about the kernel-supported software raid available in linux or BSD
http://linux.yyz.us/why-software-raid.html

See bolded.

And VMWare is nice to keep the various game servers distinct from his fileserver, especially since game servers are notoriously picky and require much fiddling.

 

[Paperlantern]

Game server, for ten people, doesn't know much about servers... doesn't sound like a LAN admin to me. I'd guess this is a guy, planning to build a box, that he intends to share with 10 or so buddies, connected to his University's network (I am assuming he is a student).

All that said, and if my assumptions are correct, I'd either find something with a decent RAID controller, or find a RAID controller that fits my budget, and then find a board with the necessary port to plug it into.

IMO, your best bet is to build something that'll support VmWare ESXI (which is free), and run your Ubuntu Server as a virtual host, and perhaps build other virtual servers as needed (to serve games, etc.). You don't have to, but it'll give you some separation between your file server and game server, thus allowing you to toy around with one and not render the other unavailable to the 10 or so people you'd be sharing it with.

As to the hardware, a Quad core CPU is recommended. And as much RAM as is feasible for your budget. 8GB+ would be a good bet.

If this is a personal server, you can save a lot of money by buying SATA drives for your RAID array.

As others have stated though, if you are in fact needing a server for a production (IE - work) environment, definitely buy pre-built with warranty support from the manufacturer.

If it's for personal use though, research what your needs will be, and go from there. You can generally do whatever you need with a low-end quad core, and a heap of RAM. I am running a VmWare ESXI server with an old, old, old Athlon X2-4000+ and 6GB RAM. Have a Windows server connected to my two 2 TB harddrives for a file server, run an Ubuntu server with Apache, etc. etc. for piddling around, and a PfSense firewall for the internet. I'd love to have a quad in that, but I'm pretty sure the wife would kick my arse if I buy any more computer hardware in the next 6 months.

You want to put a quad core in your pfSense box? Are you insane? You realize a Single core 100Mhz will run pfSense just fine right? Talk about overkill. I run pfSense on an old retired Firebox with like a 1.2GHz single core and like 512 RAM, and its massive overkill. But, suit yourself, to each his own.

 

[bennyfofenny]

Are any of these components going to be bottlenecked by a 30Mbit/sec (max) connection? Also, how would I got about ethernet bonding if I'm connecting say 3 ethernet ports to one computer?

 

[simonizor]

Game server, for ten people, doesn't know much about servers... doesn't sound like a LAN admin to me. I'd guess this is a guy, planning to build a box, that he intends to share with 10 or so buddies, connected to his University's network (I am assuming he is a student).

All that said, and if my assumptions are correct, I'd either find something with a decent RAID controller, or find a RAID controller that fits my budget, and then find a board with the necessary port to plug it into.

IMO, your best bet is to build something that'll support VmWare ESXI (which is free), and run your Ubuntu Server as a virtual host, and perhaps build other virtual servers as needed (to serve games, etc.). You don't have to, but it'll give you some separation between your file server and game server, thus allowing you to toy around with one and not render the other unavailable to the 10 or so people you'd be sharing it with.

As to the hardware, a Quad core CPU is recommended. And as much RAM as is feasible for your budget. 8GB+ would be a good bet.

If this is a personal server, you can save a lot of money by buying SATA drives for your RAID array.

As others have stated though, if you are in fact needing a server for a production (IE - work) environment, definitely buy pre-built with warranty support from the manufacturer.

If it's for personal use though, research what your needs will be, and go from there. You can generally do whatever you need with a low-end quad core, and a heap of RAM. I am running a VmWare ESXI server with an old, old, old Athlon X2-4000+ and 6GB RAM. Have a Windows server connected to my two 2 TB harddrives for a file server, run an Ubuntu server with Apache, etc. etc. for piddling around, and a PfSense firewall for the internet. I'd love to have a quad in that, but I'm pretty sure the wife would kick my arse if I buy any more computer hardware in the next 6 months.

LOL!! those are ridiculous requirements. Depending on the game, you could easily run a server on P4 with a 1GB of RAM. Any game based on the Source engine (Counter Strike Source, etc) will run perfectly fine on this hardware. The only reason you would need those kind of specs would be if you were running multiple servers on the same box. The amount of people that you can host is more dependent on your upload speed than the hardware that you're using. If he's on a LAN that won't matter at all so any old computer will work. You don't need to be running linux for a gaming sever if you don't want to. On a LAN, you don't need to be really worried about security so Windows would work fine if that's what you're comfortable with.

 

[bennyfofenny]

The only game servers I would be planning to run are a CS1.6 server and perhaps a TF2 server. But my main focus for now is file sharing over the university network. I do plan to do some experimentation. A website perhaps. I'm sure my hands will be full. What about my previous questions: "Are any of these components going to be bottlenecked by a 30Mbit/sec (max) connection? Also, how would I got about ethernet bonding if I'm connecting say 3 ethernet ports to one computer?" 🙂 thx Also, any suggestions for a quiet case?

More information:
Internet upload speed: 2 Mb/s
download speed: 5 Mb/s
Would this scale with ethernet bonding? If that's my internet connection off of one port.

 

[klocwerk]

what hasn't been mentioned is that most universities that I know restrict you to 1 live jack per room. Check with your IT dept. and make sure that you can actually do this, otherwise the best you'll do is installing a router and sharing your single 10mbps connection between your desktop and your server.

 

[Knavish]

Are you throttled to 30Mbit/sec to the LAN or just to the internet (I'm guessing this is the case)? Seems like they could give you full 100Mbit / Gigabit / whatever on campus and just throttle your outbound network connection.

As for channel bonding, I think you would end up with 5Mb/s download for 3 different sources, not 15Mb/s for a single source. (Assuming your 5Mb/s per port cap.)

 

[bennyfofenny]

They allow you to hook up as many computers to your room as your room as you want. 4 ethernet ports means 4 active ethernet ports. I don't know what their policy on ethernet bonding is though. Also, I don't know how to set up ethernet bonding for 3 ports if my motherboard only has dual gigabit LAN. What kind of setup would I need to make this possible?

@Knavish
I've checked using the task manager and it says it's a 10Mbps connection. 🙁