Hello - Well I am new here, so I hope I am not violating any unwritten rules. If there is a better forum for posting this please let me know.
I need some help setting up a light weight server for my school. We want a Linux machine to provide firewall, mail, and file serving. Our needs are rather basic as you can see for yourself if you read the background below. If you are not interested, skip to the questions at the bottom.
Background:
==
Currently we have an old Pentium 100. 64mb ram, 4 gb scsi hd, Novell 4.x server. It serves as a file and mail server. We have about 20 Win NT , and another 20 Win 98 clients that connect to it. Generally only 50% or less of these clients are in use at any one time.
We also have a Flowpoint 2200 router plugged directly into our central hub for dsl service.
This system actually meets our need... almost. Occasionally it gets bogged down when more than a few people start to access files, or there is a big mail load. The real problem we have is support. No one here knows Novell. When things go wrong its a nightmare to get it going again.
New system
==
+Needs to cost <$1500us.
+Needs to be stable. Our Novell server gets rebooted about once a year.
+Firewall, mail and file serving
I am planning on plugging the dsl router directly into the Linux server. Then the Linux server will get connected to the central hub.
Details:
Red Hat 6.2 (just because I have used RH before)
-ipchains as a firewall
-Samba for file serving to the Win boxes
-mail server - no details for this yet
Hardware:
MSI motherboard
-MSI MS-6340 (K7T Master if we go scsi)
Duron 700
256 mb ram
ide(IBM) or scsi(?) HDs
2 Linksys nics
Questions:
==
1) scsi or ide. Seems like our needs are so basic that scsi is overkill. I know the advantages of scsi in general, but are there advantages for the serving environment that make it more valuable? IDE saves money. If you recommend scsi, what brand or models?
2) Hardware (other than HDs). Any serious mistakes, or obviously better picks to make?
-CPU: I like AMD a lot, so its going to be hard to convince me not to go AMD. The Pentium 100 is enough of a cpu for the current system, so I can't imagine the Duron will be working much at all.
-Motherboard: I picked MSI because they seem to have a good reputation for stable boards.
3) General advice. Being the only technical person here, I don't have anyone to think with on this project. So I am looking for some basic words of wisdom as far as this type of project is concerned ;-)
Thanks in advance
-Alex
I need some help setting up a light weight server for my school. We want a Linux machine to provide firewall, mail, and file serving. Our needs are rather basic as you can see for yourself if you read the background below. If you are not interested, skip to the questions at the bottom.
Background:
==
Currently we have an old Pentium 100. 64mb ram, 4 gb scsi hd, Novell 4.x server. It serves as a file and mail server. We have about 20 Win NT , and another 20 Win 98 clients that connect to it. Generally only 50% or less of these clients are in use at any one time.
We also have a Flowpoint 2200 router plugged directly into our central hub for dsl service.
This system actually meets our need... almost. Occasionally it gets bogged down when more than a few people start to access files, or there is a big mail load. The real problem we have is support. No one here knows Novell. When things go wrong its a nightmare to get it going again.
New system
==
+Needs to cost <$1500us.
+Needs to be stable. Our Novell server gets rebooted about once a year.
+Firewall, mail and file serving
I am planning on plugging the dsl router directly into the Linux server. Then the Linux server will get connected to the central hub.
Details:
Red Hat 6.2 (just because I have used RH before)
-ipchains as a firewall
-Samba for file serving to the Win boxes
-mail server - no details for this yet
Hardware:
MSI motherboard
-MSI MS-6340 (K7T Master if we go scsi)
Duron 700
256 mb ram
ide(IBM) or scsi(?) HDs
2 Linksys nics
Questions:
==
1) scsi or ide. Seems like our needs are so basic that scsi is overkill. I know the advantages of scsi in general, but are there advantages for the serving environment that make it more valuable? IDE saves money. If you recommend scsi, what brand or models?
2) Hardware (other than HDs). Any serious mistakes, or obviously better picks to make?
-CPU: I like AMD a lot, so its going to be hard to convince me not to go AMD. The Pentium 100 is enough of a cpu for the current system, so I can't imagine the Duron will be working much at all.
-Motherboard: I picked MSI because they seem to have a good reputation for stable boards.
3) General advice. Being the only technical person here, I don't have anyone to think with on this project. So I am looking for some basic words of wisdom as far as this type of project is concerned ;-)
Thanks in advance
-Alex
