Making my own server
Alfons, Fri Feb 10 2006, 11:09PMHi,
I'd like to transform one of my computers to a simple webserver, but I was wondering what the minimal hardware- and software-requirements are for a simple but decent server.
That is:
- processor speed
- RAM
- HD
- OS
- other stuff
Any ideas?
Re: Making my own server
Eric, Fri Feb 10 2006, 11:26PM
It depends what you want to serve. Do you want to run asp, php, database stuff? Unless you have some active content that'll take lots of processor, the most basic machine imagineable with say ~256MB RAM, a NIC, a few GB disk, running linux/apache would work fine.
Eric, Fri Feb 10 2006, 11:26PM
It depends what you want to serve. Do you want to run asp, php, database stuff? Unless you have some active content that'll take lots of processor, the most basic machine imagineable with say ~256MB RAM, a NIC, a few GB disk, running linux/apache would work fine.
Re: Making my own server
Alfons, Fri Feb 10 2006, 11:53PM
PHP and maybe some database stuff would be nice, but isn't necessary.
So in fact, my AMD Sempron 2600+ machine with 512MB RAM and 40GB HD would be enough?
Which Linux-distro do you recommend?
Alfons, Fri Feb 10 2006, 11:53PM
Eric wrote ...
It depends what you want to serve. Do you want to run asp, php, database stuff? Unless you have some active content that'll take lots of processor, the most basic machine imagineable with say ~256MB RAM, a NIC, a few GB disk, running linux/apache would work fine.
It depends what you want to serve. Do you want to run asp, php, database stuff? Unless you have some active content that'll take lots of processor, the most basic machine imagineable with say ~256MB RAM, a NIC, a few GB disk, running linux/apache would work fine.
PHP and maybe some database stuff would be nice, but isn't necessary.
So in fact, my AMD Sempron 2600+ machine with 512MB RAM and 40GB HD would be enough?
Which Linux-distro do you recommend?
Re: Making my own server
Simon, Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:09AM
I would actually recommend FreeBSD, which isn't strictly Linux. It's powerful without the bloat - and very reliable.
Simon, Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:09AM
I would actually recommend FreeBSD, which isn't strictly Linux. It's powerful without the bloat - and very reliable.
Re: Making my own server
Nik, Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:12AM
My 350mhz Suse10 computer doubles as an FTP and HTTP server. It has ~300mb of ram, a 4gig drive for the OS and a 120gig drive for the FTP files. Its been running for 2 weeks straight now with no problems.
Nik, Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:12AM
My 350mhz Suse10 computer doubles as an FTP and HTTP server. It has ~300mb of ram, a 4gig drive for the OS and a 120gig drive for the FTP files. Its been running for 2 weeks straight now with no problems.
Re: Making my own server
Liam, Sat Feb 11 2006, 01:27AM
I've used a 133 MHz 128 MB RAM boatanchor before and it actually was acceptable for static pages. Your AMD that you're talking about is incredible and will work for basically anything. The bottleneck is your connection to the internet which is, for me, cable so I can only get uploads of 40 kbps or so.
Liam, Sat Feb 11 2006, 01:27AM
I've used a 133 MHz 128 MB RAM boatanchor before and it actually was acceptable for static pages. Your AMD that you're talking about is incredible and will work for basically anything. The bottleneck is your connection to the internet which is, for me, cable so I can only get uploads of 40 kbps or so.
Re: Making my own server
Dave Marshall, Sat Feb 11 2006, 02:11AM
I have an apache/vsftpd server that serves the backup of my entire network so I can access my files from overseas and at work. Its a 500Mhz AMD K6, 390MB of ram and an 80gb drive. It also hosts a CGI-IRC client to let me skirt around port blocking. My upload bandwidth is severely lacking, capped at about 30kb/s but its quite sufficient for my own needs. I highly recommend Ubuntu for the distro.
Dave
Dave Marshall, Sat Feb 11 2006, 02:11AM
I have an apache/vsftpd server that serves the backup of my entire network so I can access my files from overseas and at work. Its a 500Mhz AMD K6, 390MB of ram and an 80gb drive. It also hosts a CGI-IRC client to let me skirt around port blocking. My upload bandwidth is severely lacking, capped at about 30kb/s but its quite sufficient for my own needs. I highly recommend Ubuntu for the distro.
Dave
Re: Making my own server
Alfons, Sat Feb 11 2006, 09:29AM
And I thought it was a very 'basic' machine for a server...
I got a DSL connection with about 128kbps upload but I think my DSL provider provides a dynamic IP which, I heard, is quite a pain in the ass when you want to access your server from the internet.
For some reason, I just don't like Ubuntu (probably because it uses Gnome, but do I need a graphic shell for server?).
Does anyone know of a website or something with guidelines on how to setup FreeBSD or SUSE (or maybe even Ubuntu or Windows) to act as server-OS?
Alfons, Sat Feb 11 2006, 09:29AM
Your AMD that you're talking about is incredible and will work for basically anything.
And I thought it was a very 'basic' machine for a server...My upload bandwidth is severely lacking, capped at about 30kb/s but its quite sufficient for my own needs. I highly recommend Ubuntu for the distro.
I got a DSL connection with about 128kbps upload but I think my DSL provider provides a dynamic IP which, I heard, is quite a pain in the ass when you want to access your server from the internet.
For some reason, I just don't like Ubuntu (probably because it uses Gnome, but do I need a graphic shell for server?).
Does anyone know of a website or something with guidelines on how to setup FreeBSD or SUSE (or maybe even Ubuntu or Windows) to act as server-OS?
Re: Making my own server
Dave Marshall, Sat Feb 11 2006, 04:45PM
You can install KDE on Ubuntu, which basically makes it kubuntu. I dont use a GUI for my server at all, its just a terminal. I have a dynamic IP as well (standard for DSL it seems) there are ways to work around it, like DynDNS.
To setup Ubuntu as a server, you put the install CD in, when it boots to the install prompt you type Server. Once you've got it installed, you ensure you're online, edit your aptitude sources list to include the restricted depositories, then run apt-get update, then apt-get install apache2. You'll want an FTP server on it, I recommend VSFTPD. Its pretty simple to set up, and is very secure (hence the *vs*ftpd).
The Ubuntu wiki can walk you through getting apache and vsftpd to play nice.
Dave
Dave Marshall, Sat Feb 11 2006, 04:45PM
You can install KDE on Ubuntu, which basically makes it kubuntu. I dont use a GUI for my server at all, its just a terminal. I have a dynamic IP as well (standard for DSL it seems) there are ways to work around it, like DynDNS.
To setup Ubuntu as a server, you put the install CD in, when it boots to the install prompt you type Server. Once you've got it installed, you ensure you're online, edit your aptitude sources list to include the restricted depositories, then run apt-get update, then apt-get install apache2. You'll want an FTP server on it, I recommend VSFTPD. Its pretty simple to set up, and is very secure (hence the *vs*ftpd).
The Ubuntu wiki can walk you through getting apache and vsftpd to play nice.
Dave
Re: Making my own server
krenshala, Sat Feb 11 2006, 05:11PM
Until I set up my AMD64 3000 Shuttle system as my new webserver/mailserver/firewall (apache2/mysql/php) I was running everything on my dual pentium-133MHz system with 256Mb of memory. Other that large PHP scripts timing out (if they took too long to complete executition) it had no problems at all. The only reason I switched was because I was playing with the PHP/MySQL side of things and wanted to remove that processing bottleneck.
As for which OS to use, find someone local you trust that knows *nix/*BSD to help you set up your system. If you don't know anyone local pick a distro with good installation documentation. Personally, I started with Slackware (to make sure I learned as much as I could) and have recently switched over to Gentoo (typing this from an old P2-400 running Gentoo now
).
krenshala, Sat Feb 11 2006, 05:11PM
Until I set up my AMD64 3000 Shuttle system as my new webserver/mailserver/firewall (apache2/mysql/php) I was running everything on my dual pentium-133MHz system with 256Mb of memory. Other that large PHP scripts timing out (if they took too long to complete executition) it had no problems at all. The only reason I switched was because I was playing with the PHP/MySQL side of things and wanted to remove that processing bottleneck.
As for which OS to use, find someone local you trust that knows *nix/*BSD to help you set up your system. If you don't know anyone local pick a distro with good installation documentation. Personally, I started with Slackware (to make sure I learned as much as I could) and have recently switched over to Gentoo (typing this from an old P2-400 running Gentoo now
).Re: Making my own server
Pcnerd, Sat Feb 11 2006, 05:28PM
If you want the specs for your computer, we have to know what you want to serve, traffic, size, database, rendering.
some tips:
-use fedora, great server distro.
-don't be afraid of a heavy computer, it will only be good in the future
-take decent and silent stuff, remember, it has to run ALWAYS.
-take an emergency power system, ups.
-get a nice upload speed.
Pcnerd, Sat Feb 11 2006, 05:28PM
If you want the specs for your computer, we have to know what you want to serve, traffic, size, database, rendering.
some tips:
-use fedora, great server distro.
-don't be afraid of a heavy computer, it will only be good in the future
-take decent and silent stuff, remember, it has to run ALWAYS.
-take an emergency power system, ups.
-get a nice upload speed.
Re: Making my own server
tecNik, Sat Feb 11 2006, 07:03PM
As most people have said, Linux is the way to go but I'm not sure I'd go for Fedora. Sure, its easy to setup if you've never used Linux before but It's kinda overkill if all you want is a webserver.
There are loads of webserver tailored Linux distros out there that will run on low spec'd machines. Try sites like LinuxLinks or some of these.
tecNik, Sat Feb 11 2006, 07:03PM
As most people have said, Linux is the way to go but I'm not sure I'd go for Fedora. Sure, its easy to setup if you've never used Linux before but It's kinda overkill if all you want is a webserver.
There are loads of webserver tailored Linux distros out there that will run on low spec'd machines. Try sites like LinuxLinks or some of these.
Re: Making my own server
Alfons, Sun Feb 12 2006, 12:45PM
About the upload speed: I don't really want to invest money in this project, I want to use the connection and computer I already have.
Alfons, Sun Feb 12 2006, 12:45PM
If you want the specs for your computer, we have to know what you want to serve, traffic, size, database, rendering.I just want to be able to put my files online so I can access them from any computer connected to the web. Traffic probably won't be much, maybe if I put my website online it could become a bit more, but I doubt it... Databases could be useful to run a simple forum or so, but nothing big or processor-intensive I guess.
some tips:UPS would be a bit of an overkill since the server doesn't have to be online all the time.
-use fedora, great server distro.
-don't be afraid of a heavy computer, it will only be good in the future
-take decent and silent stuff, remember, it has to run ALWAYS.
-take an emergency power system, ups.
-get a nice upload speed.
About the upload speed: I don't really want to invest money in this project, I want to use the connection and computer I already have.
Re: Making my own server
Pcnerd, Sun Feb 12 2006, 01:57PM
Pcnerd, Sun Feb 12 2006, 01:57PM
Alfons wrote ...
About the upload speed: I don't really want to invest money in this project, I want to use the connection and computer I already have.
than you can do with the most simple computer you have able running the software and able uploading files at highest speed.If you want the specs for your computer, we have to know what you want to serve, traffic, size, database, rendering.I just want to be able to put my files online so I can access them from any computer connected to the web. Traffic probably won't be much, maybe if I put my website online it could become a bit more, but I doubt it... Databases could be useful to run a simple forum or so, but nothing big or processor-intensive I guess.
some tips:UPS would be a bit of an overkill since the server doesn't have to be online all the time.
-use fedora, great server distro.
-don't be afraid of a heavy computer, it will only be good in the future
-take decent and silent stuff, remember, it has to run ALWAYS.
-take an emergency power system, ups.
-get a nice upload speed.
About the upload speed: I don't really want to invest money in this project, I want to use the connection and computer I already have.
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