linux server hardware

From: Dave (dspearREMOVE99ca_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 01/17/04 

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 23:02:36 GMT

I am looking at setting up a linux server (will run accounting package,
probably act as Domain Controller via samba, file server) for our small (4
people) office, and would like some opinions on hardware. Some background:
for 8 years I was a unix systems engineer with a large multinational
telecommunications company. So, my experience with servers is somewhat
colored by years maintaining large UNIX (and later a few Windows) data
centers. Everything was redundant, all peripherals LVD-SCSI or fibre
channel.

Should I be looking at SCSI? I note that there are not many motherboards
out there with onboard SCSI, and the PCI SCSI cards, well they're pretty
damned expensive compared to most any other peripheral card you might choose
to buy. $500-ish for a dual-channel card AND the drives are more expensive.
I'd like to put a tape drive onto the server and (2) HDs, (1) CD drive and
(1) tape drive would max out my IDE buses; not the best situation for
expandability. Am I missing something here that would make me consider IDE?

I note that some degree of wireless networking support has been incorporated
into the 2.6 kernel... is there a definitive list of supported cards? We
are currently using an 802.11b wireless network with DWL-530 and DWL-620
D-Link cards but I'm sure that these have been since discontinued. I would
rather go with a hard-wired card that I know will work rather than hassle
with trying to return one that doesn't.

Anybody out there know a Canadian online retailer where I can build my own
system? Since my sysadmin days I've moved to the country... a technological
backwater where the local office supplies chain is where residents go to
give their hard-earned money to a high-school dropout salesman whose depth
of hardware knowledge is limited to $500 video cards for gaming. I walked
out when he started telling me how "you'll have trouble finding linux
drivers for your SCSI devices" and "hardly anybody uses SCSI any more".
Sure dude.

Sorry, that was a rant.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: OT: IBM XT Questions
    ... are there any 8bitISA scsi cards that can boot from a hard ... setup a linux server hook the 8086 via null modem serial ... reading NG on Xt class Machine ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware)
  • Re: AlphaPC 164LX questions
    ... manual states 512Mb, however somewhere ... Apparently the Adaptec 39160 SCSI adapter should work with the 164LX ... As to the problems with the Qlogic cards - taking the errata literally ... are not using NT server. ...
    (comp.sys.dec)
  • Re: Only 3 PCI slots?
    ... so use the old computer as a server. ... you can pull the two cards and put your scsi back in. ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
  • Re: Hot Swapping a SATA drive in Windows 2000 and XP.
    ... it seems that 'add-in cards' are treated differently. ... "SCSI" controller... ... '+' in front of SCSI Controllers. ... But this still kinda blows my original strategy of having SATA cards ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: FC3 upgrade - X is hosed :( (LONG)
    ... >>and the i815 driver is loaded per normal as far as I can tell. ... > Regards, Mike Klinke ... This caused the server to not even come ... Code was changed to get the 810/815 video cards to work again. ...
    (Fedora)
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