Webmin 1.570/Virtualmin 3.88/Centos 5.7/Small Business Server Hardware

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#1 Tue, 10/18/2011 - 20:03
rulez22

Webmin 1.570/Virtualmin 3.88/Centos 5.7/Small Business Server Hardware

Hi good people, got some questions.
For a long time I'be been using regular PCs as servers (different kinds), which are not redundant and could die any moment (hardware). It's not bad as long as you backup and restore it quickly in case it dies, but of course not good enough.
Well, now looking in to a "small business server", they all been categorised these days ;) (30 domains, 100 emails, 30 small databases).
IT HAS TO BE RACK, 19 inch, one for a rack cabinet
I am not looking in to 5000USD servers, need something cheaper as it is for charity really.

0) as the budget is limited would you recommend using second hand/refurbished servers?
1) what are the downturns, what parts in servers die first?
2) what is a life resource for servers? (This is impossible to find on google)
3) What is the situation with Webmin/Virtualmin on Centos v6.0? I understand you guys will not issue Virtualmin until it's fully tested with Centos 6.0 (and it is fully understandable, a lot of huge companies, people rely on stability of CENTOS and VIRTUALMIN/WEBMIN)
Will it need complete new install when it's tested to 100%? Or will be there a soft upgrade from Centos v5.7 to v6.0 with regular updates? (I had this server for about 4-5 years and gradually updated it to it's current - v5.7)
4) which rack servers are are compatible with centos?
5) actual suggestions I am looking at:
checked with compatibility for CENTOS and it says:

Dell 2xxx series (pre R series)
HP DL series (DL380, DL580)
Dell R series (latest), which ones to look for?

internet people recommend HP for some reason as more stable..

6) for the price is it worth buying HP DL380 G5 or is it an old rubbish these days (October 2011), particular HDDs?
Dell Poweredge 2950?
Dell Poweredge R200?

7) what's with 64bit processors? Is it worth getting these kinds or will it involve 64bit of CENTOS to be installed? What sort of problems can this create?

I am thinking (correct me if wrong) 4Gb at least, 80Gb in mirror mode RAID, couple of dual cores or quad would be minimum.

Really appreciate your advance help and fantastic product you've been working/fixing/updating all these years. You can really rely on it!

Tue, 10/18/2011 - 20:17
andreychek

Howdy,

Well, there's lots of folks here who use dedicated hardware, and can offer all sorts of input as to what to use in that regard.

I'll offer an alternative thought for you in the meantime -- have you considered a VPS or Amazon's EC2? The number of domains you're hosting isn't huge -- and unless you're seeing really high amounts of resources usage, an adequately powered VPS (ie, spend more than $50/month) may work great for you. And then let someone else deal with the hardware, allowing you to focus on the software side of things.

I'll answer a few of your other questions --

<cite.What is the situation with Webmin/Virtualmin on Centos v6.0

CentOS 6 is considered a Grade A supported distro. You can see the supported distros here:

http://www.virtualmin.com/compare.html

Or will be there a soft upgrade from Centos v5.7 to v6.0 with regular updates

I'm not aware of a RHEL/CentOS supported method to upgrade from CentOs 5 to CentOS 6.

-Eric

Tue, 10/18/2011 - 21:32
rulez22

thanks

buying VPS services will be expensive to all the features that we need, plus I need FULL control of the system.

Amazon EC2 seems too complicated (just looked at it and dont understand this at all to be honest), what's the advantage in simple words?

Wed, 10/19/2011 - 00:10
andreychek

Well, if you require full control, EC2 won't do what you're after... but for the purposes of using it from Virtualmin, it's similar to how a VPS would work.

So, hopefully some of the hardware folks can toss out some ideas for you :-)

-Eric

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