suggestions 4 building svr to host file downloads.

  • Thread starter Thread starter -|Turbosyde|-
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-|Turbosyde|-

I'm looking at buying a server and needed a some external input. The server
will run on Win2k server and will be used to host a web site that allows
users to dowload files, some small(1mb), some large(50mb). This will run on
IIS and the downloads will be transfered via HTTP, not FTP. I wanted some
suggestions on what hardware would suit this purpose best. I'm thinking of
a pentium with SCSI raid 5 HDDs and 1gb of ECC memory. Are there any other
suggestions. Is the ECC memory worth it. Thanks for the help.

john
 
I'm looking at buying a server and needed a some external input. The server
will run on Win2k server and will be used to host a web site that allows
users to dowload files, some small(1mb), some large(50mb). This will run on
IIS and the downloads will be transfered via HTTP, not FTP. I wanted some
suggestions on what hardware would suit this purpose best. I'm thinking of
a pentium with SCSI raid 5 HDDs and 1gb of ECC memory. Are there any other
suggestions. Is the ECC memory worth it. Thanks for the help.

john
Click to expand...

How many users at a time will be connecting, and what speed of connection
will you have to the internet. How many files will be available for down
load, and what sizes? There are excel spread sheets available for sizing
based on these estimates.

Also, what degree of up time do you need? That will determine if you need
RAID 5. Might also consider something like SATA RAID 1.

Also, if all you are doing is file downloading, why not a Linux system
running apache, and save yourself $800 and get a performance boost in the
process? Even if you need ASP and Front Page extensions, those are
available. Win2kServer has its place, but for a single purpose web server,
Linux probably makes more sense.
 
I agree linux might make sense but i have no experience with it, and the
server will be deployed shortly, too soon to learn a new OS. Its a task i'm
going to undertake soo though. As for users there will probably 6-12 at a
time to start. i might use SATA raid 1, thats a good idea since they are
the same price as ide now. we will host a couple hundred files most less
than 1 mb but a few that are 10-50mb. It'll be on an OC3 pipe at our ISPs
colo. thanks for the tips, any more?

john

 
How many users will you have in a year? 3 years? Don't build it for what
you have today at the beginning of its life. Build it so you won't be
upgrading in a month. For Example, 12 users downloading at the same time
with 1mb/s cable connections is only a load of 12mb/s, which almost any
machine can handle. Bring that up to 100, and you max out a 100tx Full
Duplex connection. More than that and you need gigabit, and probably a
cluster, which gets very expensive with Win2k

Secondly, you might want to look into one of the webserver appliances setup
with linux out of the box, or go for one of the server oriented Linux
distros. To set up a web server even with SSL security will not take you
more than a weekend to learn. For example on Mandrake, if you tell it that
it is a web server install, it will install only those packages, and then
the rest is easy to set up. You can still use MS tools like frontpage to
build the web pages.

Another alternative, if you want to stick with MS is to get Win2k3 Web
Edition.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/evaluation/overview/web.mspx
Cost effective, less unneeded junk.



I agree linux might make sense but i have no experience with it, and the
server will be deployed shortly, too soon to learn a new OS. Its a task i'm
going to undertake soo though. As for users there will probably 6-12 at a
time to start. i might use SATA raid 1, thats a good idea since they are
the same price as ide now. we will host a couple hundred files most less
than 1 mb but a few that are 10-50mb. It'll be on an OC3 pipe at our ISPs
colo. thanks for the tips, any more?

john
Click to expand...
 
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