Server and O/S requirements

[Raine]

SMF Version: SMF 1.1 RC2
hello all,

i'm in the process of ordering a new server for my community.  Our current host has had problems maintaining our site so we decided it's finally time to move.

I'm currently looking at a Dual opteron with 2 gigs ECC RAM.

So, here are some questions:

Which O/S is OK?  Fedora or Centos or FreeBSD?

I know Fedora, so I'm thinking of going with Fedora Core 4 - 64 bit - is there any downside for going with 64bit?

What's the benefit of going with a 100 mb port?

That's about it.

Thanks for the help guys.

[Ben_S]

Personally, I'd stay away from Fedora, it isn't designed as a server os and has a short life cycle meaning after a couple of years (maybe less) it's obsolete with no futhur security updates.

CentOS is effectivly Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and if you are familiar with linux, I'd go with that.

As for 64bit, go for it, no point using a 32bit os when you have a 64bit cpu. Be warned through that if you use cPanel, you may have a few problems, but with a bit of research you can probably get them sorted easy enough.

Unless you really push a lot of traffic, there probably won't be that much of a benefit to a 100Mb port, although if you offer downloads, then it may help. Probably best to check out your current bandwidth usage and what you are pushing at peak time to see if you need one.

[Kindred]

oh, yes... we do push ALOT of traffic on the site...

[Ben_S]

But by a lot do you mean thousands of gigs or hundreds?

I push about 500GB / month but generaly it peaks at 3Mb / sec. Ideally check your current peak bandwidth usage and see if you need it before paying for it. You can always have it added later if needed.

[Kindred]

Looks like we max out somewhere between 50 and 70 MB an hour during peak usage...

[Ben_S]

Unless my calculations are wrong, thats only 0.16Mb/s and would equate to 50GB transfer a month.

[Raine]

Thanks for the input!.  I've put in a request to change the OS to CentOS... so let's see how that goes. 

Kindred, I'll contact you soon with details when I have it.

Our server is looking pretty good - Dual Opteron, 2 gigs ECC RAM, Dual 200gigs SATA RAID, 100 Mbits, etc.

Regarding bandwidth - the total bandwidth is not that big of an issue right now as our current host really limited our growth... however, when our community was at its peak, it was quite hefty.  So, the extra performance won't hurt.

[Ben_S]

You can't go wrong with a dual Opteron, seriously powerful processors. Can't wait to get my hands on one but my current server meets my requirements at the moment .