Server platform comparison

[Warren Togami]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Roderick A Gammon" <AEG-Inc at hawaii.rr.com>
To: "Linux & Unix Advocates & Users" <luau at list.luau.hi.net>
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 8:17 PM
Subject: [luau] Server platform comparison


> Aloha-
>
> The Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) at UH wants to enhance its current
> website.  As one might guess, I wish to promote linux- something like a
box
> in a closet with HTTP accessed data i/o.  But I wish to promote it fairly,
> since what matters is getting it done right and with the staff's free
> consent.
>
> Choices at this point are among:
> * Linux- Probably RedHat distro w/Apache, Postgresql, and PHP
> * Mac OS X Server
> * Windows Server
>

Linux - Low hardware requirements, reliable, low maintenance necessary.
Windows - High hardware requirements, can be reliable if maintained
properly.
Mac OS X - IMHO, there is no benefit here over Linux.  More expensive
hardware for nearly the same server-side software.  I also would suggest
that any perceived benefit of Macs in the graphics editing area is myth.

<SNIP>
> The problem is "easy to enhance".  Labor at UH rotates constantly- folks
> graduate, get internships elsewhere...  So if CCS' "linux guy" leaves, how
> hard will it be to find one? A successful CCS site will also breed new
> projects. Virtual musuems for the Asian art collective, sites for
> international conferences that come to town, and so on. Some things, like
> updating resumes, will likely be delegated to admin staff that are not
> comfortable with command line SQL.
>

Currently a few students in the ICS department are working on PHP, perl &
MySQL sites for Marbec on campus.  CCS will not be the only site on campus
using this software combination on Linux or Solaris platforms.

Professor Sugihara has been working with these students using platforms
other than Windows to build web applications with perl and PHP and open
source databases.  I believe that he will continue to do so in the future.

> Windows on the other hand, is at least reputed to have a bunch of people
> knowledgeable in it.  Although I think this may be red herring- I picture
> lots of student hires fooling well-meaning academics into thinking that
they
> are experts, because they used windows 98 at home.
>
> Finally, this OS X Server is a bit of a wildcard.  CCS is very comfortable
> using Macs and so by brand name OS X Server is a logical choice,
> particularly in terms of graphic tools.  But I am not really up on this.
Is
> it any good?
>
> Long and short of it, if anyone can help, are the following questions:
> * Where online are good tables comparing the three platforms for this
stuff?
> * Same, for documents outlining total cost of ownership, including
> maintenance costs?
> * How to estimate the availability, within the UH community, for "linux
> guys" so that CCS can be convinced that they won't be stuck in 2 years?
> *This* one is the biggest problem.

I aim on pushing the UH ICS department to use and learn on the Linux
platform as an option in their curriculum.  Thus far I have helped two
instructors get started, and helped a few other students become proficient
in Linux as a development platform.  Linux usage in UH will NOT go down in
the future.

The ICS department will also soon implement a large number of Linux Thin
Clients for their graduate assistants.  They are also exploring the
possibility of Linux based LDAP to augment their server-side user
authentication for both their Windows domains and Unix servers.  I'd say
this is a further guarantee that Linux usage will not disappear here.

> * What hardware requirements would one expect?  Single processor?
> Double-processor?  How much RAM?  Assume linux here.  Remember, this is
for
> a large national university dept. with a lot of international contacts.

How many simultaneous users per hour must the server handle at peak usage?
You may be surprised that hardware requirements may be fairly low for your
needs.  Unfortunately, with hardware prices so low, you wont be able to buy
minimal hardware. =)

My usual recommendations...
Processor - Athlon has far greater performance to cost ratio than Intel
hardware.  We run a dual Athlon server at AMDMB.com and we are very happy
with that setup.
RAM - Go with at least 512MB ECC DDR SDRAM.  Less than $75 from Crucial.
Use a good DDR motherboard with four RAM slots, so you have the option in
the future to double the amount of RAM if needed.
Disks - At least Linux software RAID 1, mirroring two hard drives for
redundancy.

Prices for this setup could be as low as $650 before the data backup device,
and this would be far faster than what you would need.   This cost estimate
is with 30GB 7200rpm ATA100 disks.  Perhaps you would want larger IDE hard
drives for more storage capacity.

Warren Togami
warren at togami.com