Web Server Specs - Advice please!

[LTeeple]

Hello,
I apologize if this issue has been visited previously. I want to search the site for it, but the search functionality is down.

I've been asked to spec out hardware/software for webservers for my department. We require something extremely stable, able to handle small-medium loads - approx 2-4k page views/day, about 60k hits.

I want apache, php and mysql. If people can recommend some hardware as well as the best combination of software, I'd be very grateful.

Thank you!


Cheers!
Laura

 

[thedaver]

1 Intel P4 or equivalent processor.
512 GB of RAM
SCSI drives if you can afford it, lower the drive latency and any smarts in the RAID will certainly help your mysql... BUT more RAM overcomes a lot of that as linux is really good at managing disk cache.

RAM is cheap and linux loves it. Processor is important to a point.

Your 2-4K of hits, given LAMP, aren't a big deal. I assume you aren't running some sort of searching function which will really grind down your processor - then I'd go 2 procs.

DON't go cheap on your NIC. You want a NIC(s) that won't burn out or load up the system with lots of stupid activity. Just buy a name brand and you should be ok.

DON't load unncessary services on the machine. Many distributions fire off portmap, atd, apmd and lots of other tidbits that aren't of tremendous benefit for your application. They present a security risk and a resource loss.

There are hardware compatibilty lists with most distributions. Don't buy gear that's too cutting edge as linux may not have support for it. Likewise be careful of buying stuff that's too cheapo to have gotten the driver/module code attention it deserves.

http://www.surfinbox.com/dir.php

 

[RhythmAce]

You may also want to consider running it on a linux platform. You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on securing it from hackers and you will never have to see "Windows has encountered something bad and needs to reboot". Better yet, you don't have to wonder "How long has that message been there?". There are plenty of stable distros out there but one that just happened to pop into my mind is Red Hat.

 

[nokernel]

By talking about distro, I suggest that you go with something other than red-hat, it depends on what is your knowledge of linux. Im just saying this because of the drop of support from red-hat on some of their releases.

My personal choice is gentoo but you know linux is about choice so pick yours!