Computer for server

[xionhack]

Hello. I want to build a computer for server 2003, maybe 2008 and linux to practice making them a server, what does the computer need to have? Can somebody tell me?

 

[eritguy]

It really depends on if you are going to just install it and destroy it, or install it, configure it and put IIS or SQL on it.
You can run Windows Server 2008 with a basic install doing nothing on a P4 1.8ghz with 1gb RAM.

Post what more you have planned with it and we'll go from there.
Do you already have some hardware available? Maybe a real server?

 

[xionhack]

I want to install IIS, SQL, I want to try to configure it in every way, Im doing my security and network plus certifications soon, but I dont have much in hand experience, I want to work as a network administrator, but want to get some experience now, maybe even setting up an exchange server.

 

[eritguy]

Your best bet might be to build yourself a decent server with VMware ESXi (free), setup iSCSI (storage) to another computer/server with large disc space, and just utilize VMware with your testing needs.
You'll most likely want at least a server/desktop with a 4 cores, as much ram as you can stick in it and a few hard drives.
Using snapshot in vmware will save you a heck of a lot of time troubleshooting issues.

It's worth checking out. Let us know if you need more help on what to get. What kind of budget, what you already have, etc.

 

[kmcferrin]

Your best bet might be to build yourself a decent server with VMware ESXi (free), setup iSCSI (storage) to another computer/server with large disc space, and just utilize VMware with your testing needs.
You'll most likely want at least a server/desktop with a 4 cores, as much ram as you can stick in it and a few hard drives.
Using snapshot in vmware will save you a heck of a lot of time troubleshooting issues.

Holy overkill, batman!

Just about any relatively modern PC will do if all you are using it for is practice/training.

When I was working on my 2008 certs I bought a cheap Dell Poweredge T105 "server" for about $300. It has a 1.8 GHz dual core CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a pair of 80GB hard disks. It was more than sufficient for me to install Hyper-V and get several Windows 2008 and 2003 VMs up and running for training purposes.

A lot of people hear the word "server" and think that it automatically means some uber-powerful computer with massive amounts of memory, CPU, and storage. In reality the nomenclature "server" is based on what it does, not what hardware it has.

If you need to simulate multiple PCs/servers, get a virtualization solution like ESXi, Hyper-V Server, or Virtual PC (which runs on top of Windows, while the other two are stand-alone products). There's no need to go all the way with iSCSI storage and multiple physical boxes. Unless you desperately want to build failover clusters of Hyper-V servers (which you can't even do with ESXi) then local storage will be fine.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows 7
MCTS:Hyper-V
MCTS:System Center Virtual Machine Manager
MCTS:Windows Server 2008 R2, Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[vacunita]

Your best bet might be to build yourself a decent server with VMware ESXi (free), setup iSCSI (storage) to another computer/server with large disc space, and just utilize VMware with your testing needs.
You'll most likely want at least a server/desktop with a 4 cores, as much ram as you can stick in it and a few hard drives.
Using snapshot in vmware will save you a heck of a lot of time troubleshooting issues.

Holy overkill, batman!

Just about any relatively modern PC will do if all you are using it for is practice/training.

Totally agree.

For practice any modern Pc will run Linux and Windows Server 2003 or 2008.

Heck I had an old P4 2.0GHz with 1Gb RAM running windows server 2003 at home and it was fine. Serving only 3 PC's at home and only 2 of those constantly.

As long as its just him dong things for practice and he's not serving a 5000 computer network anything over a regular PC is really overkill and completely unnecessary.

A lot of people hear the word "server" and think that it automatically means some uber-powerful computer with massive amounts of memory, CPU, and storage. In reality the nomenclature "server" is based on what it does, not what hardware it has.

Agreed again.

People seem to mistake 'Server' for "I'm going to have to provide simultaneous high speed access to 5000 PC"s using high bandwidth real-time video at all times from a central location"


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Phil AKA Vacunita
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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.