To buy a file server?

[hasrin]

Hi,
Anybody can suggest the best setup for my new file server. To cater around 200 users and the server should running red hat linux. Offer services such as NIS, print.

What i have in mind is something like Dual Xeon processor 1.7Ghz, 1G DDRAM, 2 SCSI disk (18 Gb & 73 Gb respectively)

Thanks in advanced

 

[urgl]

IMHO a plain file/print server does not need dual Xeons, I'd rather invest in more RAM and a RAID 5.
My experience is that the CPU load is not a big problem for a file server, RAM gives it more memory to cache the FS and a good RAID controller (or external RAID subsys) prevents a loss of data.
Typically there are 3 bottlenecks on a server:
.) Disk IO
can be solved by using RAID 0+1 or 5+1 but depends on the actual load users will generate
.) Network
100 vs. 1000 Mbit, just be aware that not all Gigabit NICs can feed 1G (some are don to 300M/s)
.) PCI bus
Depends on the chipset used on the server board, I have very good experince with Serverworks chipsets.

To serve 200 users I would use more than one server in order to minimize the impact of a failure on a server.
NEVER EVER forget about backups !!

Hope that helps.

Hans