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PsiFox

PsiFox

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Anyone know where you can buy and, get installed, a web server that would be installed on site for intranet purposes with occasional data shunts to a external bog standard dedicated server at a hosting co. data centre?
 
It's got to be a unix platform.
 
I think they only supply to be hosted in data centres, this would be on site.
 
You can use Apache - if you have a sysadmin to hand, give them a server (or make his/her day by letting them spec+build their own - trust me when I say they'll love this)

Dell will build you a half decent server box and usually pre-install something unix based for you. Apache, php, database software can then all be downloaded and installed onto this machine.

Really it's a case of getting someone with a clue to set it all up for you.
 
PsiFox said:
I think they only supply to be hosted in data centres, this would be on site.
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Just to be clear, are you looking for a computer to serve as a server or a piece of software?

If you're looking for the hardware, my recommendation above still stands. It doesn't matter to those three companies where you put your webserver - you can have it in your kitchen for all they care. That said, a server is better of in a room where temperature is fairly stable and not above 20° C. A server can get fairly loud, so you probably want to make sure you can isolate it or that you have a quiet server.

What kind of server are you looking for?
A web server to host your intranet on? A file server? A database server? A DHCP server? Another kind of a server?
 
Apache is freeware and not to difficult to setup. You can pick up SUN Servers off ebay very cheap on fleabay, could always give it a crack yourself or by the kit and pay someone for web design.

I've got a SUN Ultra 60 fully loaded in the house which although antique in terms of SUN kit is more than adequate for a web server (not for sale unfortunately). Can be picked up for around £100.

As for the data push as UNIX is all scripted it wouldn't be to difficult to knock a script together to push the data on a regular basis from a specified folder...
 
Think your mixing hardware/software up here. Does it have to be unix rather than linux? Apache is great free web hosting software and something like 40% of web servers use it. It can be configured for internal use easily.
 
aligibbs said:
Think your mixing hardware/software up here. Does it have to be unix rather than linux? Apache is great free web hosting software and something like 40% of web servers use it. It can be configured for internal use easily.
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Linux is a form of UNIX.

As an alternative to Solaris Redhat used to be a freeware downlaod and have a duistribution that runs very nicely on SUN hardware and includes an Apache webserver built in which was easily configurable via a GUI althoguh ahven;t played with it in a while so not sure if this is still the case.
 
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depending on whether you want full redundancy or not it doesnt have to be a "server" as such.. a reasonable spec PC would do you..

what sort of load (no of users accessing, sort of web apps using) do you think it'll get?
 
TheNissanMan said:
Linux is a form of UNIX.

As an alternative to Solaris Redhat used to be a freeware downlaod and have a duistribution that runs very nicely on SUN hardware and includes an Apache webserver built in which was easily configurable via a GUI althoguh ahven;t played with it in a while so not sure if this is still the case.
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Linux isn't a form of UNIX. It's a UNIX-like system, but it's not UNIX. From among the freely available and installable on x86, *BSDs (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD...) and OpenSolaris are descendants of Berkeley UNIX (FreeBSD) and System V (OpenSolaris/Solaris).

I do not know whether the OP needs something with GUI administration tools or whether there will be someone else to take care of the server, but what OS can be used depends on the hardware he buys. Then it makes sense to talk about the actual software, unless there's something specific that has to run on it. He mentioned it has to be a UNIX platform, but I have missed whether it has to be a real UNIX or whether it can be a UNIX clone, in which case at least Linux and Minix could be options for him.

What is the server going to be used for?
neil_g has some questions worth answering in this thread.
 
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I would suggest Dell for a reasonably priced server, my company uses Dell servers.
The spec you need depends on the workload, number of users, software you plan to run etc. It's hard to give any more specific information without knowing your needs.

Do you have a system admin/IT department or are you going to be installing things yourself ?
 
It's not for me but for a client. He will be responsible for employing someone to look after it
 
PsiFox said:
It's not for me but for a client. He will be responsible for employing someone to look after it
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What kind of apps is the client going to run on the server?
Hardware-wise, we have HP servers at work because they have a good price/performance ratio for us. We run Windows Server 2003 and SUSE Linux on them.
 
PsiFox said:
Anyone know where you can buy and, get installed, a web server that would be installed on site for intranet purposes with occasional data shunts to a external bog standard dedicated server at a hosting co. data centre?
Click to expand...
If you are talking about hardware check with whoever is hosting how much rackspace you can use. Also they may specify what hardware you should use if they are supposed to be supporting it for you.

If you're talking about software you probably want Apache or IIS to be installed on the machine depending on whether its running Windows or Linux.

TBH if you're asking these questions you should probably think about getting expert help before moving on or things may not go well - maybe wait for this support guy to start work and do what he wants?
 
Sounds like you want WAMP, running on a decent PC
 
Typical I.T. client, do half the research and he changes his mind. Thanks anyway chaps:)
 
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