Topic: Selecting new server hardware

[lloydh]

I need to upgrade my server, my current server is a P3 866, 320GB with 512MB RAM and is well past its use by date but I rely on it heavily for data storage.     Because it is a home system and I don't have a lot of money I can't afford a pre-built system which means that https://hardware.redhat.com/hwcert/ is not much use to me as it only seems to list pre-built systems and a handful of peripherals.      It is also a long time since I have purchased hardware for myself, I'm not looking for help, just some guidance if I am a bit off track.       My server is a Server and Gateway with 5 users and I backup to a 1TB USB disk and is currently 7.5.1.

I have spent a lot of time with Google and also looking at what local PC suppliers are selling and I have come up with the following list.

ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X2 250 Dual Core 3.0Ghz CPU
2GB 1600Mhz DDR3 RAM
2 x 500GB WD SATA Disks
LG SATA DVDRW
Midi Tower Case with 450W PSU (the Asus calculator estimates I need 350W)

I found the motherboard a number of times in Google used with Centos and the only issue I found was people having problems with the onboard Gigabit NIC and that issue now seems to be sorted, the following quote is from the Centos forums.

However, as you have installed a deprecated and unsupported version of CentOS 5 (5.3), the kmod-atl1c does not operate with that older kernel series (the -128.x.y.el5 family). You need to be running a kernel >= 2.6.18-164.el5.

This means I probably won't get the card working with SME 7.5.1 but it should work with 8.0 when it is released and I may quickly try 8 beta to see when I get the hardware, this is not a show stopper for me as I can add another NIC if necessary.

Can anybody see any issues with my hardware choice and I also have 2 specific questions.

First, I have never used SATA before, are there any gotchas I should look out for.    The only thing my searches have turned up is to enable AHCI in BIOS.      Also is there any preferred method as to which SATA ports to use, the board has 6 ports on 2 controllers, 1-4 and 5-6.       Would I be right in putting the 2 disks on 1 and 2 and the DVD on 5 or do I need to split the disks between the 2 controllers.      The MB has onboard RAID but I will be using the SME RAID because it gives me more control.

Second is memory, is there any rule-of-thumb for calculating the memory required, from a little testing I have done recently SME seems to use what memory is available.        Will 2GB be sufficient or should I go for 4GB, this server needs to last me quite a few years.

Thanks, Lloyd.

[byte]

ASUS M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G Motherboard

If that motherboard is similar to my recent purchase of a asus P5G41T-M LX2/GB then you are likely to find the board cannot install with SME Server 7.x, however SME Server 8.0b6 can run this board quite happily.  Personally I've found gigabyte mainboards to be the most compatible with SME Server 7.5 as another recent board I've purchased and using 7.5.1 atm is a Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2.

First, I have never used SATA before, are there any gotchas I should look out for.    The only thing my searches have turned up is to enable AHCI in BIOS.      Also is there any preferred method as to which SATA ports to use, the board has 6 ports on 2 controllers, 1-4 and 5-6.       Would I be right in putting the 2 disks on 1 and 2 and the DVD on 5 or do I need to split the disks between the 2 controllers.      The MB has onboard RAID but I will be using the SME RAID because it gives me more control.

OK - Then welcome to the world of SATA forget everything you've learned about IDE as SATA is a whole new game and have no restrictions on how you place them and in what order.

Second is memory, is there any rule-of-thumb for calculating the memory required, from a little testing I have done recently SME seems to use what memory is available.        Will 2GB be sufficient or should I go for 4GB, this server needs to last me quite a few years.

That depends if you are also using SME Server's built in virus and spam protection, general rule I use is "fill up as much as board can take" memory is cheap and very useful to always have more than you think you need.

Hope this helps!

[idp_qbn]

I would also suggest increasing your disk capacity.
1Tb disks now cost only a little more than 500Mb (.....and then there's 1.5Tb and 2 Tb ones)
Here in Australia, there's only about $10 - $20 difference in cost between 500Mb and 1 Tb. So, getting the bigger disks would only add $20 - $40 to your setup cost.

Another option is to consider RAID5 but that starts to get more expensive.

Cheers
Ian

[lloydh]

Hi Ian, I am also in Aus just south of Brisbane.

I would also suggest increasing your disk capacity.
1Tb disks now cost only a little more than 500Mb (.....and then there's 1.5Tb and 2 Tb ones)
Here in Australia, there's only about $10 - $20 difference in cost between 500Mb and 1 Tb. So, getting the bigger disks would only add $20 - $40 to your setup cost.

I thought about this but I don't need a lot of disk space, up until April this year the server had 2 x 80GB mirrored disks and I changed them to 2 x 320GB and then copied a lot of data I had on PC hard disks and there is now 130GB used and not growing much so I will probably stick with the 500GB disks.

[lloydh]

byte, I have done a lot more reading and thinking since reading your post and I have a question, am I right in believing that the chipset support is built into the linux kernel.     If that is so there are possibly or more likely probably a large number of new MB's that won't work with 7.5.1.

I had a long think about that, my upgrade doesn't have to be now, it can be in a few months or so, I assume that the full release of 8.0 is getting close and I can probably wait until then and purchase a newer MB with new features rather than going for something older.

If that motherboard is similar to my recent purchase of a asus P5G41T-M LX2/GB then you are likely to find the board cannot install with SME Server 7.x, however SME Server 8.0b6 can run this board quite happily.  Personally I've found gigabyte mainboards to be the most compatible with SME Server 7.5 as another recent board I've purchased and using 7.5.1 atm is a Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2.

My server is Intel based because I purchased the box second hand but all my other boxes are Asus/AMD built by myself which is why I went for that combination again, I couldn't find the GA-H55M-S2 listed with any of my local suppliers so maybe it is no longer current.       I had a long look at the Gigabyte site and came up with 2 MB + CPU combinations and I expect that neither will work with 7.5.1 but I can wait for 8.0 or even start using a beta version.

Gigabyte GA-880GM-USB3 AMD SB710 4xDDR3 + AMD Phenom II 550 DualCore 3.1GHz
Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 LGA1156 + Intel Core i3 530 Processor 2.93GHz
 
Both boards are very similar and the reasons for the choice were a) SATA connection on the back panel   b) 2 x USB3 ports   c) 4 memory sockets instead of 2 making adding memory easier.       You probably think I have gone off the rails with those choices but I am looking for something that will last me a number of years.

As for memory, I will probably start with 4GB, the server is not using anything extra, just the basic install with users added.

[Stefano]

Hi Ian, I am also in Aus just south of Brisbane.

I thought about this but I don't need a lot of disk space, up until April this year the server had 2 x 80GB mirrored disks and I changed them to 2 x 320GB and then copied a lot of data I had on PC hard disks and there is now 130GB used and not growing much so I will probably stick with the 500GB disks.

what about backup?

[lloydh]

what about backup?

Stefano, I currently use dar in the admin browser to back up to a 1TB USB disk attached to the server.        That was the catalyst for for getting a new server, the backups were taking so long because of my old hardware, see http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,46499.0.html for further details.