What Hardware / Which setup?

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Jim1977 Author

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What Hardware / Which setup?

Hi Guys

As a newbie to servers I am hoping that someone can please give me some advice. I am looking to but a server basically to get my feet wet and start learning about networking, servers, services and web development. I am currently looking at an Xserve and either a Mac pro or iMac as the client - fortunately I have a good budget available 😉. I have a couple of questions really about my idea?

1. Should I add raid mirroring to the Xserve to act as a backup or can I use something like time machine with an external hard drive?
2. How would I go about connecting all this up, I assume I would need a switch? If yes which one and why? I currently have a Draytek Vigor 2600vg wireless broadband router - would this work in place of a switch?
3. Could someone clarify that I could connect to the server via VPN to access files from a remote computer over the internet?
4. Would I benefit from any other hardware/software other than an xserve, client (mac pro/imac), switch and cabling?
5. Can I mix and match servers in the future, i.e. a Dell server running Linux - Ubuntu

Thanks for your time

Best regards

Jim

xserve, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 26, 2009 4:14 AM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

59,325 points

Mar 26, 2009 9:50 AM in response to Jim1977

1. Should I add raid mirroring to the Xserve to act as a backup or can I use something like time machine with an external hard drive?

Rule number 1 - repeat after me. RAID is NOT backup. RAID is NOT backup. RAID is NOT backup.

RAID can provide protection against disk failure - a disk fails and you keep ticking. But that's it.
If your mail server configuration gets corrupted, it's corrupted on all disks in the mirror (if you're using mirror RAID). If your users' mailboxes get corrupted, they're corrupted on all disks in the mirror. If you delete a file, it's deleted on all disks in the mirror. Do you see where I'm going here?

RAID doesn't offer any chance of restore, which is an essential element in any backup process.

For maximum reliability and uptime you want BOTH backup and RAID.
You want RAID to protect you against real-time disk failure. You want backup to protect you against accidental file deletion and corruption issues.

2. How would I go about connecting all this up, I assume I would need a switch? If yes which one and why? I currently have a Draytek Vigor 2600vg wireless broadband router - would this work in place of a switch?

I have no idea about that Draytek - it's not listed as a current product on their site, so I have no way of checking its specs. If it's only a wireless router then it will not work since there's no wireless support on the XServe, so at the very least you'll need something with ethernet ports.

3. Could someone clarify that I could connect to the server via VPN to access files from a remote computer over the internet?

Probably. Mac OS X Server has a built-in VPN server that's pretty easy to configure. The biggest issue will be in network topology - how to get external connections to the server, and how your subnet(s) are set. In all, it can be done will somewhere between little and lots of work 🙂

4. Would I benefit from any other hardware/software other than an xserve, client (mac pro/imac), switch and cabling?

While the XServe is designed for 24/7 server operations (hot-swap drives, power supplies, etc.) it really is designed to sit in a rack. If you don't have a rack then there's little point in getting an XServe over a MacPro, especially for a test/learning environment. At 30" deep it's not something that will easily sit on a desk.

5. Can I mix and match servers in the future, i.e. a Dell server running Linux - Ubuntu

Mix and match to do what? You can have whatever servers you like running whatever services you like. Whether they're integrated or standalone, though, makes a big difference, but it depends on what you want to do with them.

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