I want to build a web hosting computer, any newbie suggestions?

Question

It's not my first time building a computer, so I have an idea of the basics. What I want to do is learn a thing or two from those of you that know what the heck they're doing.

I'm ultimately building it to use as an FTP site for work realted audio storage/transfer - mostly in .wav format. (Yes WAV, an nessesary evil, it retains the quaility for broadcast.)

Then once that's set up, down the road, to host a few web sites to offset any costs for upkeep. (my brother designs web sites. so I allready know that I'll get a couple of customers)

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

So clearly what you want is a "server' machine. The most stable servers traditionally are *nix boxes. For the past five years or so, Linux has grabbed the lionshare of hosting.

Typically internet connected boxes are colocated. The cost of colocation is typically space rental + bandwidth, with rack space rental being a large part of the total cost. Data center computers are rack mounted, so the typical answer to keep costs down is to use the smallest footprint possible, hence a 1U machine. HP/Compaq, Dell and IBM lead the market in the intel based (Linux) server space, although Sun has been trying hard to get a piece of it, and there are also clone vendors out there.

Because a 1U server is very limited in size, you can expect that it will be maxed at 2 cpus. Until recently, most of these machines were 32 bit, so that capped memory at 4g. Obviously, 64 bit chips are starting to gain a lot of traction, and this opens up the possibility of adding a lot more memory to these servers. While that's definately not needed for your FTP server, webservers that include server side scripts and cgi's and possibly also run databases can always benefit from memory. If I were buying a machine I'd get a 64 bit machine myself but this is a tough call when you don't have any experience setting up a linux server.

The other trend is the trend towards virtualization. Using software like VMWare or Xen, I'd strongly advise that you run at least 2 virtual servers -- this will let you have a sandbox for your main server (ftp server for your audio files) and seperate server(s) for your websites. This really pays off when you consider that you probably want a test and development server.

As you have to allocate memory to each virtual server, obviously the more you have the more you can allocate to each server.

The only fly in the oinment is the question of storage. Typically, you can get 2 drives in a 1u server, although you might be able to get 4 depending on the manufacturer. You want to plan your storage needs out pretty carefully. The larger the drives, the slower and more prone to problem they tend to be. With that said, if you plan to use this as network storage, your network bandwidth will be your bottleneck, and not your IO. If you already know however, that you will have 4 terabyte of these files, then you probably either need a 2u or 4u machine, or you need a disk subsystem.

That's about all I can throw out there, with the information you provided. Hopefully at very least it causes you to ask some additional questions.

One last thing I'd suggest to you in regards to .wav, is that there is the alternative of FLAC, that is a *lossless* compressed audio format that can reduce a .wave file by 30-50% with no loss of quality. You can either transcode back to the original .wav or use a flac player.

Answer 2

you will need an average computer, good CPU probably between 3-3.4ghz, as far as dual core for cpu's its up to you although all dual core is intended for is to multitask and multithread faster then a single core. since it will be mostly internet based youl obviously need a fast internet connection try adsl 2+, RAM 1gb to 2gb will be plenty and you will need alot of Hard drive space as your working with wav, look at 250-300gb or more as far as everything else e.g. graphics card, cd/dvd drive it wont make much of a difference what you purchase/build. for a soundcard any 5.1 sound card will work although if you purchase a new motherboard ( btw if you are going with intel without dual core go gor a motherboard with chipset 945/ if it is dual core 965or 975depending on your budget) the motherboards will come with onboard 7.1 HD sound which will be plentyful for your situation. hope that helps

Answer 3

I liked this page at Tizag as a reference for different configuration, as well as a discussion on what you want to get out of hosting yourself instead of using a hosting site.