[DCN-TechOps] Specs for new DCN server

[Steve McMahon]

Greetings DCN tech ops,

Jack Crowell, Robert Nickerson, Tom Stanionis, Richard Lowenberg and 
myself recently met to discuss specs for a couple of new application 
servers. Please join us in the discussion, as we try to spec machines.

Requirements for the new systems:

* Excellent processor and memory performance to capably run Zope, Plone 
and MySQL.

* Ideally running Solaris, to leverage Jack's experience, but Linux or 
BSD would be acceptable if we can't manage Solaris in our budget.

* At least two ether ports.

* At least RAID 1 (mirroring) capable. We don't, though, need huge 
initial storage.

* Redundant power supplies would be nice.

* Start w/ at least 1GB of RAM, expandable to at least 4GB.

Budget: we need to come in under $10,000 for two similarly equipped 
machines and 1-yr service contracts.

Initial comments and links from Jack, Rob and myself are pasted below.

Thanks, Steve


Robert Nickerson wrote:
 > Hi
 >
 > Server suggestions
 >
 > Really like these:
 >
 > www.supermicro.com
 >
 > hada colo customer a while back that had several of these for a redundant
 > database style application similar to what you are planning. Also my good
 > buddy in the NOC at Exodus recommends them
 >
 >
 > Sun NETRA series is the price range we are looking at
 > http://www.anysystem.com/netra-t1-105-special-1.html

John M. Crowell wrote:
 > FWIW: Here's a recent Sun presentation on their new systems:
 >
 > 
http://see.sun.com/Apps/DCS/mcp?r=70042sYz3dlu01A0003miB3miy42sYz0mbbb0bcE


[From Steve:]

Take a look at Sun's entry Opteron offering:

http://store.sun.com/CMTemplate/CEServlet?process=SunStore&cmdViewProduct_CP&catid=111394

The "Small" configuration -- plus an additional drive -- would get us 
going with an option to add a second processor later. We could start 
with 32-bit Solaris and upgrade to 64 when available.

Steve

-- 
______________________________________________________

Steve McMahon
Reid-McMahon, LLC
steve at reidmcmahon.com
steve at dcn.org