Servers aren't necessarily different from PC's. There
are some concepts to go over here. "Server" can refer
to any machine that provides a "service", it can refer
to a singular process (such as the httpd server or
file server running on any machine) or it can refer to
a singular machine. The term is often over used and
underdefined. It can be a concept, a process or an
appliance (single box). I guess that's the first
lesson. :) 

Teaching what you need to know about servers? Well,
there's no end to what you can know about servers.
Servers serve services. That opens up a lot of
territory. One machine can be a server for some things
and a client for other things at the same time.

The focus on what to do with servers and how to manage
them changes over time. Industrial servers used to be
big expensive machines and it paid to hire people
(like myself) to monitor them, manage them and tweak
them for maximun efficiency (to save hardware costs of
hundreds of thousands of $). Now machines are so cheap
it becomes more cost effective to buy a few extra
machines and lay off people like me because, even
though the machines are configured badly and are
inefficient it's always cheaper to add more boxes than
manage and tweak the ones you have. 

And now there are clusters, so that poor
configurations can propogate themselves with great
rapidity!

I'm not really bitter, just amused. It's like what we
use to have to do with assembler language in tight
spaces that people now do with visual basic and no
need to care about wasted resources. What's a few
extra megs of memory out of a half a gig of ram
(megabytes of ram didn't use to exist! ).

So the whole idea of what a server is and what it does
transforms over time.

Now that I've complicated the issue and spread it
across decades, what is you'd like to know?

Wayne


--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hi Wayne, I subscribed to your user group last week.
>  I brought a couple 
> servers (Compaq Proliant 2500R and 6500R) from the
> materials Exchange here in 
> Trenton.  While i was there a gentlemen by the name
> of Sean referred me to the 
> hamlug.  I'm really a newbie to anything that has to
> do with servers 
> considering that its totally different than your
> regular pc.  I was wondering 
> if it was possible for you guy to teach me what i
> need to know about servers.  
> I also need to know when you guys will have your
> next installfest. 
> I will attend you next meeting which is this
> wednesday, hope to see you there.  
> Thankz for your time and consideration, hope to hear
> from you soon.
> 
> Take Care,
> Ahmed   
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Quoting Wayne Hardy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> 
> > Jeff,
> > You've opened up a topic which a few of us have
> > discussed but not opened up to the group as a
> whole. A
> > couple of us are assembling an online server that
> > hamlug can use (when it's ready) and others have
> > offered hosting services. Now I'm starting to
> think a
> > hamlug virtual server project would be in order to
> > load share between several mirrors and provide a
> path
> > to our site even if any server goes down. Does
> anyone
> > want to work on that?
> > wayne
> > 
> > --- Jeffrey Yep <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > The offer for web hosting from Train Yard
> Software
> > > is free. We of course
> > > should plan for a backup incase that offer ever
> gets
> > > retracted.
> > > 
> > > Jeff
> > > 
> > > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > > From: "Wayne Hardy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 7:30 PM
> > > 
> > > 
> > > > Just curious...
> > > > who is paying for hamlug's web hosting
> services.
> > > And
> > > > who will sign and pay if/when we switch
> providers?
> > > > Wayne
> > > 
> > 
> > 
> > __________________________________
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product
> search
> > http://shopping.yahoo.com
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 


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