Hi,
I'm not sure why, but someone asked me to review a bid they received for a
server to run their site. That's where the $64,000 USD part comes from.
Whew!
This is not a commerce site (it's a .org), and unlikely to get slashdotted.
24/7 is nice, but it's not the end of the world if the server is down for
12 hours. The server is normally running about 1.5 hits/second with about
30 10MB mod_perl processes. Low database activity. So I imagine an $800
PC running linux could do the job -- saving $63,200 in the process ;).
Anyway, I've read the Guide on this issue again, and I've looked over the
High-Availability Linux Project, but I was wondering if anyone knew of
links or had experience with building a nice small inexpensive and reliable
server for running mod_perl. Frankly, A single CPU P550 running Linux with
1G RAM and a couple fast SCSI drives (and some decent ISP connectivity)
would more than do the job. But what do I know! Do mod_perl programmers
know hardware?
So, I'm not looking for any specific advice, or do I want to discuss the
maintenance issues, but just some basic ideas on hardware, or pointers to
links you might have found useful.
Like: "I'm running a P550 with 1G, ultra-wide SCSI and 10 hits/second and
never see any load problem."
or "Check out this link and see how to run two inexpensive boxes in
parallel to maintain 100% uptime and you even don't have to worry about
tape backup."
or "No, it's worth running RAID with hot-swappable disks and power supplies."
or "I'll set up that server for $64,000!!" (no, sorry, I'm first in line
for that job...)
Thanks,
Bill Moseley
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
