building a dual Opteron Server
Hi,
for building a new server, I´ve made a list of hardware to consider more
closely. The server should, mainly, act as a SAMBA PDC fileserver and
run an ERP software which is web-based (client written in Java) on top
of a postgres database. It has to serve about 50 users and will probably
in service for a quite long time. The vendor of the ERP software
recommends using a dual CPU system.
The list of hardware I´ve made is as follows:
two AMD Opteron 246
Tyan Thunder K8S (S2882)
2 or 4 GB RAM
3ware Escalade 8506-8 or 9500S-8 or 9500S-4 (preferably 9500S-8)
6 HDs @ ~200GB each (S-ATA), 5 disks in RAID-5, one spare disk
I´m not sure of the required size of the RAID array, we might start with
a smaller one and eventually extend it later. LVM should be helpful then.
Having ACLs on the SAMBA shares is a must. The server should run Debian.
Here are some questions I´m concerned of:
+ How´s your experience with the above hardware? Are there known
incompatibilities or the like? Should I better use another
board? Faster/slower CPUs?
+ Should I stay with Woody or begin with Sarge?
+ Which kernel should I use, 2.6.x or the latest 2.4?
+ Does ext3fs in 2.6.x kernels have ACLs, or do I have to use XFS?
+ Which SAMBA version should I use?
+ What about 64 vs. 32 bit? Do I have to compile (important) packages
or are they readily available compiled for Opterons? Would I
actually gain performance by making use of 64bit software?
Any advice on the topic would be greatly appreciated. Maybe I´m mistaken
in general and should build the server totally different :)
THX in advance!
GH
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