[Hcoop-discuss] Server pricing

[Adam Chlipala]

Justin S. Leitgeb wrote:

>Machine A (fileserver): AFSd (or whatever the AFS server process is 
>called), sshd (but only for admin login), kerberos server?
>
>Machine B ("public" services): Cyrus IMAP, httpd (perhaps multiple 
>copies running to avoid service disruption in case one user needs to 
>load modules), smtpd (exim), sshd (but only for admin login)
>
>Machine C (login server): sshd for normal user access, program 
>compilation and common shell use
>  
>
A large part of the benefit from separating Machines B and C comes from 
not allowing rank-and-file members to run any code on Machine B.  For 
this reason, I think C needs an Apache as well, for serving dynamic web 
sites.  Member sites with static content only could be hosted on either 
B or C.

The rest sounds good, modulo my lack of experience with network 
administration.

>According to the hardware pricing examples I sent out previously, I 
>would imagine that machines B and C are something like the Dell 1850's I 
>suggested, with RAID 1 and 73 GB available space on each.  Machine A 
>could be ordered without hard disks, and loaded by one of us with SATA 
>RAID and a bunch of disks.  A hardware SATA RAID controller for this 
>box, like the 3Com Escalade would be good.  There are 4, 8, and 12 port 
>options available for this card, so we can talk about which one would be 
>best for us.
>
We're going to want to have a hardware support contract with our 
colocation providers, since at this stage we can't afford to have our 
own techs on hand 24/7 ready to go fix hardware problems.  For that 
reason, I'm thinking that it will probably make the most sense to choose 
our hardware in consultation with our provider and have them order and 
install it.  We don't want to host any hardware that they wouldn't be 
familiar with.  It's also likely that companies in this space get 
discounts for bulk ordering.