On 15 Mar 2002, Ashley Moore wrote: > Hi guys, Hi Ashley, I have a SOHO setup, so I can try to help... > after praising Linux and its virtues to a friend i met a couple of > months ago, he has asked me to setup a website with 'some sort of > redundancy' to host his shop. Better get a handle on this one... it's right up there with 'some sort of security'... A few years ago, an IT Director at a very large retailrer asked me about securing his network; but didn't want to answer any questions... So... I went to his whiteboard, drew a box representing his network... then drew a padlock around the box... "Redundancy" can range from a backup boot floppy to "dual <everything>" including separate telco entrances to the building. The fallacy is thinking that *nothing* is a single point of failure... Get this expectations nailed down before starting, or you'll find yourself in a "never win" situation... > I have to suggest a 'decent' server (semi-server) class m/c config. I Not sure I fully grok this... more nebulosity... > plan to install LM on it obviously. he currently has an old AMD-K6(will > become firewall), and connected to the net via DSL. eventually, he plans To date, I've been using a commercial firewall (LinkSys); but can NOT recommend this solution at the moment because this vendor is having some serious issues as can be seen at http://pfortin.com/Linux/LinkSys/ I chose this approach because I didn't want to spend any time messing with ipchains, NAT, etc... Nowadays, things have changed and given my LinkSys issues, I'd go with a Linux f/w... > to put together a small network with 3/4 computers, scanner, printer, > etc. with about 5 users. i would like to take this opportunity to setup > a secure private network with web, ftp, samba, NFS, NIS, Postfix, SANE, > etc.(maybe even try to config a diskless node at a later date!) Can't help with Samba since 2 years with that S**T OS resulted in a heart attack (long story; don't ask...) which is why I have some subtle and not-so-subtle anti-M$ stuff on my web site. You can find out about my current setups: postfix: http://pfortin.com/Linux/PostFix/ web sites: http://pfortin.com/Linux/WWW/ I'm a avid ^H^H^H^H^H rabid spam and M$VTS fighter... see my pages... :^) > keeping the above in mind, I have to start with a computer that will > eventually function as the primary server for this minature network. > I was thinking on the lines of a dual processor mobo, 512mb ram, scsi + > raid 5. what about redundant powersupplies (does this require a 'special > mobo?) and redundant network cards. or maybe even provide complete > 'mirrored' computer. I'd be interested in hearing what others do in this respect... my WWW setup is really easy to work with, test, publish; but I've just started thinking about automated redundancy to a second system... There's an issue with *automated* redundancy... what if the master gets corrupted? Just watch the Cooker list comments about mirrors... > I'm open to suggestions. if this mail is inappropriate for this list > contact me directly. I think it's appropriate for starters; but it may get too deep later... I don't currently have time to write formal HOWTOs; but I try to find time to document some of the more obscure stuff on my site so that I have something to refer to at the next "install"... speaking of which... sure wish I could install the next major release (9.0?) on a *running* system... even that wish is on my site... > cheers, Just some thoughts and pointers; but this is a topic which needs better documentation, etc... HTH... and hope it makes sense since I just got up and mornings are not my best time... :^) Pierre
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