Asking for basic server hardware info

[settingsun]

Hello,

I'm beginning the process of learning what kind of hardware I'll need for a business server colocated in a datacenter.

The server will use fedora, apache, php and mysql. I'll have many ip addresses. I'll need at least one for email, one for an ssh tunnel, http, https, etc. I'll have at least 10 ip adresses.



I'm looking for information that will help figure out what hardware I'll need.


Some of my questions are:



What kind of nics will I need?

How many nics will I need?

How many ip addresses can I nic handle?

Does a nic use firmware like a router does?

What is the best firmware (if yes to above)?


Any information that points me in the right direction is appreciated.

Thank you

[george_toolan]

You only need one ip address ;-)

[marvin_ita]

No offense, but I suggest you to start taking basic networking lessons if you plan to manage a business server... from the type of questions you're asking I don't think you have the basics for managing a server.

[jpollard]

I also would not recommend Fedora for that either. It is just too unstable. Boot problems, shutdown problems, not working problems, keeping it working... well, F16 is better than F15, but neither is better than CentOS/SL.

Originally Posted by jpollard

I also would not recommend Fedora for that either. It is just too unstable. Boot problems, shutdown problems, not working problems, keeping it working... well, F16 is better than F15, but neither is better than CentOS/SL.

I'd second that and also point out that the upgrade cycle for Fedora is just far too rapid for a production server. Trust me, you don't want to support a constantly shifting platform, and unreliable OS upgrades.

[jpollard]

Not to mention the problems of hanging shutdowns and boots requiring a personal presense to intervene (reset button was the only way out).

I'm still getting those, though I think my last one was due to a VM running F17 not shutting down.

[stevea]

Choose a server distro - not fedora.

Haven't looked in a year+ but this website used to have a lot of good tutorials on the basics.
http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/

How many ip addresses can I nic handle?

As many as the OS allows. On recent Linux the limit high - I've tested 400.