small server setup

[Sandy Harris]

Arun Shrimali <arun.reso at gmail.com> wrote:

> > > I am planning to setup a small server with PDC, samba, gateway, proxy,
> mail, egroupware, etc. where around 100-125 concurrent users will access the
> server. ...

> What should be the best hardware configuration, processor, RAM, HDD, etc ..

Since some of the data will be valuable and a lot of people will depend
on the server, you want to look at redundancy. Using RAID is an obvious
possibility, having a good backup strategy a requirement, and redundant
or partly redundant servers worth considering. Since no-one on your
network will be able to log in if PDC goes down, you need two of it.
All servers should have UPS of course.

I'd suggest you look at splitting up the load. At a minimum, I'd put the
gateway & proxy on a separate machine and set up heavy firewalling
there. The Samba server, PDC, mail server, et cetera, are then partly
protected from various nasty things that might come in from the net.

Personally, I'd be inclined to split it further. If Samba and mail are on
the same machine, then a weakness in either lets an attacker walk
all over the data for both. If they are separate, then you are safer.

You might consider cheap limited machines, for example Intel Atom,
for some roles. One as gateway/firewall, another as perhaps PDC
and IDS (neither very demanding applications) plus enough disk
to back up the main server(s?).