Rack vs tower servers.

[Nilsen]

Hello

I have very little knowledge about servers, and zero about rack servers. I have been offered to buy a very cheap and new Dell r200 or sc1435 RACK server from a company. Id like to install windows home server on it and use it at home for filesharing, printing and media stuff.

Any reason why windows home server should not work when installed in a regular server, and are there some problems with rackservers that i may not have thought about? Never even seen one up close but im guessing they are pretty much the same except for the form factor. Do they make more noise and heat than towers?

[RTHolmes]

chances are it will be very deep - our HP rack servers are ~800mm deep (5U and 2U). they tend to be quite noisy too as they usually have lots of fans.

if its to be used as a file/print server why use any flavour of windows? the obvious choice is linux 

[Nilsen]

Yeah noise may be an issue, but it will have its own room so ill live with that. Linux is fine i guess, but i want easy setup and management without learning too much. Would also be great if the missus could fiddle about abit if im not at home and some issues comes up.

[RTHolmes]

yeah thats why you should use linux - no management required, no fiddling needed - install it and forget it. setup is easy too depending on what you want to do with it of course.

[Nilsen]

Very much doubt that i will be able to install linux on anything and then sit back and watch it work like magic. There are always a bunch of setting and console stuff you need to understand just to get it to print. Even the missus is easyer to configure than linux. She has some buildt in features that on a good day can remind you of intelligent and rational behaviour.

I want "next" buttons to push and menues that makes sense.. not command prompts and text input that reminds me of commodore64. I am too old and slow

[Excel1]

all that sounds like work, but...

the choice is easy, servers with racks

[Sol75]

A Server is a server.  Rack or regular tower.  I am an IT consultant and use both, depending on the clients needs.  I can say that the rack mount TEND to be a bit noisier, due to the smaller form factor, the fans must spin at a higher RPM, thus, more noise, but the newer tower servers are noisy as well.  Most of them will throttle the fans depending on the heat created, thus sometimes will runnoiser than others such as at times of heavy load).  If you put this in a closet or some such in your basement, you likely won't even notice it is there. As far as windows home server, I have not messed with that at all yet, but I see no reason it wont run, since it is jsut a "dumbed down: version of server 2003.  Drivers and such would be the only issue, and considering it is likely a but older server, even that shold not be a problem.  If you need any help feel free to PM or email me @ pittspilot@cinci.rr.com

Sol75

[Nilsen]

Thx

I also emailied Dell and they said it will work fine but that even their weakest rack mounted server would be a huge overkill in terms of performance and power consumption so the guy did not recomend it. I too know its a huge overkill, but given that the two i have been offered are brand new and cost me just under 100 USD each (can only buy one of them) abit of extra performance wont hurt me . I am worried about the power consumption tho.

[Jackal1]

all that sounds like work, but...

the choice is easy, servers with racks
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Hooters 3.0

[indy007]

Very much doubt that i will be able to install linux on anything and then sit back and watch it work like magic. There are always a bunch of setting and console stuff you need to understand just to get it to print. Even the missus is easyer to configure than linux. She has some buildt in features that on a good day can remind you of intelligent and rational behaviour.

I want "next" buttons to push and menues that makes sense.. not command prompts and text input that reminds me of commodore64. I am too old and slow

Less than you'd expect actually. Linux has come a long way. You used to have to know a thing or two, but nowadays you can pretty much pop in a CD and watch it install itself. As long as you install the SAMBA package, which is file/printer sharing on a windows network, it'd be good to go (may have changed, it's been a few years).

Other than that, yeah like people said, the main difference is size & noise. Otherwise it's just a PC case like any other. You could technically bolt some flanges to a tower server and screw it into a rack if you wanted to. Wouldn't matter.

[Nilsen]

Think ill give it a go. I can no doubt sell the server with a profit later anyway

Any good linux distros for servers that are easy to use and set up? I currently run Puppy on my old thinkpad t23 that i use for browsing only. Very snappy actually and works well for websurfing and email.

[bcadoo]

Ubuntu has been the easiest linux distro I've installed.  I've worked with redhat and suse as well as hp-ux, solaris, ultrix, xenix, and some more I can't remember right now.  GUI's are nice but I always seem to end up at the console to do the 'serious' configs.

[Fulmar]

all that sounds like work, but...

the choice is easy, servers with racks
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Comedy Gold!