Rolling your own pc's is great fun .. I've built all my home boxen.

That said, you could take a look at the IBM Netfinity's.  I've a pair of the
3000 models running at work that have been great for what we paid.  $1700 gets
you a PIII-450, 9G scsi, etherpro100, 64M mem (added another 64M).  It serves
up dns, dhcp, and 50 laser printers to some 400+ windows users w/o breaking a
sweat.  Adding a redundant ps, and raid-1 mirroring would probably double the
price.  Linux install was a breeze.  There were issues at the time with
getting X to recognize the video chip, but that's probably fixed by now.

And do get a tape backup.  DLT's the way to go .. I just found a 15G Quantum
on eBay for $400.  The tapes hit the pocketbook, but off-site storeage really
should be considered!

-jh

rgoldber at d.umn.edu wrote:

> Hello!
>
> I'm building a file/print server.  I'd like your thoughts.
>
> The network (as of right now) consists of 10-12 win98 machines plus one
> linux backup machine.  Right now the database for the key client app (and a
> bunch of other important stuff) sits on one of the win98 machines.  Ick.
> Before I put the linux machine in (a p75 with 32mb, found in a closet),
> they were depending on a guy switching out zip disks everyday.  Ick.  The
> linux machine rsyncs the current file "server" every night, plus once a
> week, so we can go back in time.  If the "server" fails, the backup machine
> easily subs for it till things are righted, losing at most the day's work.
> Not good, but better than trying to restore a borken machine from zips,
> losing the same amount of work.
>
> I go into detail about the backup machine because I'm thinking of using it
> instead of a tape drive.  Anyhoo, here's my plan:
>
> New dedicated file/print server (running linux, duh)
>
> pIII 450-600
> 128mb ram
> asus p3bf or abit bf6
> 2-4 quantum fireball 10.2g LM series (ide)
> 3ware ide raid card (2 or 4 port, doing raid 1)
> dual hot swap power supply
> maybe a tape drive
>
> I somewhat expect to be beaten severely for using "ide" and "raid" in the
> same sentence but...  Does anybody have any hands on experience with
> 3ware's cards?  The sales rep put me in contact with a couple of people who
> really like them...
>
> This is a dusty environment, so I don't trust anything that moves.
> Redundancy is more important than performance.  So, raid 1, hot swap power
> supplies, I feel warm and fuzzy like.
>
> What I'm most interested in hearing about is how stupid/smart it is to use
> the junker backup machine as an alternative to a tape drive.  Secondly, if
> it's really stupid, I'd like some suggestions for sub $1000 tape
> drives.  Of course, all other pointers will be appreciated.
>
> This email turned out really long, sorry.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> -
>
> Ryan
>
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--
John Hawley // Network Admin
Billy Graham Evang. Assoc.
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jhawley at bgea.org