OT: PHP question, club related ... Options

[ThinAir]

This is for servers. We host the web site with an external ISP. Besides file & print services, internally I'm running Exchange 5.5 and need to be able to move to a "webmail" setup so that folks without regular workstatons can get email and calendar, plus those who travel need to be able to get to their mail so I need to set up something secure with a DMZ. Most of the servers for the webmail setup will be dual processor Pentium II systems. I've got a couple of software products that have to run on Windows servers so Windows wouldn't completely go away. The issue for me is that I won't have any funds for at least a year for new Windows licenses or for Exchange 2003 Enterprise Edition (which is needed for for newer versions of Outlook Web Access).

[lapuwali]

QUOTE (ErnieDV @ Feb 14 2005, 10:23 PM)

This is for servers. We host the web site with an external ISP. Besides file & print services, internally I'm running Exchange 5.5 and need to be able to move to a "webmail" setup so that folks without regular workstatons can get email and calendar, plus those who travel need to be able to get to their mail so I need to set up something secure with a DMZ. Most of the servers for the webmail setup will be dual processor Pentium II systems. I've got a couple of software products that have to run on Windows servers so Windows wouldn't completely go away. The issue for me is that I won't have any funds for at least a year for new Windows licenses or for Exchange 2003 Enterprise Edition (which is needed for for newer versions of Outlook Web Access).

Go with Windows front to back. Trying to mix systems increases the headaches, and just isn't worth it for a small shop. Trying to get Linux based mail systems to operate with Windows desktops is possible, but far from turn-key. As for the licensing issue, just keep adding as much memory as you can to the servers you have, and keep piling the stuff on. One cannot get fast AND cheap, so you're going for slow and cheap until you can afford fast. IMHO, it will ultimately cost more in time and labor to get a Linux-based email system for Windows working than it would to buy another Windows license. This really sucks, in my opinion, but there it is. There are some efforts in the Linux world to provide enough of Exchange to make Outlook happy, but as far as I know, none of it works 100%, yet.

One very cheap solution that might work for you w/o Exchance upgrades is simply to use some of the free or semi-free infrastructure available from places like Yahoo and Google for web-based email, calendaring, etc. Yahoo offers email using your domain for some small fee (like $35/year per account), and I presume Gmail and others do this, too. (Full disclosure: I work for Yahoo). This is hardly secure (depends on how much you trust the vendor), but it can't be beat for ease of setup and maintenance.

[SirAndy]

QUOTE (lapuwali @ Feb 15 2005, 07:36 AM)

As for the licensing issue

also (and i'm not supposed to tell you this) the License Loggin Service can be disabled ! (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif)

that will buy you some time ...
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/cool.gif) Andy

[fiid]

I am a little confused as to why we switched to linux and then back to windows, I have to say. Clearly we have switched back to windows so theres clearly nothing I can do to help or influence the situation. I object to being preemptively given shit for "windows bashing" when I am not actually guilty of it (this time). I thought that sort of behviour was reserved members of certain political parties.

[fiid]

Did you get the DLL going in the end, btw?

[Rockaria]

QUOTE (SirAndy @ Feb 15 2005, 11:43 AM)

also (and i'm not supposed to tell you this) the License Loggin Service can be disabled ! ...

Andy! You forgot to ask for the secret brotherhood of Windows Server Administrators Handshake first! (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/cool_shades.gif)

[SirAndy]

QUOTE (fiid @ Feb 15 2005, 09:55 AM)

Did you get the DLL going in the end, btw?

no time yet. i actually have a day-job ...

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif) Andy

[SirAndy]

QUOTE (fiid @ Feb 15 2005, 09:55 AM)

I thought that sort of behviour was reserved members of certain political parties.

first of all, dude, re-read my post! i wasn't even talking about you!

initially this BBS was run off one of my company production eComm servers. there was a conflict between the mySql (required by this BBS software) and the MS-SQL required by the eComm website. it would frequently crash the server and that's not very good for my biz.

so we went to a separate box just for this BBS that ran linux. that worked well for a while until we got so much traffic/users that the box was finally running at 90%-100% CPU load *constantly*. remember how slow the BBS was back then ???

at the time, i had a spare compaq DL380 sitting in my office collecting dust so i put some RAM in there (4 GB), 2 CPUs, added a few HDs (running raid) and windows 2000 Server.
that's what we're running today and besides the HD burn-up last week, the server hasn't had a single problem since i fired it up ...



now, what i would like to do when i get the time is to improve the performance of this BBS software, PHP and mySql as it seems that those 3 are the biggest bottleneck ...

any objections?
(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/huh.gif) Andy

[fiid]

QUOTE (SirAndy @ Feb 15 2005, 10:32 AM)

QUOTE (fiid @ Feb 15 2005, 09:55 AM) I thought that sort of behviour was reserved members of certain political parties. first of all, dude, re-read my post! i wasn't even talking about you!

sorry. bit overtired and overworked here too. (screaming baby doesn't help that much)

I think the main gain with php will be going to an in-process model - using the dll.

It might be worth looking at moving the db off onto another box too, and perhaps adding some caching to the php code. One advantage of getting the db off to another box is you could use two frontline webservers with a load balancer to divide the php load. (there are freeware solutions to the loadbalancing problem).

Anyways all stuff to think about. I'm happy to help if that's useful.

[ThinAir]

QUOTE (SirAndy @ Feb 15 2005, 10:43 AM)

QUOTE (lapuwali @ Feb 15 2005, 07:36 AM) As for the licensing issue also (and i'm not supposed to tell you this) the License Loggin Service can be disabled ! (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif) that will buy you some time ... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/cool.gif) Andy

Yup - I'm already there. There's still the ethical issue of paying for what you use, which is why I eventually want to ensure that I'm legal with whatever I'm using. In the meantime, I don't mind "borrowing". Unfortunately, that only takes care of my server OS needs. I don't have a way around getting Exchange 2003 Enterprise Edition.

I just want to say a big thank you to all for being willing to give me some advice on this. Sys Admins are always a busy bunch and there is never enough time to do things so for you all to take the time for this is really appreciated! (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/pray.gif)

[Tom Perso]

I monitor and administer close to 200 Windows 2000/2003 servers. Some of these boxes have been running out in the field for almost 4 years. Yes, there have been hardware failures and due to failed UPS's - some DC screw-ups (disjoin from the domain, add to a junk forest, disjoin again and rejoin to the real domain).

But, I can't see where Windoze is all that bad. Everything has it's pitfalls. I'm a Linux guy too since I support the free software thing...

Plus, we run all Compaq/HP servers, since I'm in the NOC and I monitor all of our servers, we get the beefy ones. Our main SQL server is a HP DL740 with quad (and HT'd) 3.0's, 4 gb RAM, and a MSA 1000 SAN with RAID 10 and 300gb.

Plus, I get to administer an EMC Symmetrix SAN array with 14 terabytes. Now, THAT is cool... (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif)

Anyways, great job Andy for keeping this strange place up and running so these junkies (me included) can come and play...

Later,
Tom