Battle of the Server OS's

[centurion]

I just finally got my server up and functioning over the past week. I bought it used from a guy who built it but I've been too busy to do anything with it until recently. Here's what I have:

2x Intel Xeon 5130 (2.0ghz)
2gb FB-DIMM DDR 667 (just bought another 4gb to go in it, should be here next week)
Intel S500VCL Motherboard
750W Thermaltake Modular PSU
120gb WD SATA (OS)
4x 500gb Seagate 7200.11

Currently running Server 2008 x64 and have the Seagate drives set up using the Server 2008 software RAID 5. Unfortunately, the motherboard is designed for a 1U chassis and is currently in a generic 4U, so in order to put in a RAID card I'd also have to replace the motherboard. Still couldn't afford the card, but that's neither here nor there...

Point here is, I've been back and forth on what OS to go with. The server's primary function is file serving but I also plan on using it for downloading and media serving (probably running Orb for streaming online). I've also considered running some VM's so I can maybe do some game serving for LAN parties or playing with Linux and various server functions there.

I've heard that WHS is very restricted as to what you can do, so I've thought that 2008 would be the best way of going so I have the flexibility to run all this other stuff. Though, WHS has some really cool features from what I can tell so I'm not so sure.

What do you all think?

[Ockie]

WHS isn't restricted, however, if you want to approach VM, I would recomend 2008 in that case. FWIW, you don't even need to virtualize to run a game server or two from the same server desktop.

My vote goes for WHS hands down, but if you want to do a lot more than file serving and media type activies, then go with a full blown operating system like 2008 or 2003.

[axan]

linux, pick your distro, I like gentoo

[heelix]

If you got the Linux route - and for a game server, this is a very good option - take a look at Centos.

http://centos.org/

Centos is the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), without the branding. This is also the same codebase as Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL). Each release has a five year support window. This is a very stable way to go. Tis also free as in beer. If you are using the box as a server, this will allow better use of the hardware... with the tradeoff that you can deal with a *nix based system.

[centurion]

i have a technet subscription so money isnt a factor... the system needs to do those things i mentioned and be easy to setup/maintain. as versatile as linux is, it's a pain in the ass to setup and use if you're in a hurry.

Ockie pretty much answered my question and i think for what i'm doing 2008 is going to be the best option. now to just get some money for some hardware upgrades... :-)

[houkouonchi]

Another +1 for linux.

I have a 2U server colo'd at the web-hosting company I work for. I use it as a file server (8x750 GB drives in raid5) so plenty of space. I also use it for torrenting, web-hosting, mysql, mail hosting, and game servers. I have 99% of the bandwidth usage go through one NIC and the game servers on another (just to be sure the gameservers get the best possible connection). I also have a third NIC which is just used by virtualbox so I can run game servers I can't in wine or natively on linux as well as other windows apps.

If you know how to use linux at all I would definitely suggest it especially since its free and in my experience much much more stable!


root@方向音痴: 09:06 AM :~# uptime
09:06:47 up 57 days, 9:20, 8 users, load average: 0.25, 0.31, 0.38


The last time i rebooted it was to enable the writeback on the raid controller.