What is Best Configration for Local server being installed in Web/Mobile Dev Company? [closed]

Question

I am eagerly getting a need to setup a Local server which can provide faster access and more control over development and testing environment. The basic requirement would be able to do following

1. Ubunutu as base OS and may be VM as Windwos machine.
2. Configure with static IP address which would be expose to give a beta demo to clients
3. Also have Internal software installed like HR management, Internal Blogs, time reporting software etc. (Which can be also accessed from internet as well )
4. Can be served as a File storage and sharing .
5. Need to able to access using Mac, Windwos, Linux clients

Hardware configuration that I am considering

1. Core i5 Processor
2. 8 GB Ram
3. 2 TB HDD

Do you think Above requirement can be meet with Proposed Hardware configuration? If yes, what is best way to configure the overall server.

Answer 1

It's hard to be very specific without complete knowledge of all requirement variables, but here's a few general comments:

• If you're virtualising go for a minimum of 4 cores, and maybe either a dual quad core machine or at least a system that can take a second processor later because as soon as you start virtualising systems you tend to find more things you can, or want to, virtualise.

• You may need more RAM according to overall workload - for example, check out the various sites that help scale VMWare servers for more guidance (Google is your friend). When looking at machines, either to purchase or build, pick one (or a motherboard) with enough RAM slots to add more later.

• As the server will run your business, make sure you maximise uptime and availability - use RAID for the disk/s (minimum a pair running as RAID 1) and consider having a second server available to you that can run at least the minimum you need to keep the business going. Our core virtualisation server also has twin redundant power supplies and we keep a spare too.

• Don't skip on hardware for backing up - whether it's tape or remote disk etc..

• Plan for an outage and test your business continuity/disaster recovery plans and your backups regularly