I have come across two moderately elderly desktop computers which I intend to configure as servers, likely using Debian stable, primarily for http (web) purposes. However, I would also like to be able to remotely connect to the servers to manipulate files, create directories, and perform other such management- and administration-related tasks, and also to be able to run multiple email addresses associated with the domain name(s) I will point to these servers.
Is it possible to do all of this on one machine, or must I set up separate systems for each component (http, ftp and mail)?
Also, in regards to running a GUI for server management: While I understand most servers are administered via a console interface, I am not very proficient with bash/shell as of yet. There's no way I will get anywhere close to GNOME for this, and as I am running XFCE on my primary system anyway it seems to be a logical choice for candidacy. If I were to use XFCE 4.10 for graphical administration purposes, would the performance of the server be significantly impacted? I remember having heard somewhere that a GUI of any sort will prove to be somewhat of a drain on system resources in a server context, but I thought I would check if this applies to the very lightweight XFCE environment as well as to more bulky options such as GNOME.