You
hear all about servers mentioned on the internet; but what
makes a computer a server?
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What
is a server? Correspondingly what makes a computer a server?
A server is nothing more than a computer. It has a hard drive,
a cpu, memory and all of the things you will generally find
in a home computer. Your home computer can be a server
if you want
it to be. A server by definition is just a computer which serves
other computers. A web hosting server is nothing more than
a computer which serves web pages to the computers requesting
them;
i.e., to the person running the internet browser. So while
in the generalist sense every computer can be a server;
correspondingly
what makes a computer a good server?
A web hosting
server is a server set up to perform web hosting tasks quickly
and efficiently. A web hosting server does not
need pretty graphics because typically it runs by itself without
input from a person. It is essentially (after you set it up)
fully automated. And unless it is necessary, it doesn’t
have a monitor. (Of course like all things it needs maintenance
from a qualified professional from time to time to ensure it
is running efficiently).
A good web hosting server does have a few characteristics that
make it different from a normal home computer. One of the characteristics
is redundancy. Typically, a server has multiple hard drives which
store the data. With a multiple hard drive system data is saved
on more than one hard drive so in the event of a hard drive failure
the redundant drive takes over exactly where the first hard drive
failed. This process is known as RAID. Another redundancy you
will find is that some servers will also have multiple network
access cards (for faster input and output) and two power sources.
The name of the game with servers is *reliability*.
Aiming for
reliability with a server typically means that the latest and
greatest is not necessary the best for a web hosting
server. Web hosting servers typically wait until *all* the bugs
are out of the hardware and software because they want their
clients’ websites up at all times. (Of course servers should
always have the latest and greatest security patches.) With these
characteristics in mind sometimes it shocks the average person
that most servers run lower end cpus. At the time of this writing
the 3.0 Ghz chips are entering the market but you will find a
lot of web sites hosted on Pentium III cpus. And quite frequently
Celeron chips are used which range from 1.0 Ghz to 1.7 Ghz. The
reason for this is two-fold: these chips generate less heat which
is important to keep heat down in a server and web hosting does
not generally demand much cpu processing. RAM (the computer’s
main memory) is actually more important at times than the cpu.
Typically a server should have 512 MB to 2 GB of memory, with
1 GB being a sweet spot for processing. But the question always
arises—if a Pentium III does a very good job at web processing
won’t a Xeon cpu or dual AMDs do better? Maybe—it
really depends on what is on the server. If you have just web
sites and they don’t use much scripting programs (PHP or
Perl or CGI) or don’t have huge shopping sites like Amazon.com
on them, a lower end cpu is going to perform pretty good. Of
course the dual AMDs and Xeon are going to outperform the Pentium
III but not as much as you are going to pay for the premium in
pricing for the cpus and the additional requirements brought
on by the increased heat (more fans, bigger cases, etc).
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