What makes a Server?

Gadgetman496

I always thought a Server was a central storage location accessible to anyone with permission on the network.

If I buy a standard PC from the likes of Ankerman & I buy a HP server from, lets say, eBuyer,

What sets them apart?

What is the difference, or, what has the server over the PC?

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bullpost

Will run a server OS - e.g. Windows server 2003, Unix variant etc.
Will have more slots for disks, nics etc.
May be rack-mountable and come without monitor, pc, keyboard

Gadgetman496

But, is it not true to say that any old PC (like a P3) is more than adequate for use as a file server depending on ones requirements?

I'm really only throwing this out for discussion. A guy I was talking to recently & who would be the first to admit he knows nothing about computers, was talking about their server in work, he was talking about it as if it was some sort of God or mysterious daemon that everyone should be afraid of

I don't mean to undermine the mighty server but is it not something that's feared out of ignorance instead of being regarded as a basic storage area just like a garden shed

And no, I'm not trying to upset all those people who's careers are built on maintaining servers.

Seriously, is the whole term not a bit over rated?

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Snaga

A server is a device that provides one or more services to one or more clients.

Anything at all can be a server. The was a commodore 64 web server on the net a while ago, not sure if its still about.

To run large scale stuff (Database servers, large file servers) then obviously you need big powerfull machines with lots of CPU + ram with fast disks.

From a conceptual point of view though - yes - any machine can be a server no matter how puny.

awkward

Yep, even those tiny NAS devices can act as powerful FTP, Web & file servers amongst other things.

Capt'n Midnight

Snaga wrote:

The was a commodore 64 web server on the net a while ago, not sure if its still about.

http://d116.com/spud/


You have server software , which will run on almost any PC

You have server hardware, which to me means it should be ultra reliable and fairly fault tolerant. However, a lot of companies are selling stripped down PC's as servers, removing the no sound card and putting in a bigger power supply and an extra drive bay doesn't a server make. So at entry level server is a marketing term. Boot time is usually quite long on servers , several minutes on the POST is not uncommon and is a real PITA when you have to troubleshoot one :mad:

I like the idea of clusters so you don't depend on the hardware. But the extra software costs outweigh any saving on hardware otherwise it would be a no-brainer.