Setting up a web server/home server

[Weedman]

I have read up a bit about it, and would like to try it as one of my "projects".

I want to create a home server/web server. I will have a gentoo firewall running in tandem with the server. This:here would be my guide somewhat throughout for both systems. And for some other bits, the gentoo firewall guide.

All the firewall related stuff would go on the firewall, everything like apache, mysql & samba would go on the server.

I am wondering if squid would be overkill for my firewall system (150mhz, 80mb ram etc.), and if there is anything I really need in something like a full on server?

A list of programs I really should install would be great...

Thanks guys for your ongoing help,
~the weedman

[Roxoff]

Well, I have a smoothwall box, thats a P150 with a simliar amount of RAM, and it copes with firewalling and squid proxying pretty well, I would expect that sytem to cope admirably with this. The big issue for squid is the amount of disk space you can dedicate to the proxy cache - the bigger the cache the more it can store and the more often you'll get proxy hits rather than misses. If you can manage to give it over a gig of free space, then you'll have plenty.

As far as the server goes, you can put whatever you like on it. Here's what mine does:

- Web server (apache, obviously...)
- Mail server (sendmail)
- Windows Primary Domain Controller (Samba)
- Unix account server (LDAP using Fedora Directory Server, also the backed for the PDC).
- VNC Server
- SSH server
- File server, using NFS and Samba
- Neverwinter Nights game server

And I'm currently contemplating adding a media server, since I went up to CentOS from FC2, and added a gazillion gigs of disk space...

[Weedman]

The firewall's got an 8gb hdd, by accident of course. I would have loved to have put in a 1gb or a 3gb, but 1gbs roo small, and my 3gb carked it.

Too bad there is no small hdd's hanging around anymore...

Server wise, I don't want to absolutely go overkill on it. I just want (really) apache, php, mysql, samba, cups, then of course a graphical environment.

Now a question that just popped into my head, Is it possible to secure the box enough so that I can use it as a desktop at the same time, or should I really have it dedicated? This question mainly hovers around the web server section. Samba, I know, would have no issues with this.

Thanks for your quick reply, Roxoff!

[Roxoff]

There is nothing to stop you running the desktop on the server, but you will take processor cycles away from the machine's primary purpose. But it's your hardware; you can do what you like with it.

My server runs in a text-mode runlevel, but I have a VNC login running normally; and as it's behind a firewall, I've got very little extra security on the machine at all...

[Weedman]

I may put the web server bit on hold, as I think it might be too ambitious for this point in time. Hell, the hdd on which I should have gentoo + other stuff for a firewall, is being used to test FreeBSD.

I'm not ruling it out, but on the backburner she may go. Thanks for your help, Roxoff. It's been very much appreciated.

Slight thought, would it be in someway possible to run apache (or something of the like) on the firewall? I would definately try to put it on another partition, mounted r/o.

[Roxoff]

It's possible to run apache on the firewall (my smoothwall uses apache for it's config screens - but only ever shows them over the green interface) so it can be done. It's probably not the best solution, though; you should really leave your firewall as a firewall - the less you've got on there, the less susceptible to attack it is.

[Weedman]

Ok, that sounds alright.

What do think are min specs for apache? And maybe mysql + php?

[Roxoff]

Depends how big your website is and what types of files you'll be serving. If you're only uploading at 256Kbps (i.e. ADSL speed) then you'd get away with a PII300 or possibly lower (my server is a dual PII733, but viewing the web pages doesn't even register on the processor load). If you want a fast website, then anything failry recent will do, but you dont need anything fancy.

Memory wise, you want to give it as much as you can; half a gig should be enough, but more is better.

If you're running mysql, then you'll want a bit more grunt, and possibly plenty of disk space (depending on the type of data you're going to store). You might also want to take a look into regular/nightly backups if the data changes all day long.

[Weedman]

Depends how big your website is and what types of files you'll be serving. If you're only uploading at 256Kbps (i.e. ADSL speed) then you'd get away with a PII300 or possibly lower (my server is a dual PII733, but viewing the web pages doesn't even register on the processor load). If you want a fast website, then anything failry recent will do, but you dont need anything fancy.

Memory wise, you want to give it as much as you can; half a gig should be enough, but more is better.

If you're running mysql, then you'll want a bit more grunt, and possibly plenty of disk space (depending on the type of data you're going to store). You might also want to take a look into regular/nightly backups if the data changes all day long.

Ok, maybe I should have mentioned that this will be super-small scale. Forget php & mysql for a moment. I can do without those 2.

Let's just say that I don't have a system with those kind of specs. The minium system i've got would be 233mhz,64mb ram & the max would be 1.2ghz, 192mb ram. But the last one wouldn't be dedicated. It would still have to run as a small scale desktop system, like running the xfce wm.

[Roxoff]

My firewall box is a P150 with 96megs of RAM. It serves web pages to me for config purposes without a hiccup. I suspect that a P233/64Mb will be able to cope with a few web pages. It doesn't run a desktop sytem, but XFCE would be my choice if I had to set one up.