FWIW, we are working toward the release of a free public Drupal 7 AWS
AMI that will give you the latest version of Drupal 7, along with
Apache PHP 5.3, MySQL (later versions may go with MariaDB). We hope to
have this out before DrupalCon Munich, next month.
We built this on the Amazon Linux distro, which looks a lot like
CentOS (or RHEL). We use this on our own production machines, as well.
While I realize that this may be a deal breaker for you, it does save
a lot of up-front work.
We plan to work on a single box solution that also has Solr and
Varnish installed.
Thanks,
Cary
On 7/17/12, Nate Hill <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Folks:
> I've received a ton of email arguing for off-site servers and support, and
> I'm going to try my best to pursue this angle rather than get my own
> hardware.
> Thanks for your input-
> Nate
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 3:44 AM, Chris Fitzpatrick
> <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> If you're just wanting a web server for a single site, having a
>> physical dedicated server is probably not really needed. But if it's a
>> requirement to have stuff, i'd look to buy something that I can set up
>> a small VM setup that I could deploy multiple webservers as needed, in
>> which case you probably could do worse than a Dell Poweredge running
>> VMWare.
>>
>> An alternative would be to buy a Mac Mini with OS X Server
>> installed...you could run Ubuntu on that too.
>>
>>
>> Having said that... I can understand why some would see using
>> "cloud-based" systems as "outsourcing", but there is more to it than
>> just getting out of physical server management.. There's a lot of
>> development platforms coming together now that offer a set of services
>> that make developing and managing web applications wwwwaaayyyy easier.
>> For Drupal, I'd suggest looking at Acquia, as they have a pretty
>> good platform for Drupal development and hosting.
>>
>> b,chris.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 6:37 AM, Cary Gordon <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>> > When you look at everything that goes into the TCO, it is hard to make
>> > a case for a physical server.
>> >
>> > We have about 17 years experience running systems starting with the
>> > California State Library's DEC Alpha. We won't miss running the
>> > datacenter on the weekend to deal with a drive failure.
>> >
>> > Amazon has gone from a metric-less, expensive and difficult to manage
>> > system to a solid infrastructure with better performance per dollar
>> > than we can get in our datacenter. The bonus is thatt we can scale at
>> > will.
>> >
>> > Cary
>> >
>> > On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 6:18 PM, Nate Hill <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>> >> I should have anticipated a lot of folks would be pushing AWS or
>> Rackspace
>> >> or something off-site.
>> >>
>> >> At my last job in San Jose I would have *loved* to have outsourced all
>> of
>> >> this because of the complications working with both city and
>> >> University
>> IT
>> >> and network.
>> >> I would have loved to have kissed those Windows servers goodbye and
>> brushed
>> >> up on my Linux and had the 24 hour support and zero downtime guarantee
>> that
>> >> came with such a solution.
>> >>
>> >> In Chattanooga, the situation is different.
>> >>
>> >> We've got the 1 gig connection, and it is a big piece of this
>> >> wonderful
>> >> city's identity. I definitely don't know enough about network
>> architecture
>> >> to speak meaningfully about it, but we are moving from an antiquated
>> setup
>> >> to the fastest public internet in the country. It's pretty cool. I
>> don't
>> >> think outsourcing is really part of that plan, you know? I'm really
>> >> looking forward to engaging the local geek community in creating local
>> >> solutions.
>> >>
>> >> I do imagine that in the future as we do one-off apps we'll experiment
>> with
>> >> AWS. For now, I'm awfully excited to set up some hardware, have
>> control of
>> >> that hardware (that cannot be taken for granted in public libraries)
>> and do
>> >> some tinkering.
>> >>
>> >> Yes... I do need more than just a production server, but I've got some
>> >> reconditioned boxes coming from the city that I can play with for
>> testing
>> >> and staging (for now).
>> >>
>> >> For now, this server is going to run/host a Drupal website for the
>> library.
>> >>
>> >> Please, anybody, do speak up if you think my approach is flawed...
>> >>
>> >> N
>> >>
>> >> On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 8:43 PM, Ross Singer <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> This answer segues well into my question: why, exactly, do you want a
>> >>> physical server?
>> >>>
>> >>> I realize that there are plenty arguments for running your own
>> >>> hardware
>> >>> (and bandwidth is cheap and plentiful in Chattanooga -- which deals
>> with
>> >>> the main carrying cost), but, presumably you'll need more than one
>> >>> (for
>> >>> replication and whatnot), right?
>> >>>
>> >>> What exactly do you plan to run/host on this server?
>> >>>
>> >>> -Ross.
>> >>>
>> >>> On Monday, July 16, 2012, Cary Gordon wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> > We currently use Dell in our datacenter, but we are moving almost
>> >>> > all
>> >>> > of our servers to AWS over the next 10 months.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Thanks,
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Cary
>> >>> >
>> >>> > On Mon, Jul 16, 2012 at 11:52 AM, Nate Hill
>> >>> > <[log in to unmask]
>> >>> <javascript:;>>
>> >>> > wrote:
>> >>> > > I'm shopping for a new dedicated server for our public library
>> website.
>> >>> > > I'd like to run Ubuntu.
>> >>> > > Does anyone have any hardware suggestions/guidance they'd like to
>> >>> offer?
>> >>> > > I'd like to not spend a zillion dollars.
>> >>> > > Thanks-
>> >>> > >
>> >>> > > --
>> >>> > > Nate Hill
>> >>> > > [log in to unmask] <javascript:;>
>> >>> > > http://www.natehill.net
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> > --
>> >>> > Cary Gordon
>> >>> > The Cherry Hill Company
>> >>> > http://chillco.com
>> >>> >
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> Nate Hill
>> >> [log in to unmask]
>> >> http://www.natehill.net
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Cary Gordon
>> > The Cherry Hill Company
>> > http://chillco.com
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Nate Hill
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.natehill.net
>
--
Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company
http://chillco.com
|
