thanks for the reply
can you tell me more about NICs ....
here is what i am having difficulties when i go to dell web site and started looking at the server/storage and they have hell lot of options and since i dont know much about hardware its hard for me to digiest what i will need... for an example, harddisk .... if i buy server online with one harddisk will i be able to buy and hook it byself? without any issues? and same thing goes with RAM
Let's start from NICs:
NICs (network cards), are usually undervalued. You can have a RAID 5, redundant power supply and a UPS... but just one network port. This means that you will never be able to access your server anymore from a remote site. That's because I suggest you AT LEAST 2 port. THe second advantage to have more port is the speed. With a virtualized environment you can build a BOND (or aggregate or team or whatever you want), in other words you can MERGE two interfaces, this improve network performance and fault tolerance, if you have a trouble with a port or a cable, your system will be able to work. To be honest, for a BOND you have to consider also a programmable switch because usually you have to set up a BOND also in the switch (this because on your network you will have ONE virtual connection made of 2 phisical link), anyway in the worst scenario, you can make a bond and you switch should be smart enough to implement the STP (spanning tree protocol) or loop protector (to avoid network loop). This scenario will remove the advantage about the improvement of network performance, but you still have redundancy!
Now, if you don't want / need the fault tolerance, I'm sure you don't have to put your webserver on the same network of your other deployment server, it's just a security matter! You should create a DMZ on your router / firewall where you will phisically attach your webserver, then on the other port you will connect your others servers to your home network.
Remember: in a virtualized environment, server can share every resource!
Now let's talk about ram / hard drives:
Plugging in a hard disk in a server is easier than in a workstation! There are some things you have to care about, for example the SPEED, all the harddrive must have the same speed (usually 10k but there are also 7.5k and 15 or 20k and so on), of course the interface must be the same, usually you have a SAS drive. For the dimension is not so easy, usually a server has more than one hard drive to protect you from failures (HARDWARE FAILURES). Let's make an example:
You buy 2 HD (2 x 72 gb), in the array configurator (which is a program that starts before windows or Xen or whatever you are using) you configure a RAID 1 array made of DISK 1 and 2. This array will be seen by the OS you are going to install as a single disk of 72GB, but every bit is syncronized on each disk, if you break one phisical disk you still have your data on the other! Then you have 3 HD (3 x 146 GB), this time you configure them as a RAID 5 array. You will have 270 GB of usuable space and still the redundancy but with more performance!
Remember: once you create an array, the disk with the LOWEST space will be taken as reference! this means that if you have 2 disks (1 x 72 GB) and the other (1 x 146GB) and you set up a RAID 1, your useable space will be 72gb!
I don't want to confuse you... but now the world is going to the VIRTUALIZATION and SHARED STORAGE. Virtualization is unexpensive (on your scenario), shared storage is not really expensive but of course more expensive than a local storage
I hope this can help you... if you don't understand me ask again
