Server advice

[Neokenzo]

I've been thinking of doing this in the future but I dont know whether it is possible.

I want to get a dedicated server. I want to split that server, a quarter goes toward hosting my site under linux centos while the other 3 quarters for windows . The windows portion would be mainly for downloading and uploading stuff and video encoding. I take it that this is possible? To split the server between linux and windows?

The windows portion I need to be able to run IE6 or IE7, IDM, jdownloader, ftp video encoding softwares. Also able to remote upload to various hosts. Which windows version should I look for?

I'd prefer to run everything on linux but I take it I wont be able to that with the above softwares?

What kind of minimum spec server should I look for if I want to run it this way?

Neokenzo Reviewed by Neokenzo on 27th Nov 2009. Server advice I've been thinking of doing this in the future but I dont know whether it is possible. I want to get a dedicated server. I want to split that server, a quarter goes toward hosting my site under linux centos while the other 3 quarters for windows . The windows portion would be mainly for downloading and uploading stuff and video encoding. I take it that this is possible? To split the server between linux and windows? The windows portion I need to be able to run IE6 or IE7, IDM, Rating: 5

[djeuro]

well you could get a windows server and then run all that stuff on vmware vps or something... theres no way you can split the hd into windows and linux to be powered on at the same time though..

[Voltar]

You can do what you're talking about, you'd have to run your Windows virtualized though. You can either use VMware server for Virtualbox, the former has a nice webgui and the latter can be a little difficult to run headless at first, but preforms better imo.

As for running encoding software in a VM, I cannot speculate on that as I have never done it, but I would imagine that you would have a severe performance degradation due to the fact that OS is virtualized. Would you be able to do it in Linux with ffmpeg? It might suit your needs better.

As for what spec server, that depends on your budget, and the popularity of the site you're hosting. I would suggest at the very minimum a recent dual core, preferably quad core with a nice chunk of RAM.

[Waffa]

Well.. you want to use server machine for doing home multimedia stuff and using IE (why in the world would anyone want to run this anyway!? Just wondering... anyway if u run IE then better IE8 ).

Anyway you cant have "booded up" 2 operation system in once in one machine unless i missed some new computer revolution that was invented yesterday
Best & easiest solution would be to make good secure linux box, and then run windows from there virtually using visualization software (like vmware) - then you are also not affecting SO much the server machine security etc. If you have poweful enough machine the virtual windows should be able to run all the encoding things you need.
Ofcourse you can also run from windows the virtual linux etc... but why would you want this kind of risk on server machine. Specially when windows starts to make their automatic updates and then just restarts your box anytime windowz wants to "make your day" ... what a happy times i have had because of this

There might be a better solution but this is far the easiest imho.

// fuck i type to long.. u got the answers already lol

[Neokenzo]

So are all windows VPS using virtualised?

Here is another question, is there a linux version of IE? I mean a virtualised version? There is a site that I need to get stuff from a lot and you can download using IE only. They have their own download system, cant even use download manager or rapidleech

[Voltar]

You could try running IE with Wine, I have no idea if it will work though.

Edit: Wine/IE compatibility: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManage...ication&iId=25

Having a site that is usable in only one browser is very bad design practice, but that isn't the point here. Depending on how they filter out IE, you could try spoofing it with several Firefox extensions, that is, unless you have to use some kind of ActiveX control.

[Neokenzo]

It has its own ActiveX control, that is the problem.

Thanks regarding the Wine, I think I've heard about it.

[snowmanrene]

Yeah as stated earlier. You will need to virtualize the box. Making about 3 or 4 VMs.
Video encoding shouldnt really be done in a VPS as it will kill resources (Needs lots of cpu power and RAM to function optimally).

If the site only works in IE, then it's simple ditch it and find an alternative (IE is THE WORST browser out there.)

And as for server specs, for that video encoding bit, you may need a dual-quad core setup with at least 16GB ram especially for what you wanna do.