[kwlug-disc] home voip/backup server recommendations

[John Van Ostrand]

----- "Insurance Squared Inc." <gcooke at insurancesquared.com> wrote:

> I'm setting up my home office and would like some recommendations in 
> terms of hardware for the main 'server'.
> 
> I need a box that will be always on as it will handle:
> - my offsite webserver backups
> - our asterisk phone system
> - a small inhouse mysql database.
> 
> I've got all this running on two old tanks - server grade machines,
> hot, 
> loud, heavy and indestructible.  But I don't want to run those
> machines 
> in the basement of the house.
> 
> Can I get away with an older dell desktop for something like this?  Or
> 
> should I be looking at a tower server?

I chose to use a Lenovo desktop tower system for my home server. It's quiet and cheap. In my case I chose a new one so that I could get 64bit and virtualization. I'm not using either, but I figure I'll own it for a while and I want the option of using it. 

Since it's very light use and in a location where it doesn't get jarred or vibrated it should last a good long time.

You should be able to get away with any 5 year old or newer PC, perhaps even older. Unless you plan on hosting large voice conferences or serving lots of queries in mysql you should be okay.

-- 
John Van Ostrand 
CTO, co-CEO 
Net Direct Inc. 
564 Weber St. N. Unit 12, Waterloo, ON N2L 5C6 
Ph: 866-883-1172 x5102 
Fx: 519-883-8533 

Linux Solutions / IBM Hardware