[ollio]

Hello,

We would like to use the xServe to host multiple small websites (50-100), total of 8.000.000 hits/month or so.
Before we used cobalts, but we are pretty tired of the interface that doesn't interact with the changes you manually makes, or easily gets corrupted. And also the low level of RAM they can handle.

I've read alot about the xServe
but I still have a couple of questions, maybe someone with some experience with the xServe can help me out.


1.
Is it possible to have a cobalt like interface for users?
I know there is webmin? but is it sufficient?
Is it stable?
Does it work seemingly with OS X server(for example statistics software,mailing lists,sendmail, etc) , or will we need to install 3rd party open source software that replaces the soft apple includes?

2.Can we set per virtual sites rights with WebMin on OS X ?
Examples: that virtual site can have php but no frontpage extensions, can have maximum 10 users(which they can create themself).
Can use maximum 100MB HD space etc...

3. Can we put limits on data throughput on a per virtual site basis? or is it per network card?
Is there some kind of monitoring software to extensively see how much data transfer that virtual site or that user used

4. Can the Xserve hardware wise handle multiple websites with many hits... (memory , data throughput,...)

5. Is the firewall easy configurable (nice GUI interface) so we can give for example only userISP.com users access to login on FTP server.

6. is there a good webmail software, neomail kinda sucks. Is Squirelmail any good?

7. Can we get a nice overview of all the virtual sites and their usage?

8. Does Apple give demo's? or let people log in on a demo machine to test it in real life?

[OreoCookie]

The XServe has enough power to saturate a 100 MBit link according to an article by the German c't magazine (18/02, page 174).

I can't find the issue right now, sorry.

5. You can administer an XServe from a Mac of your choice remotely. That does also include the firewall and everything (there is a GUI for it).

6. As far as I know there is a WebMail interface included with OS X Server. Don't know if it's any good.

[utidjian]

Originally posted by ollio:
Hello,

We would like to use the xServe to host multiple small websites (50-100), total of 8.000.000 hits/month or so.
Before we used cobalts, but we are pretty tired of the interface that doesn't interact with the changes you manually makes, or easily gets corrupted. And also the low level of RAM they can handle.

I've read alot about the xServe
but I still have a couple of questions, maybe someone with some experience with the xServe can help me out.


1.
Is it possible to have a cobalt like interface for users?
I know there is webmin? but is it sufficient?
Is it stable?
Does it work seemingly with OS X server(for example statistics software,mailing lists,sendmail, etc) , or will we need to install 3rd party open source software that replaces the soft apple includes?

2.Can we set per virtual sites rights with WebMin on OS X ?
Examples: that virtual site can have php but no frontpage extensions, can have maximum 10 users(which they can create themself).
Can use maximum 100MB HD space etc...

3. Can we put limits on data throughput on a per virtual site basis? or is it per network card?
Is there some kind of monitoring software to extensively see how much data transfer that virtual site or that user used

4. Can the Xserve hardware wise handle multiple websites with many hits... (memory , data throughput,...)

5. Is the firewall easy configurable (nice GUI interface) so we can give for example only userISP.com users access to login on FTP server.

6. is there a good webmail software, neomail kinda sucks. Is Squirelmail any good?

7. Can we get a nice overview of all the virtual sites and their usage?

8. Does Apple give demo's? or let people log in on a demo machine to test it in real life?

1) Yes, it is called usermin.
Usermin is part of webmin.
Yes, depends what you mean by sufficient. Since only you can determin that I suggest that you try webmin/usermin out on a spare Linux PC or Mac OS X PC and decide for yourself.
Yes, it is stable AND constantly under development.
It can work along side the Apple software. You can use standard webmin modules and/or third party OSS or commercial modules.

2) Yes, it can do all that.

3) Yes, you can control throughput with QoS software. I don't know how well Mac OS X server does this, if at all. It is part of Linux network services. It can be monitored via webalizer which is a webmin module or can be used by itself.

4) The Xserve running Mac OS X can do this... so can the Xserve running Linux.

5) The firewall config module(s) for webmin are only for Linux. They work fine. You can use Apples firewall config software for Mac OS X. There are many ways to control access to FTP... firewall config is only one of the many.

6) Squirellmail is good, as is Imp. (http://www.horde.org/imp/)

7) Yes, see webalizer (http://www.webalizer.com)

8) I don't know. Talk to Apple and get an Apple rep to show you around. You could also talk to the people at Terr Soft Solutions: (http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/) They are an Apple reseller that also has a Linux version for Apple hardware. Thye have a LOT of experience with the Xserve.

[Cipher13]

SquirrelMail is retarded. Use something else if you can, but if you can't, it'll do. It works. It just does a lot of sh!t that bugs me, like logs you out if you hit the 'back' arrow instead of navigating with the on-page links.

Anyway, I think the Xserve is overkill. You'd be far better off buying one, or maybe even two or three A7N8X's.

Seriously. They'll be faster, they'll be cheaper. You could buy four of them for the price of an Xserve.

[OreoCookie]

Yeah, he could, but if you need a reliable machine, desktop technology is definitely not the way to go.

On our AMD cluster, one of 20 machines had faulty memory. It would work fine in most cases, but luckily our admin ran a memory test for three days straight.

Plus the service. If one of our Alphas breaks down (one has had some trouble), we have had excellent service which also could be an issue here.