Server

[01hanstu]

Hi,

Quick Question: Which server would you recommend for hosting our Intranet. We currently user a Windows Machines running IIS. I am looking at kind of linux etc. Preferably one that is free.

[kmount]

What technologies does your intranet require?

 

PHP/MySQL? - I'd consider a debian/ubuntu system for this.

[01hanstu]

Hi kmount,

Thanks for the reply. The site is based on PHP/MySQL. If I was to implement a debian/ubuntu is it easy to install & manage etc.

Regards

[3s-gtech]

Very! Built a couple of Debian webservers recently, plenty of easy to follow guides online. All it needs is a Web server install (add the desktop environment if you wish to learn from there), when complete use apt to install the required components - Apache, PHP, MySQL, maybe SSH, FTP, and you're away.

[jamesfed]

Our intranet runs off a dedicated Server 2008 R2 VM - we use it for everything thats web based and internal to the school (Booking System/SharePoint/Internal Homepage) - its not free by any means but IIS does give you a great amount of flexiablity and can be used to allow students to setup their own internal websites using FTP Folder Isolation.

[jsnetman]

If it's a school you are in I wouldn't be putting it on a dedicated box or VM, for the amount of traffic it will generate or use stick it on any server available.

[browolf]

if you want/have any kind of ad integration, active server pages etc, you're better off sticking with IIS. otherwise, install a linux box or run apache friends - xampp on a windows server u already have.

[01hanstu]

Being really stupid now. Looking at debian, which one would I download?

 

[alpha][amd64][arm][armel][hppa][i386][ia64][mips][mipsel][powerpc][sparc][s390][source][multi-arch] ??

 

I would go for i386 (as it look familiar)

[somabc]

These are all different processor architectures, you will want i386 (32bit) or amd64 (64Bit).

[dhicks]

The site is based on PHP/MySQL.

 

If you're looking at moving servers anyway, now is the perfect opportunity to select and implement a content management system (CMS) such as Drupal, Joomla or WordPress, or a virtual learning environment (VLE) such as Moodle. Many schools use both - a CMS for the "brochure" part of the site and a VLE for the part that handles individual pupils logging in to do work. It isn't worth re-implementing all that stuff over again, it's already been done hundreds of times. I'd go for a Debian server - don't worry about AD integration, whatever CMS/VLE package you're running should handle that itself, although Debian will join an AD domain and act as a file server just fine if you should want it to.

 

--

David Hicks

[Hightower]

If you are worried about having to manage it, I recommend installing webmin - allows most server configuration to be done through a nice GUI.

[01hanstu]

Hi,

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have taken much of the information on board. I am leaning lowards the debian side - mainly to learn some new skills I am mainly Windows orientated, so this will be great experience.

Thanks again,

Stuart