For a minimal initial investment, your company can set up its own in-house Internet server. We stress-tested high-end RISC- and Pentium-based systems.
Stephen Platt and Anthony J. Lennon
On-line business is Big Business. Corporations now envision the vast benefits of doing business on-line, and systems vendors are marketing new products to meet this rising demand. These same corporations are also exploring similar technologies for internal uses, such as publishing information for employees using Internet-style techniques. By setting up an
in-house Internet server
, you can reach a wide and diverse market with a relatively minimal initial investment.
For this report, we tested four RISC-based systems (with Alpha and
Mips processors) and a Gateway P5-120XL (with a 120-MHz Pentium) configured as in-house Internet file servers. NSTL's Internet-server benchmarks stress the systems' CPU, disk-handling capabilities, and network compatibility and also let us compare systems that do not have the same basic OS or even comparable hardware. The benchmarks simulate heavy loads by sending constant WAIS (Wide Area Information Service), HTTP, and FTP requests to the server under TCP/IP.
Our testing was open to all RISC systems; we included the Gateway P5-120XL as a cost-effective alternative to RISC technology. The systems we reviewed were configured with Windows NT Server 3.5. We installed publicly available versions of HTTP and WAIS servers on these units. IBM sent us its RS/6000 Model C10 PowerPC midrange server, which is based on the 80-MHz PowerPC 601 processor. But this speedy system, running its proprietary AIX (Advanced Interactive Executive) OS, could not run all our benchmarks (see the sidebar "IBM C10 Reaches the Sat
uration Point"), so it wasn't included in the overall ratings.
Although many vendors are advertising RISC products designed for use as Internet file servers, only a few wanted their products to be included in a head-to-head comparison. We were surprised that some of the heavyweights in the RISC field--including Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, and Sun Microsystems--declined to send us their products for review.
Other products, meanwhile, were simply not ready for testing. For instance, we tried to include the Integrix IGS 5 in this review. This slimline system features an 85-MHz Sun MicroSparc II processor and shipped to the NSTL lab configured with Solaris Unix 1.2 and OpenWindows. While running our FTP benchmarks, the unit repeatedly failed; even with the vendor's help, we were unable to solve the problem during our test cycle.
Finally, Apple did not want us to test its Workgroup Server 9150 because only beta Internet software was available at the time. The Workgroup Server 9150
features an 80-MHz PowerPC 601 processor and comes configured with System 7 software.
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
We ranked the file servers based on their performance in the NSTL Internet-server benchmarks and on their standard and optional features, usability, and test-configuration price.
See the Roll Call on pages 144 to 146 (not available on-line) to see what features are included with the system at this price. Keep in mind that buying a 17- or 21-inch monitor and a high-end graphics card is overkill if the system is being used solely as an FTP, HTTP, and WAIS server.
Ratings:
A
Class A rating
denotes that the product is for
business use only
; a
Class B rating
means that the system is suitable for
home or business use
. You might consider the Class B rating if you're setting up an Internet server at a home office.
Performance r
atings
use indexes calculated from the individual performance scores for the weighted transaction-based benchmarks. FTP tests included from two to 16 simultaneous Windows NT clients; HTTP and WAIS tests included from two to 32 simultaneous clients.
Warranty and support policies
are what frequently separate second-tier vendors from third-tier ones. Carefully consider the items listed in the Roll Call under this heading before purchasing a server.
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HARD DRIVE STORAGE
It's almost always less expensive to buy a server with a higher-capacity ha
rd drive than to add another hard drive in the future. Choose a hard drive with a fast controller and access times at or below 11 milliseconds. Local-bus drives usually offer the fastest data transfer rates.
POWER SUPPLY
Many of today's power supplies accept variable AC input from 90 to 240 V, a convenient feature for international use.
CD-ROM
Any server should include a CD-ROM drive for loading the system software and add-on utilities.
SIMM BANKS
Graphical 32-bit applications (e.g., Windows NT Server) are memory hogs. Internet file servers will function adequately with 32 MB of RAM, but additional memory will benefit certain network configurations. All the systems tested support up to 1024 MB of RAM, except for the Gateway P5-120XL, which expands to 128 MB.
DRIVE BAYS
You need available drive bays to upgrade a server's mass-storage capacity. Purchase a tower configuration if mas
s-storage capacity is a concern.
PCI SLOTS
At 33 MHz, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) local bus is more than 16 times faster than an ISA bus. PCI is also auto-configuring and processor-independent.
ETHERNET ADAPTER
ISA adapters operating at 10 MBps are adequate for most applications, but 100-MBps Ethernet adapters are now available. Adding a second network adapter boosts performance and reduces the network load in certain environments. If your only link to your clients is through a slower (e.g., T1) line, your Ethernet card won't affect overall performance very much.
CPU
Internet file servers containing Intel's 120-MHz Pentium processor are cost-effective alternatives to RISC technology for light to moderately heavy loads. High-traffic servers require workhorse RISC processors, such as Digital Equipment's Alpha 21064A or the Mips R4600. To upgrade the DeskStation Raptor 3 to a next-generation processor
or to a new family of RISC processors, you can simply swap CPU modules.
5 Internet Servers Go Head-To-Head
