2002.03_Dolphin Server from Positive Internet.pdf

ON TEST

Dolphin

DOLPHIN SERVER

space server has been prohibitive to all but the

most committed of businesses. The Positive

Internet Company hope to have found a niche in

the market, with the “Dolphin Server”, which is

aimed at businesses who have low capital cost and

efficiency as one of their priorities as well as filling

the requirements of the high end home user.

For £159 a month (plus VAT, if that sort of thing is

of concern to you) you get your own dedicated

server, locked away in a server room with all the

climactic control and conditioned air that you would

give to your own much loved equipment.

How is all of this possible?

And more to the point, what’s all this got to do with

Linux Magazine? Well, that’s the clever thing: to give

you all of this flexibility Positive Internet give you a

server with a full implementation of Debian

GNU/Linux on it.

Debian has a very long pedigree: the project

started out in August 1993 and has followed a most

methodical and cautious development, making it very

stable and secure. Debian has not seen the need for

advanced graphical installation interfaces, which can

be off putting for first time Linux users. Once

running, though, Debian comes into its own being

one of the simplest Linux distributions to maintain

and upgrade thanks to the apt-get feature, which

gets applications, either upgrading them or adding

something new for the first time, looking and solving

any dependency problems it might find as it goes.

This can be done from the command line, or some

Should you be in the

market for a good

value dedicated

server for a range of

Internet

requirements, then

the Dolphin Server

from The Positive-

Internet Company

may be what you are

looking for. Colin

Murphy takes a

closer look

What you get for your money?

The Dolphin Server is made up into a 1u rack-

mounted 19” case which contains an Intel PIII-933

MHz processor, 256 Mb RAM and two 20Gb E-IDE

hard drives, with a 10/100 network card giving you

voice to the outside world via a dedicated 100Mb/s

switch port. This configuration will provide enough

power for process-intensive sites.

There is a generous monthly allowance of 40Gb

data transfer to take advantage of, via high quality

networks with multiple international bandwidth

providers. This would allow you to make maximum

use of the server, giving it the opportunity to get its

teeth into something regardless of where in the

world your customers might be.

The second drive in the server allows for daily

backups, so you can rest assured that, in the unlikely

event of a drive failure, you’ll have a recent set of

data to rebuild from.

Because this is a dedicated server you have full

control over what runs there and you have the ability

to furnish your server with whatever you need,

should there be anything that is not included already.

The server includes the SSL-ready Apache Web server

with PHP and Perl. Having full access to Java servlets

and Java Server Page support means you can run

rings around your Web visitors, or more hopefully,

guide them towards the information they want with

some carefully crafted Javascript.

Also included in Dolphin is the MySQL database

server, a must for e-commerce, as is reliable

processing of email through your site – achievable

with the use of the Qmail mail server, which is reliable

and secure. You even have full control over your DNS

management as BIND is also installed by default.

clever person can write a graphical front end for

those that prefer to point and click.

Don’t let stark installation processes put you off,

because, if you are going to be using Debian on a

Dolphin server, then the installation will have been

done for you, and yes, the guys at Positive Internet

have been wise enough to write the graphical

interface to make upgrading a point and click affair,

if that’s what you want.

Full control

As an example of how far Positive Internet are

prepared to go to give their customers as much

control as possible, the Dolphin Server comes

complete with a “Zero Delay Reboot” feature. ZDR

will enable you to power cycle your server whenever

you want to, via a secure Web-based switching utility.

You may never want to tinker with your Dolphin

Server, in which case you may never have need for

this feature, but should all that application getting

get the better of you, then it might just save the day.

Dolphin Server

Supplier The Positive-Internet Company

Price £159.00 per month

Web www.positive-internet.co.uk

For Value for money

Against No full RAID

rating

Issue 18 • 2002

LINUX MAGAZINE

T he cost of running your own email and Web

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