A server can be the solid foundation of an intranet, or it can be the thorn in the side that renders an intranet virtually useless. An intranet is normally an extension of a corporation's internal network. When you're adding a server, a little bit of planning can go a long way toward successful implementation. In this chapter, we'll take a realistic look at what it takes to support a growing intranet. We'll begin by examining an organization's needs, including the current environment and infrastructure, as well as future needs. We'll also examine costs as this chapter outlines the necessary considerations to effectively plan an intranet's foundation.
Many intranets start out as experiments within one department of an organization. Generally, this means that someone has set up a spare computer, loaded it with free software, and plugged it into the corporate network, which is usually a Local Area Network (LAN). While this "build-up" is relatively simple for most organizations, it works only on a small scale, perhaps only for that department. Rolling out a sophisticated or even simple intranet to an entire organization requires much more than a spare computer and a free software program. Knowing an organization's server needs inside and out requires focusing on three areas: initial capacity, scalability, and support.
An intranet provides a type of "information central" to an organization-whether it be corporate, educational, nonprofit, or otherwise-that was never before available. Predicting its use and, therefore, the capacity you need, is a challenging task. A pilot project involving a select user group will help ascertain the users' level of technological ability and the usefulness of an intranet to this user group. The usage of the pilot group must take into account how much the users have been encouraged to use the new system, which in some cases may go hand-in-hand with the users' level of computer ability. If you haven't implemented a pilot project, the scalability and support areas become more critical.
Scalability is the most important factor in an intranet server. The success of any new project is based on its usage, and an intranet is no different. After a successful project is created, you have to respond with a higher level of server service. Many servers can reach new levels of performance easily if you add more resources, such as processors, disk space, and memory. Other servers can be upgraded to new higher-performance servers without changing any of the software. It is far better to install an intranet server that is at the low end of its capacity than one that's at the top end. This allows you to respond to increased usage by adding resources-upgrading hardware or software. For example, if you are using a Windows 95 solution, you have a relatively low upper limit as far as the number of users and server capacity goes, because you are stuck with a Pentium-based machine. With Windows NT, you can upgrade to a much faster processor, like a DEC Alpha, without changing your software.
Often you can increase server performance simply by adding more servers to support each different application. Some companies, such as Federal Express, have more than 60 internal intranet servers. This method also improves the robustness of the intranet over a large single server by giving each application or group of applications its own server. Thus, one corrupt application that crashes its server will not affect any of the other servers or their applications. For example, FedEx has several servers that serve just their database, while others serve different parts of their Web site.
Support is the last area to examine when determining organizational needs. Support plays an important part in server selection. A server should be geared to serve data to the intranet but still be compatible with existing systems and staff knowledge. For example, if the rest of your organization is running on Scaleable Processor Architecture (SPARC) servers, an Intel-based server is probably not the best choice. Using a server type that is already supported in your organization allows current staff resources to be maximized.
In the area of support, don't overlook the server's availability needs. If an organization's server runs 24 hours a day, consider installing redundant server features such as RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) in case of drive failures, and redundant power supplies for protection against power supply failures. A RAID server is a group of disks that automatically copy one another so that if one goes bad, the data remains intact. A redundant power supply provides power to the servers in case of emergency. If the intranet continuously serves hundreds of users simultaneously, the organization can't afford for the server to crash.
In examining your current environment, keep in mind that an intranet is not much more than another application server running on your corporate network. However, because of its heavy use, this application server could cause network performance degradation, leading to slow network response. Make sure that the network administrators and planners are aware that these new application servers are being installed so that they can plan for the server's network bandwidth needs appropriately.
Network protocols in the current environment also play a significant role in the success of an intranet. Intranets are popular because they allow many machine platforms to share graph-ical data, which was not an option prior to intranets. Because TCP/IP (Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the main common protocol between most computer platforms, most intranet servers and software use it. If you choose to use other protocols, such as AppleTalk (an Apple-specific protocol) or IPX (a Novell-specific protocol), your server and software choices will be limited.
You can choose from a variety of server platforms when selecting a new server. Many companies are releasing packaged or bundled servers that have components that are optimized for a Web server, including the bundling of server specific software. Most of the new servers fall into the following categories. In late 1994, Sun Microsystems released its Netra line of Web-specific servers, which currently dominate the Web server market. Intel-based servers offer the most choices in operating systems and server software and are responsive and flexible. However, because the components are not always assembled and tested by a single manufacturer, Intel-based servers can create configuration and compatibility problems between components that are supposed to work together but do not. MacOS touts an easy user interface but lacks some of the flexibility and horsepower of other server platforms.
When selecting a server platform, keep in mind that the basic purpose of an intranet server is to move data from storage to the network. Make sure that any server you plan to purchase has robust data I/O capability on the disk controller as well as the network controller. Many network and disk controllers are geared for workstation use but are not suitable for use in an environment that handles a large number of concurrent requests. In disk controllers, this means using a SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) instead of an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface, both of which are commonly used in most computer platforms and are the gateways that provide communication between the devices and the processor. In networking controllers, this means using a network that has some on-board intelligence.
The next sections include a rundown of the different server families and their respective advantages and disadvantages.
An Intel-based server can be either "home-built" (designed by the user) or built and configured by the manufacturer, as shown in Figure 6.1. An Intel-based server runs on most operating systems, including Windows NT, Windows 95, UNIX, and Solaris. The Intel platform represents a growing share of the Web server market. Because of Intel's edge in the market, many new server technologies will be available for the Intel platform before they are for other platforms.
Figure 6.1: An Intel-based server, manufactured by Hewlett-Packard.
A downside of the Intel platform is that the numerous combinations of internal components can make it difficult to isolate a specific problem. These different components can cause conflicts, or they could turn out to be incompatible with one another. For example, a combination of the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), including the network card and disk controller, could crash the server. BIOS is the core system that tells the computer how to react to problems. But with each manufacturer pointing at another manufacturer, pinpointing the problem on the intranet server is anything but straightforward. However, to minimize this drawback, select a manufacturer or integrator that assembles and tests all components of the server together for the specific application at hand.
An Intel-based system can start as low as $2,000 for a low-end Pentium system with 16MB of RAM and 1GB of disk storage and go as high as $8,000 to $12,000 for a Dual Pentium Windows NT system with 128MB of RAM and 4GB of RAID storage.
SPARC servers made by Sun, SGI, and others claim the largest market share of Web server platforms for good reason. In the Solaris UNIX environment that runs on a SPARC server, shown in Figure 6.2, the TCP/IP protocol is an inherent part of the operating system-not an added protocol. In addition, the SPARC processor is specifically suited to handle the many concurrent requests that are required by a busy intranet server.
Figure 6.2: A SPARC server, manufactured by Axil Computer.
Sun has built its market share by adding valuable features, such as bundling the servers with appropriate software to create, run, and administer Web sites, in its Netra line of servers. Many other companies are now providing similar bundling with their servers.
Cost is the main deterrent to choosing a SPARC server. A SPARC system with 32MB of RAM and 4GB disk storage costs from $4,000 to $6,000; with multiple processors, the price quickly can jump to more than $20,000.
The Macintosh remains a strong contender in the Web server market because of its user-friendly interface and easy-to-configure TCP/IP and Web administration tools. However, it cannot support the number of simultaneous users that other platforms, such as SPARC or Intel-based servers, can.
A Macintosh, such as the one shown in Figure 6.3, offers perhaps the least expensive server option at about $2,500 to $3,500 for a PowerPC or Quadra-based computer with 32 RAM and 2GB disk storage.
Figure 6.3: A Macintosh Internet server.
Alpha-based platforms outshine all other platforms, and if cost
is not an issue, I recommend an Alpha server. However, because
processor speeds can be as high as 233MHz, you shouldexpect to
pay about three to four times more for an Alpha platform than
for an Intel-based platform. Also, the Alpha-based systems generally
run Windows NT, locking the user into a specific operating system.
| McKeon & Jeffries chose a Pentium-based server because they anticipated fewer than 200 users with light usage. They decided on a high-end machine with 64MB of RAM and a 4GB hard drive. As they planned to run Windows NT, they purchased a name-brand machine to facilitate getting NT drivers for their hardware. Their server cost just under $10,000. |
| The SGAA had much different hardware needs. They planned to support many more users performing more complex functions than McKeon & Jeffries. They wanted to run a high-end database on the server that could support several hundred users, at times with very heavy usage. The SGAA decided on a Sun SPARC 20 as its server because of its scalability and power. They purchased 96MB of RAM and an 8GB RAID hard drive system. This system would give the SGAA and its users a high level of reliability and speed and a wide variety of software choices. Most intranet and Internet software is available for Sun machines. The SGAA spent just under $35,000 for its server. |
Most server platforms have numerous expansion capabilities. All accept additional memory and disk space, and some take additional processors. With most platforms, upgrades are cost-effective ways to increase the server's performance. For some servers, the best way to increase performance is to replace the whole server itself. In addition to significant replacement costs, installing a new platform requires downtime that should be factored into the cost.
When an intranet is a pilot project with few users, a downed server won't create too much turmoil among those selected users. However, when an entire organization depends on the information and resources available on the intranet, downtime has a significant cost. High-reliability features are a small price to pay for a robust, dependable server. Converting from basic disk storage to basic RAID storage to protect against disk failures should cost no more than about 25 cents per megabyte. For example, 4GB of disk storage might cost $2,000, while 4GB of RAID storage would cost about $3,000. The difference is a small price to pay for protection against drive failure and data loss.
An often-overlooked cause of server failure is overheating problems that can show up just about anywhere and can be challenging to solve. Overheating can also affect your server's performance. Many processors lose 20 to 30 percent of performance with just a 20-degree temperature increase. Most systems will support additional cooling devices at a cost of $25 to $50. Adding an extra power supply or upgrading to a load-sharing power supply is another modest cost in the $200 to $400 range.
I recommend adding cooling features when setting up the server, because they will cover the majority of hardware-based system failures at a price much lower than the toll attached to a server failure.
We all know of projects that should have succeeded, could have succeeded, and might have succeeded but were bogged down with server problems. Without a well-planned server at the core of your intranet, any return on investment will be much harder to realize. You should plan on spending a lot of time choosing and setting up your server hardware, and you should plan on it being a significant cost. You will find it much less expensive to plan carefully and purchase a server that will perform reliably and will be scaleable to support all the users you anticipate for quite some time. Realize that even the cheapest server hardware will probably cost you more than $5,000. Some businesses or organizations might spend six figures.
In the future, main server platforms will begin to share more similar features than they currently do. At this time, I recommend choosing a server platform to support all your organization's resources and make sure the server has plenty of expansion capability.
The payback of pre-implementation planning is enormous. The bottom line should be clear. Just as most firms wouldn't hire a second-rate CEO to lead the company, intranet administrators shouldn't "hire" a weak server foundation to support the organization's intranet.