Hey I'm looking to enlist some advice from the clever minds running this forum.
I currently have a piece of a website up that I'm looking to change. I'm hosting this site on a dual PIII 512MB RAM SCSI server running windows 2000 w/apache/php4.2/mysql3.23. I've just added a nice drive array that has 6 SCSI harddrives in it that I want to use for hosting various applications. What I'm stuck on is how best to set up my server and drive array? Being that I plan on hosting atleast 2 sites on this server I'm in need of a solution that's going to accodate this. So my questions are:
1. Is there anyone here running linux on any SCSI servers? Is it, linux, hard to configure with SCSI? Is it stable? I've been using Microsoft for years, and I've had this server running without any reboots for months, so I know Microsoft is stable.
2. What would be the recommended version? I have a version of RedHat 7.3 that I downloaded a while back but I know that 8.0 is out. Should I download and play with that? Any response on this is greatly appreciated.

I currently have a Microsoft network setup on my DSL connection. I'm considering setting up a linux box to route my connection through it but Ideally I would like to be able to keep my web server(s) seperate from this configuration. I don't know much about linux other than what I've learn from these forums and sites, so if anyone care to shed some light on some of their configurations this would also be appreciated.

I also don't mind keeping windows 2000 on this server, I'm just not sure if all of the applications I plan on using will work on w2k. So can anyone shed light on some of these features?
I currently have a CMS using phpPortal and vBulletin. I'd also like to add the following:
Mailing list and/or webmail. Something like HiveMail or MailMan
MP3 JukeBox for music and videos. Something like Andromeda
Gallery
Chat Service

So my main concern is being able to install these applications on this server and manage them. Like I said I have no problem with Windows, I'm just not sure how well these apps will run on Windows, so I'm trying to avoid THOSE SUPPORT type headaches.

TIA

Microsoft is stable? Well, that's relative, and depends on who's running it of course . Linux/apache is a high availability/high performance server combination. Have a look at the typical uptimes at http://uptime.netcraft.net/up/today/top.avg.html - most of the top machines are FreeBSD but they give an idea.

Linux accommodates scsi fine. Get whatever version you like! If it's for a server, redhat will be easiest. 7.3 is a good one too.

I recommend squirrelmail. And you already know about php so that's fine.

mp3? There are more mp3 programs for linux than I've ever seen for windows. They're also cheaper. As in free. Gallery? gqview. Chat Service? Java applet, IRC.

I would recommend Redhat 7.3 with Apache, mySQL, and PHP 4.2.2 this is a common configuration for most of my web servers. I am sure BSD would be good as well, but I prefer Redhat 7.3 for servers at the current time.

Thanks for the responses. I think one of my main concerns is actually going through the process of redoing my web server and drive array and making it a full linux configuration. Of course with Microsoft I have the luxury of using disk management to see and manage all of your drives on my server and in my array. Is this possible with 7.3? Lets say I have these scsi drives so far:
3 9gig drives in web server
8 drives in drive array
4 - 33.6gig
4 - 8gig
If I stayed with Windows I'd do 2 33.6 gig dynamic drives mirrored for my web site and files.
33.6 - for storing mp3's
33.6 - for images and videos
couple of 8gig's for hosting the other site.

Can I manage this or a configuration similar to this in Linux? Meaning would I be able to manage my file structures as I see fit? My understanding, and a low-level understanding, of linux was that the file structures aren't that different, it's the permissions or how you set them up. Something to do with each directory having a particular purpose. Like \etc used for one thing and \bin for another.
My main reason for using linux for my web site is because of the cost associated with most of the applications that are available. I also have yet to find anything on the market that beats "free".
So any responses posted here in this regard are greatly appreciated.

Hint: use qmail, not sendmail.

Speaking of mail lemme ask this question. I 'd like to have a mailing list associated with my site and also the ability for users to get an email account when signing up. I use phpPortal & vBulletin right now, but I was THINKING of switching to PostNuke. I've seen atleast 2 products that seem able to integrate with my CMS. They're called Mailman & Hivemail. Anyone here familiar with either of these products? I understand one is free and the other isn't but I wanted to get an idea of what you guys thought about these and how they measured up to squirrel mail and sendmail or qmail.
Thanks