which is responsible for transmitting the information requested by its customers, be it other computers, mobile devices, printers or people, for example. Thus, it operates as a very powerful computing platform that safeguards data.
One of the best solutions around it, consists of making a DIY server or homemade server. This gives you the ability to maintain full control over your data and save money at the same time. In view of that, it’s cheaper to use a professional hosting.
Since it is not that complex to set up your own web server at home, many are interested in learning about the process behind it. Next, we will point out what are the requirements and what steps must be followed.
Requirements to set up a home web server
As usual, desktop servers They are best suited for a home lab and business use, as opposed to rack mount servers that are exclusive to business environments. Therefore, we will focus on the best parts of building a home desktop web serverinstead of making a rack mount box.
In this sense, then we will let you know What are the main requirements to set up a home web server?in order to provide the highest possible reliability, ensure computing efficiency and maximize power.
Without further ado, check out the most important parts below:
Motherboard
The , motherboard, main board or motherboard It is the backbone that joins the other components of the computer at the same point, so that they can communicate with each other. Is about a printed circuit board to which the units that make up the computer are connected.
A) Yes, its main function is to connect all the components of the computer to the system and, therefore, it is a fundamental part to set up any home server, since it is the base of every PC and without it, none of the pieces could interact. Other of its functions are summarized in that it allows data traffic and contains the computer circuits.
RAM
In general terms, the It is the component of an electronic device that deals with storing instruction data temporarily. It refers to a short-term memory in which the operating system stores all running programs and processes, temporarily. Therefore, it is used for the computer to manage the data of the applications in operation and the more RAM it has, the more processes it can manage simultaneously.
For its part, this memory has two key characteristics that differentiate it from other types of storage memories. One of them, is that it has remarkable speed and the other, is that the data is only stored for the short term. Thus, every time the computer is turned off or restarted, the information stored in RAM is lost.
Although not a mandatory requirement, it is recommended that appropriate memory be used for these servers. There are several types of “server memories” that offer greater data integrity and are ranked based on their performance.
Among them, the following stand out:
- ECC and NON-ECC memory: ECC memory contains software that corrects errors that can affect volatile memory and is used in servers that cannot tolerate data changes. On the other hand, NON-ECC memory is one that does not have this error correction bit and is normal RAM, that is, the one used by most computers.
- Registered and unbuffered memory: Registered memory maintains a register between the memory controller and the DRAM modules, and also tends to increase server performance if they interleave data on three different channels. On the other hand, unbuffered memory is one that does not maintain a register between the DRAM and the system. Either one can be chosen for a home server.
CPU or Processor for server
on the server is the component that has the function of interpret and execute instructions, process data, and perform tasks. Whether it’s displaying web pages, executing database queries, figuring out other program commands, etc.
Without a doubt, this is one of the most important parts of the server, since it works like the brain. Thus, it makes sure that everything works correctly by establishing the necessary connections, interpreting everything that the operating system wants to do, and doing all the necessary calculations to make it work.
For DIY servers, it is recommended to use a CPU that has a higher number of cores, since it needs to run more processes than a conventional PC. Therefore, it is essential that you manage to increase the performance of cores, bandwidth and memory. to streamline workloads and speed up process execution.
HDD
On a server, the refers to the component that stores all the information contained in the system, that is, that, stores the data necessary for your server to work. Apart from hosting the operating system, it is also capable of saving all the programs, files, music, videos and more without losing any data.
Indeed, the hard drive is the main storage center of a server and is a fundamental part of digital lives. To ensure optimum performance on servers, combinations of mirrored disks are often used, which save the information on several disks simultaneously. So when one drive fails, the others will have the same information and can be easily recovered.
network switch
This is the component that connects devices within a network and forwards data packets to and from those same devices. Therefore, its role consists of interconnecting two or more hosts in a similar way to network bridges. Unlike a router, the switch only sends data to the single device it is intended for, and not for multi-device networks.
Generally, switches are used when the user needs to connect multiple sections of a network, as it merges them into one. A) Yes, works like a filter to retransmit the information to the required sections, in order to optimize the performance and security of local area networks (LAN).
device drivers
Also known as drivers, A driver is the software that controls a device on a PC., which are operating system specific and hardware dependent. The function of these is to operate as a translator between the hardware device and the operating systems that use it.
Thus, the controllers act as a kind of bridges between applications and devices, to make sure that both interact with each other. To simplify such interaction, they have to make an abstraction of the hardware and provide an interface to use the device.
Other components…
- A router with an Internet connection.
- .
- An operating system (Windows or MacOS).
- A server program.
- A database program.
- A program for creating and editing web pages.
Learn how to build your own homemade web server
Although the components mentioned above qualify as the best options for setting up a web server at home, but it is not the only formula that exists. By default, there are many factors that influence when building your own web server, either depending on your needs and with respect to the budget you have.
However, around the components mentioned above and to ensure that you can enjoy a high-performance machine, we recommend you build your DIY server as follows:
Specify the type of server to mount
To begin with, the most important thing is to define the type of server you want to build at home, depending on the tasks you want to perform. By default, the most used are: File servers, proxy servers and web server (the latter will be the one we will focus on).
Nevertheless, there are also other types of relevant servers in the world of computingwhich are: Mail server, fax server, print server, telephony server, remote access server, database server, use server, security server, backup server, dedicated server and non-dedicated server .
Prepare suitable hardware
Next, you have to build a computer suitable for the web server. Based on the requirements mentioned in the first part of the post, assembly possible with components reused from other machines, which guarantee optimal operation and have suitable specifications. This reveals a remarkable money saving.
In the case of RAM memory, it is essential that it be high frequency and large capacity in terms of GB, in order to obtain efficient operation. Regarding CPU capacity, it is not such an essential piece of information, but it is suggested that it be 4 or 8 cores and have a microprocessor powerful enough to process information shipments and storage in general.
As for hard drives, it is important that they are quite reliable, as this will help to avoid all kinds of failures. Apart from its reliability, it is recommended that the hard disk is as big as possible and if it is solid, much better.
Choosing the operating system and server program
The next step to complete, is based on selecting the operating system and in this case, users have complete freedom to choose the one they prefer. However, experts suggest using Linux Ubuntu or Windows Server 2008/2012.
At this point, you must also choose and define the server program. One of the most used solutions, is Apache Server, because it has versions for Windows and Linux, it is efficient, it is easy to configure and it is free. Another of the recommended alternatives, is Internet Information Server (IIS) which is contained in Windows by default.
Adjust Internet connection
After doing the above, another of the most important steps to set up your own web server consists of contracting a good Internet connection. This will be in charge of limiting the load of users who can access said server, so it is essential that it is trained to do so.
If you still do not have a good Internet plan at home, we advise you to hire a more efficient one (if it is within your possibilities). When choosing the new plan to hire, be sure to do it based on the level of resources you will useas well as, around the upload bandwidth required by the web server and the main needs for it.
open router ports
Next, it is time to open the necessary ports in the router, firewalls or proxies, In order for the server to communicate effectively with the outside. To do this, you must consider that each router provides different configuration options.
In this sense, if you want to build a web server at home, you have to open port 80 of the router, since this is used for HTTP transmission, by default. In case, additionally,…
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