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I'm primarily used to using Computer Towers as basic servers for the company I've been administrating for a while. And we now wish to move away from that to a rack facility.

I have no idea (not the slightest clue) as to how these things work. There's just a few questions I would like to ask:

  1. Do rack-mounter servers have OS's?
  2. Do I configure these servers directly or from another computer?
  3. Say for instance I wanted to incorporate a file server making use of a rack mounted server, would it need an OS?
voretaq7
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user104778
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    I want to downvote this question 10 times, close it is as off topic, make it canonical and give it an upvote all at the same time. I... uh... wow. – HopelessN00b Nov 10 '12 at 00:05
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    All servers are computers. All computers need software to do anything useful. The primary piece of software that interfaces between hardware and applications is the OS. – Zoredache Nov 10 '12 at 00:13
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    There's really no difference between a rack-mounted system and a tower system, except usually the quality/serviceability of components -- For example *good* rack-mount servers usually have their hard drives mounted in hot-swapable trays so you can replace one while the system is running without opening the case, and they usually have two redundant power supplies that can be swapped out while the system is running if one fails (one at a time obviously). – voretaq7 Nov 10 '12 at 01:33
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    Some server cases can do both. Take off the rails, turn them vertical, add feet, and you have a tower. Take off the feed, turn them horizontal, add rails, and you have a rack mount box. All other aspects are the same. – Skaperen Nov 10 '12 at 03:20
  • Thanks to Everyone for the speedy replies! Firstly I must apologize about the first question! Extremely retarded. Looks like i need to do a bit of homework! Thanks though for the patience and answers! Very Usefull! – user104778 Nov 10 '12 at 12:37

2 Answers2

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Do rack-mounter servers have OS's?

Rack-mount servers are the same as tower servers they just fit nicely in a rack, so yes they have an OS.

Do i configure these servers directly or from another computer?

Normally, for me, you configure them directly then you use some kind of remote connection tool such as Remote Desktop to connection to them and manage them remotely.

Say for instance I wanted to incorporate a file server making use of a rack mounted server, would it need an OS?

Yes, see answer to first question.

Winter Faulk
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Think of Rack-Mount servers as your computer towers in a different shape/form. (Same guts inside (of varying power, capability, etc.) but different shape. Modern Rack-mounted machines are thinner, to take-up less space.) Essentially, they are able to be screwed into a rack, along with other rack-mount servers.

OS's are installable onto these computers. It's your choice, which OS you'd like to use. Usually, the vendor you've bought your rack-mount from will have a list of "officially" supported and compatible (with the hardware) OS's which can run on the server you've bought.

Your Rack-mounted server will have a display port (usually VGA) and ports for input devices like the keyboard & mouse (same as a normal Tower computer). In most racks which hold more than one server, a device called a KVM or KVM switch is used to connect all the computers to one screen/mouse/keyboard, so you can switch between the machine that you are working on, and only have one screen, mouse, & keyboard for them all. (Handy!)

You will certainly need an OS for a fileserver.

Have fun!

j2k4j
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