On Wednesday 10 May 2006 06:12, Götz Reinicke wrote: > Hi, > > we run a RHEL4 Webserver with moderate access (aprox. 6 GB Tratic / > month). We host three websites and at the moment we use virtual > interfaces. I plan to migrate the sites to a new server and I start > thinking about what would be better: real or virtual NIC. The new server > comes with two gigabit onboard nics. But I could also by a second nic > with e.g. 4 extra ports. > > What do you think? Any suggestions? No matter what you do, make sure you have two different IPs for the actual system and the webserver. That will help you if you have to move the webserver to another box later. I would use both onboard nics - one with the host ip, one with the webserver ip. That way I can use the host ip to make backups without impacting the webserver traffic. Also, once upon a time, I got bit by a bug in the kernel that, when using the e100 drivers, bringing down a virtual interface would also bring down the real physical interface. On the down side, you have two cables instead of just one... Also, is you go with a separate card, you potentially have better redundancy - if your network card fails (or someone purposefully puts high voltage onto your ethernet lan), you blow the card rather than the board. If your onboard fails, you can move to the card without having to run to the store first to buy a new one... Neither of those two have ever really been an issue for me - so far I never had a system board nic fail without the whole board dying. Peter.
