New Xserve in the rack....where do I go from here?

Question

Well, our shiny new (and unexpectedly deep and heavy) Xserve arrived this morning, and has been installed in the rack cabinet at our new premises. I think I need help knowing where to go from here on a couple of points.....
I've been wading through pages of PDF manuals, support pages and forums posts and – to be honest – my head's in a mess!! I'm hoping some of you nice folks out there (Camelot provided some very useful advice in previous posts) could offer me some direction, so I can work out what I need to work out, and understand what I'm doing so I can get this beast up and running.
Having also bought a couple of Netgear GS724T switches, I had planned to setup a 4gbps trunk between the Xserve and the first switch (with a second 4gbps connection between the switches). We will use an Airport Extreme Base Station as our DHCP server, and I will likely assign static IPs to both the switches whilst configuring them for trunk operation. Things are slightly complicated by the fact that our new BT Versatility installation already appears to have a 4-port wireless router bolted on, but I think we can effectively bypass this straight to the AEBS....
In order to use link aggregation (i.e. the 4gbps connection to the Xserve), will I need to configure Server first using only 1 ethernet connection? Can I do this 'headless' – I have installed all the Admin Tools (and documentation!!) on my MacBook Pro.... Also, can I even use link aggregation in a 'basic' Standard Server configuration, or will I need to use Advanced?
We choose to purchase 3x 300Gb 15k SAS drives and therefore also have the RAID card installed. My understanding is that the Server software will be installed in drive 1 (left hand bay), and simply needs 'configured' (did I say 'simply'??!). I also believe I could – without re-installing the OS – changed the setup to RAID5 if I wanted to. I think I need to do this using Disk Utility whilst the Xserve is booted via the install DVD – correct? Can I setup disk mirroring without re-installing, and is the process the same (i.e. boot from DVD, change the setup, re-boot)?
We run Filemaker Server, and I wondered which initial setup option would be optimal – NO raid, with the OS on one drive, and the database file(s) on another; or one big RAID5 volume with everything on it? I guess with 3 internal drives, we could go for a single drive (OS) plus a 2-drive RAID for files (either mirrored or striped for speed). If we bolt on a couple of 500Gb Firewire drives which we have 'spare' that would allow for backups of both volumes.....?
Putting everything into consideration, I want to take 'baby steps' with the setup, until I get my head round everything. Initially, all we need is Filemaker and remote access to our databases (through VPN I guess), although I want to add web/mail/iCal etc..etc.. once we've settled into the new offices.
The whole DNS thing scares me a bit. I can arrange reverse DNS with BT, and point our domain (via FastHosts) to our public IP address so we can run our own Web and Email server. I'm just not convinced this won't be a security vulnerability.....
I'm a long time Mac user, but I've never used Server, and I rarely use Terminal. This new Xserve venture is exciting, but it also feels a bit un-nerving.... and advice, input and further reading suggestions would be gratefully received!
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

In order to use link aggregation (i.e. the 4gbps connection to the Xserve), will I need to configure Server first using only 1 ethernet connection?
Ahh, setting up Link Aggregation while headless is always a concern since it will affect the network connection you're using to administer the box. It is possible to do, it just takes some planning. If you can, configure the link over the serial port using networksetup, or put a monitor on the server temporarily.
Also, can I even use link aggregation in a 'basic' Standard Server configuration, or will I need to use Advanced?
I believe so - 'basic' vs. 'Advanced' only controls the set of services that are run and simplifies the admin interface somewhat. I don't think it has any effect on the underlying network setup but I might be wrong (I've never used anything but advanced).
I also believe I could – without re-installing the OS – changed the setup to RAID5 if I wanted to
No, that is not possible. Converting to RAID 5 will destroy the current config and reformat the drives. You can migrate to a RAID 1 or RAID 0 array, but not to RAID 5.
Can I setup disk mirroring without re-installing, and is the process the same (i.e. boot from DVD, change the setup, re-boot)?
For simple mirroring you can use RAID Admin's Migrate option to migrate the current single drive to a new mirror on the other two drives. The you can re-use the original drive.
We run Filemaker Server, and I wondered which initial setup option would be optimal
In general, RAID 5 is not recommended for database use - or any other use that requires a lot of random writes, although it does depend on volume - if your traffic is sufficiently light it might not be an issue.
Other than that, for most people the data is most important, so that should be mirrored. It's reasonably easy to reinstall the OS (at least compared to rebuilding all your data.
Putting everything into consideration, I want to take 'baby steps' with the setup.
To start, focus on the disks. Everything else (applications, services, network, etc.) can be reworked easily later on. Not so with the disks.
The whole DNS thing scares me a bit.
Use BT for your public DNS for sure, but you'll definitely benefit from having working internal DNS, and that's pretty easy to manage, at least for small networks.
so what DNS name do I use locally when configuring Server?
You can use anything you like. You can use ourcompany.com - the same as your public domain, but just have to realize that 'server.ourcompany.com' may mean different things depending on whether you're inside your network querying your own DNS server, or external querying BTs (BT will return 12.34.56.78 while your internal DNS would return the 192.168.100.x address).
This confuses me (from setup guide):
Ignore the statement in the setup guide. It's perfectly valid to have 'server.domain.com' hosting email for [email protected].
Do I need to consult our ISP about what DNS name I should give our server
If you're running your own internal DNS then no, not at all.
You only need to involve BT for any externally-available hostnames (and they don't even have to match your internal names - it's fine to have 'server.domain.com' on your internal DNS but no 'server.domain.com' in your public DNS, it just means no one can get to 'server.domain.com' from outside your network.
Filemaker recommends you use the scheduling facility in FMServer for backups, and not system backups
This is absolutely the case - it's hard to make backups of active/open files, especially databases. Any backup takes time - you read the first byte at time 0, but might not get to the last byte until several minutes later - and you have to consider what happens to changes in between (some may be backed up if they happened before the backup reached that part of the file, others might not, leading to an inconsistent file).
Filemaker's backup method ensures you have a valid backup of the data.
I'm now thinking that mirroring the OS on drive 2 might be a good idea, whilst storing Filemaker files in a 'Databases' folder on drive 3 (which is backed up my FMServer schedule). Other 'Shared' folder(s) on drive 3 could be backed up via Time Machine to an external FW800 drive......
This really depends on the frequency of change in your database. If it's mostly reads and not many inserts/updates, then reverting to yesterdays backup might not be a problem, but if your data changes constantly it might not be as good.