In my Coursework for my ICT GCSE's I have been set the task to create a database for a dating agency. The thing I need to know is, as I will be making a database and a computer system for them, I don't know would I need to design a server for the database and then a computer to obtain the information from the dating agency. Also aswell as answering my question what size ram, hard drive etc would I need on the server. As it is a dating agency and I am also going to design them a website so that means they will have more members online aswell as not online, so would this mean I would need a decent size hard drive? anything from 500GB to 1TB or not even that. If anyone could answer my question and give me a bit of guidence and advice on this I would be much grateful.
Im not sure about what dating agencies are but..for the RAM part you really should only need 256mb-512mb..And yeah 120gb should be plenty shouldn't even need a nice grafix card maby just a 128mb one just to design unless your going to be making high res designes then you would need more..
if this doesn't make sense...i don't really know what parts a server needs so..im just putting idea's out there..
it makes sense, just never looked into servers so needed a little help. So what would I need to do? Create a server for the database then have a computer what has a connection to the server to obtain and modify information from the database? if I did do this what would the connection steps be, what would I need?
I really doubt you'll need anything high-spec (although unlike the previous posters i'm going to admit i dont know what i'm talking about rather than telling you a flawed and wrong guess and pretending i'm an expert).
Once upon a time I got an A for my GCSE O'level ICT. My coursework was, somewhat surprisingly no doubt, an MS Access database with the associated design and implementation parts. For the hardware part I didn't go into any real server stuff. Just explain in your initial investigation that it's for a small business and they don't need proper servers ;o
If I understand correctly you have to write up a specification for the system (component list, tech specs etc), rather than actually go out and purchase the hardware?
Right, considering it's a GCSE course they're probably not too bothered about specifics - unless you've been told to provide things like amount of RAM and total hard drive size I wouldn't bother. What they probably want is for you to prove you have an understanding of what's needed from a database server.
The most important things to get from a database server are (in no order):
Performance
Reliability
Data Security
Performance generally comes from having high end hardware and things like RAID technologies.
Reliability comes partly from RAID strategies and also from having things like uninterruptible power supplies (batteries to keep the system going in the event of a total power failure), monitoring devices and personnel to check.
Data Security comes again partly from RAID but also from keeping backups (on separate systems, maybe even on tape or disk in another room (or a firesafe)) which can be used to restore data to the server in the event of a catastrophic failure that can't be recovered from the server (possible if there's a multiple disk failure in the server or a fire).
Do some research on Google/Wikipedia for some of the terms above to get a feel for them - investigate what RAID is and see what advice there is on backup strategies.
If you're going to mention hardware, then for online databases, UPS and RAID are probably the two most important things, along with regular remote backups. A quick nod to the data protection act would likely look good too, given the nature of the data in the database.
I find the assignment topic amusing though, I had to make a dating website for a Uni assignment; seems a popular theme. At least we could add humour, you can't really do that if you're making the back end. I did an Access database for A level ICT too, can't remember anything about databases now though. I managed to sell it off though, so it must have been alright at the time.
I think I didn't word it right with the online bit, I will add RAID if I have enough from the budget we have (Not a real budget, just if it is real that would be how much I would have to spend) I may add it but I am going to say I will design a website but if I have enough money left I will add RAID. How does RAID work because I heard you can get a RAID stack thingy, is that what the hard drives sit in?
There is no physical difference in a RAID setup, so yes it is a "BIOS thing." Your hard drives will be connected to the SATA ports on your mobo as usual. All it does is "program" the drives so that they show up as one big drive. What it does is that when reading and writing to the drives, it goes ACROSS both of them. Imagine writing data to your hard drive like spreading butter on bread. If your drives are not RAID, you can spread butter on two slices of bread one at a time. RAID is the equivalent of lining both slices of bread up next to each other and spreading the butter across both at the same time. Benefit for you is you get the capacity of both drives, but without the hassle of having a C: drive and a D: drive and trying to decide how to split your files (if you're a neat freak like me, that can be annoying.) Benefit of your computer is that it uses both drives at the same time, meaning it can get twice the bandwidth out of them.
Yeah, but don't count on it being something terribly noticeable. You might get a few seconds out of it, but really, that's not one of the main reasons you should do it.
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To add RAID for your server, it would be as simple as buying one more drive and configuring it as a backup (RAID 1.)
Since we're doing his coursework for him I might aswell throw in my 2 pence. The two most common "safe" RAID choices (i.e. ones that businesses offering database servers would use) would be RAID5 and RAID10. With RAID5 if you had 5 250GB disks in the array you'd end up with 1TB of usable space. RAID5 is a cheaper solution as you need less disks to provide the redundancy required - the data used to recover lost data is spread over all the drives in the array, so if one drive fails you can keep using the array at reduced performance then replace the failed drive and it'll be rebuilt to how it was before the failure. However, two or more drives failing at the same time is the end of the array - you lose everything. Since RAID5 is pretty cheap it's often the choice of home users (I've got an 8 disk RAID5 array, for example), but I'd say most businesses would stay away from it in favour of a RAID10. If you had 6 250GB drives in a RAID10 you'd only end up with 750GB of usable space, because RAID10 combines the benefits of RAID0 with those of RAID1. It both mirrors and stripes. If you can afford it RAID10 is the choice (which is why it's a good idea for businesses).
Your hard drives will be connected to the SATA ports on your mobo as usual. All it does is "program" the drives so that they show up as one big drive. What it does is that when reading and writing to the drives, it goes ACROSS both of them. Imagine writing data to your hard drive like spreading butter on bread. If your drives are not RAID, you can spread butter on two slices of bread one at a time. RAID is the equivalent of lining both slices of bread up next to each other and spreading the butter across both at the same time. Benefit for you is you get the capacity of both drives, but without the hassle of having a C: drive and a D: drive and trying to decide how to split your files (if you're a neat freak like me, that can be annoying.) Benefit of your computer is that it uses both drives at the same time, meaning it can get twice the bandwidth out of them.