Servers

00:01

Hello. My name is Dustin and today will be continuing our beginner network infrastructure Course with servers. Let's get started.

00:09

So what is a server? A server is a computer designed to process requests and deliver data to another computer over the Internet or a local network.

00:20

So, basically, to put it simply, a server provides a service to clients or clients, typically multiple clients. There are many different services that a server can provide, but some of the most common in today's networks include on file servers, print servers, Web servers and email servers.

00:41

So what is a server look like? In a typical network map, servers are represented as a tower like computer, hopefully with their label underneath.

00:52

That label will also sometimes describe what that server does. So maybe it's an email server, a Web server. In the real world, though, service can come in many shapes, forms and sizes.

01:03

I've currently got a media server running on a small raspberry pi. Here in my house,

01:07

in homes or small offices, you may see a regular computer tower or workstation being used as a server in a data center. Servers are typically wide, skinny and long and mounted in server racks along the networking equipment.

01:26

So what kind of services can a server provide?

01:30

I'll let you think about this real quick.

01:36

There's really no no limit to the services of the server can provide. Service can provide any service that you can think of some of the most common ones that you'll encounter though our email servers, Web servers, identity and access servers like an active directory server, media and file and print services.

02:00

So setting up servers pretty easy. Um, basically, the first step is to determine what service or services that server will provide.

02:12

From that, you can decide what operating system you need. They will help you provide those services. If it's a tower, a workstation server, it's a simple as plugging in the power

02:23

networking cable monitor mouse and keyboard,

02:28

then powering the server up and configuring the operating system and the services as needed.

02:35

For a rack mounted server, it's, ah, a little bit different. The first step is actually just racking that server in the rack, and typically this is done. You probably need one, maybe two people. You lift it up and he actually slide it into the rack depending on your racket. Me connect a couple different ways,

02:52

but once it slid into the rack, you can go to the back of it.

02:55

Plug in your networking cable power, and if the data center or ah, the rack that you're in uses it, you can plug in a crash cart or the built in cables that'll help you get that can figure. Most servers aren't typically left with a monitor

03:13

because it's just extra stuff that the server has to process eso, especially in data centers. You typically see what's called the crash carts that have a monitor, keyboard and mouse that you can plug in real quick to your server if you need to make any changes.

03:30

In today's video, we discussed what servers are and how they provide services to clients. We also talked about how they look on a networking diagram, typically like a big workstation and with a label underneath it that tells what it does

03:46

and how they look. In real life. Where you can have workstations, you can have ah little raspberry pi server,

03:51

and in data centers you'll typically see the rack amount of servers.

03:54

And lastly, we discussed the simple steps that it takes to set up a basic server