SERVER PLATFORMS AND

TYPES OF SERVER FORM

FACTORS

Alfred Mujah Jimmy

COMPUTER NETWORKING SERVICES YAHOS SCHOOL OF SKILLS – KUCHING, MALAYSIA
ABSTRACT
In this explanation written and published on Word, learners of the Computer
Networking Services program will learn about the:

- The definition of Different Server Platforms

- The two types of Different Server Platforms
- The definitions of the Server Form Factor, and;
- The types of Server Form Factors used, as well as;
- The purpose of the Server Form Factors used.

And by the end of the course period, learners and graduates shall be able to
identify which different server platforms these types belonged to, and to
differentiate and identify these types of server form factors used for,
alongside its purpose and applications for these types of server form factors
as well once they were assigned, in the workforce scenario, to perform
networking installations and configurations as requested by a client in need.
What is a server platform?
A server platform is a family of servers that includes the hardware and
operating systems. There are two types of servers found in networks:
Physical Servers and Virtual Servers. Here’s how they’re alike and how they
differ:

1. Physical Server
• A physical server is what truly serves the data in the end.
Operating on metal and electricity, modern physical servers are
often capable of serving far more than one user could ever want.
• They are typically housed in data centres by hosting companies
to serve a variety of clients. The only exception would be larger
organisations usually owned the network of physical servers.
• In the past, each server in a network (e.g Webserver, Database
Server, etc.) was hosted on its own dedicated physical server.
This concept is now being replaced with virtualisation
technologies whereby each server can be a virtual machine inside
a bigger physical machine.
2. Virtual Server
• A virtual server is a partitioned part of a physical server. Most
servers online are virtual servers. They often are given a
dedicated amount of physical server resources to utilise (such as
RAM, CPU, and storage spaces)
• Users can rent virtual servers for a friction of the cost of a
physical server. This is because hosting companies typically own
or rent the physical server for a wholesale price, then profit off of
selling parts of the physical machine at a time to users with
smaller audiences.
What are the types of Server Form Factors?
In computing servers, the computer networking term form factor refers to the
size, shape and packaging of a hardware device. Server computers typically
come in one of two form factors that are usually available elsewhere in the
world, such as:

• Rack Mount Unit

o Rack Mount Units are a unit of typical server form factors which is
designed to save space when you need more than few servers in
a confined area. A rack-mount server is housed in a small chassis
which is designed to fit into a standard 19-inch equipment rack.
The rack allows you to vertically stack servers in order to save
space.
• Blade Server Unit
o Blade Units are a unit of typical server form factors that are
designed to save even more space than rack-mounted server
units. A blade server is a server on a single card than can be
mounted alongside other blade servers in a blade chassis, which
itself fits into a standard 19-inch equipment rack.
o One of the key benefits of blade units is that you don’t need a
separate power supply for each server. Instead, the blade server
systems provide rack-mounted power supplies that can serve
several blade enclosures mounted in a single rack.