Been with them for years.

Michael
http://www.webmasterautomation.com/blog/

69.90.34.119:27015 >>> New-York Public Server
69.90.34.119:27017 >>> New-York Zombie Mod (non-steam)

64.120.126.130:27045 >>> Chicago IL Main Server
&
64.27.13.53:27015 >>> Los Angeles CA Public Server
●▬▬▬▬▬ٌ۩۩ٌ▬▬▬▬▬▬●

1) 99% of providers / Web hosts support CentOS so your provider will have plenty of on-site staff that knows CentOS in and out.

2) CentOS is the free version of Red Hat, the first commercial Linux distribution in the world. You gain production stability and reliability. It doesn't have any experimental software like Ubuntu for instance (I love Ubuntu and I run it on my desktop but I don't put it on my production servers).

3) You'll find plenty of help from online communities (google). Almost all issues that you will encounter with the OS have already been solved and reported online. Just copy/paste the error on google and you'll be on your way.

4) CentOS (which is Red Hat literally) goes through rigorous testing so you'll be sure your server will not crash under high loads / vists. It's a SERVER OS after all!

By the way, my name is Joe and I help run two Web hosting firms (see the footer if you're interested). A large majority of our servers run CentOS and it's rock solid in all aspects. I highly recommend it.

****server/computer is shutdown?
You cannot receive any information when your server/computer is shutdown. DB will not work at that time.

buy a server dedicated to that?
If you are running the db server you need a dedicated ip for that. So it is better to give that job to a hosting company like http://www.blazonhosting.com. They do it for low cost.

You can run several servers in one pc(web server, mail server, DB server, file server). But running several servers in one pc leads to slow your pc's perfomences. Then it will slow down the the servers.

If you want more help or details contact. I m a webmaster too…

——More about the DB server—-
A database server is a computer program that provides database services to other computer programs or computers, as defined by the client-server model. The term may also refer to a computer dedicated to running such a program. Database management systems frequently provide database server functionality, and some DBMS's (e.g., MySQL) rely exclusively on the client-server model for database access.

Database Master servers are central and main locations of data while Database Slave servers are synchronized backups of the master acting as proxies.

RAID 1 is mirroring only.
RAID 5's striping should outperform RAID 1

However, you may be better off investigating a hardware RAID card than trying to build a software RAID from the motherboard sockets. Your gains from RAIDing may be offset by processor overhead.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if 6 x 7200 RPM drives with high areal density (320 GB platters) and a hardware RAID card outperformed or at least equalled 6 x Velociraptors for a comparable price.

See http://www.storagereview.com for comprehensive comparisons of performance.