Server specs for Search Website shopping

Hello,

? Any tips on the hardware specs needed by: website that will service in the internet, a search engine for shopping, the actual shopping e.g. purchase will not be on this server.

Can a laptop handle such need, considering overheating, etc.

I am thinking of using jboss or apache.

Approximate transactions is around 10,000/day for first month, and steadily goes to 1 million a day after a year.

Basically, user just goes in to search, and clicks a link to go to purchase website - on another server on another pc.

A laptop definitely will not do; why would you want to use one anyway?

It boils down to how processor/DB-intensive the search is. 10000/day is one request every 8 seconds, although they're most likely not spaced evenly in time, thus exacerbating the problem.

But 1000000/day is about 12 requests per seconds, at minimum. If the search has a non-trivial complexity you're looking at multiple servers for this.

Is 10000/1000000 the number of checkout/buy transactions or of expected searches? Each checkout is usually preceded by multiple searches.
[ May 26, 2007: Message edited by: Ulf Dittmer ]

I think I recklessly estimated the traffic. I would be a millionaire if the traffic thru my site would be like that.

I prefer laptop because I move a lot (house/rent).

It is more likely around 500 users entering per day. He will do one or more search. When he chooses a searched link, he will be forwarded to another website, outside of my server's responsibility, on another server.

Yes I will use a database with static data (read only), and the search is not complex.

The only thing in the database are items the user can buy, along with its description, category and a link to the purchase site page for that item. 2 to 3 tables can take that. There are around 10,000 items. As I mentioned, it is static, and I will update it via batch process once a day.

I dont keep inventory, purchase, sale, or whatever of those kind. My app is only a search system.

Any idea what hardware configuration do I need for such purpose? And what free j2ee servers and free database servers can take that activity?

That doesn't sound like much traffic or data volume. Any J2EE or DB servers on average hardware should be able to handle it.

But how are your customers going to reach your site if it's run on a frequently-disconnected laptop?

Originally posted by Ulf Dittmer:

But how are your customers going to reach your site if it's run on a frequently-disconnected laptop?

I dont move 'that' often. I prefer it due to its size. I sometimes move every 6 months to a different apartment, and it doesnt hurt much if I have a laptop, compared to a bulky desktop.

I am wondering about overheating and stuff, on laptop, if I keep it on, and busy, 24/7.

Originally posted by Jesus Angeles:
I am wondering about overheating and stuff, on laptop, if I keep it on, and busy, 24/7.

Your laptop isn't going to be "busy" if it's just doing a bit of web serving. I run my laptop 24/7 and it's doing Seti@Home in the background, which uses 99% of the CPU if it can, and it's working just fine.