Building a 1U server and colocating it...

I've been reading some articles on the web on how to build a 1U server. I have put together several RedHat Linux servers with Plesk, Ensim, etc, with a spare mid-tower and various parts for testing purposes. I'm pretty confident in doing that. But there are still a few things that I don't understand about 1U servers or servers in general. For example:

* What are the advantages of 2 Ethernet ports over 1?

* A 1U is very small. I want to add my own IDE drive(s). Are there special drives for these 1U servers or are they standard 3.5" drives? The reason I ask is because 7200 RPM drives give off a lot of heat and I'm a little worried about cooling and potential drive failure.

* Is a Floppy drive even neccessary? I can boot to a CD-ROM and don't use floppies.

* Colocation: If were to send my server to a colocation facility, wouldn't they need to access it to enter the new IP address information? I would have Plesk installed... Does this mean that they would need to access my control panel and enter the new IP address information? Do they need root access?

Any and all help is appreciated!

--Steve

 

 

 

 

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