Working Draft
Server Fault is for system administrators and desktop support professionals, people who manage or maintain computers in a professional capacity for their company or clients.
If your question is about…
- Servers, including - Hardware - Operating Systems (linux, windows-2008, freebsd, openbsd, solaris, aix, etc.) - Server Software (apache, exchange-server-2010, sharepoint)
- Business or Enterprise storage systems (san, fibre-channel, raid)
- Desktop PCs that you maintain in the workplace, including
- Networks inside the professional workplace, including routing, switching and firewall questions
- Ancillary topics such as backup, monitoring, disaster-recovery, patching…
and it is **not** about…
- Programming (Ask on StackOverflow instead)
- Networking outside the professional workplace (Ask on SuperUser instead)
- Running servers at home for personal use (ask on SuperUser instead)
- General Unix/Linux computer troubleshooting (ask on Unix & Linux instead)
- Advanced database topics (ask on DBA instead)
- Product or service recommendations (see this blog post for the reason)
- Career and Salary questions
- Licensing (here is why) and Legal questions
- How to circumvent security or organizational policy
- Password cracking or "hacking" in general
… then you’re in the right place to ask your question!
We also have …
… a list of questions that come up repeatedly in slightly different forms with links to the "best" answer that's been identified.