As noted above, I think the question may be clearer. Let me give you a more general answer and update it as I get more updates on this.
First, and for most, you can learn about version control concepts. The Subversion book will be a good start, checkout http://svnbook.red-bean.com . I would advise you to at least check out Chapter 4 , which has some useful information about branching and combining. If you want to learn about server administration, you can see Chapter 5 .
Secondly, this is the server setup. Since you did not mention the server platform, I would suggest Subversion Edge . It comes with a wide range of platform support and a good web-based administration interface. BTW, Visual SVN is only supported on windows.
Third, install the client side. Like the server, even here the platform and tools that you are going to use will be of great importance. Let me list a few options that come to my mind TortoiseSVN for just Windows (integrates with Windows Explorer), the Subclipse / subversive plugin for ecplise (a Java-based multi-platform tool), AnkhSVN and VisualSVN plugins for Visual Studio. There are other plugins
Hope this answers your question.