Proposal for a new server for my employer. Need advice.

[DaveB]

OK, good luck then.

 

[Jon]

This is the sort of thing I went to school for and have done as my job for nearly 10 years.

All I can say is that I would never build a system to be used in a situation like this. You may get lucky and have no problems, but you're throwing away alot of options that you may need in the future by not going with a proprietary vendor.

I'll join DaveB and say, "good luck".

 

[Xtreme Barton]

curious ... will you be able to part out old server ??

 

[AdvanS13]

Hp

 

[dark_15]

I owuld also suggest going to a Brand Name company, but if you must DIY, then take a look at my similar issue like this in the past. Here it is.

Personally, I would go looking for a barebones system. Supermicro makes excellent SuperServer Systems that would probably suit you nicely. Go to www.supermicro.com for more information. Since you do not have some sort of rackspace, look at their 4U rackmount/tower boxes. Get a box that has Redundant Power supplies; this way if one PS dies it does not take down your whole server. And yes, they are all intel boxen, so this will be a Xeon - only crowd.

Go with some SCSI drives in a RAID-5 Configuration. That will keep your data safer should a hard drive fails. Supermicro Servers also have an option to install a hardware RAID card that works in conjunction with the onboard SCSI for better RAID performance. I strongly suggest you purchase one of these as well. Add a tape backup system depending on how much you need to backup and how fast it needs to be done.

And definitely split up those jobs. You will want one server to do email/AV/whatnot and let the other be used as you PDC and accounting software for security's sake. If you cannot, try looking into Windows SBS 2003 Standard edition. That will provide all you need to get started and should be perfect for a small business like yours.

 

[AdvanS13]

I owuld also suggest going to a Brand Name company, but if you must DIY, then take a look at my similar issue like this in the past. Here it is.

Personally, I would go looking for a barebones system. Supermicro makes excellent SuperServer Systems that would probably suit you nicely. Go to www.supermicro.com for more information. Since you do not have some sort of rackspace, look at their 4U rackmount/tower boxes. Get a box that has Redundant Power supplies; this way if one PS dies it does not take down your whole server. And yes, they are all intel boxen, so this will be a Xeon - only crowd.

Go with some SCSI drives in a RAID-5 Configuration. That will keep your data safer should a hard drive fails. Supermicro Servers also have an option to install a hardware RAID card for better RAID performance. I strongly suggest you purchase one of these as well. Add a tape backup system depending on how much you need to backup and how fast it needs to be done.

And definitely split up those jobs. You will want one server to do email/AV/whatnot and let the other be used as you PDC and accounting software for security's sake. If you cannot, try looking into Windows SBS 2003 Standard edition. That will provide all you need to get started and should be perfect for a small business like yours.

supermicro are excellent

 

[ati]

Yea should denaitly go name brand on this on. As close as oyu are to your boss...people change in the event of data loss.

 

[dwschoon]

Well, you all will be happy to note that I talked with my boss about it, and they will first take the research Ive done to the consultant and see what kind of deal they can work out. Unless he charges some outrageous price, they will probably pay him to build the server using my research. That will absolve me of any responsibility.

 

[Shelnutt2]

good luck man.

 

[Jon]

Why not buy or lease something like a Dell PowerEdge? They have systems that would definately fit your needs along with good pricing plans. Support is good - it's where Dell makes their money.

 

[Xtreme Barton]

well i think the thing here too is.. when you seen the price you did not throw in the anount it cost for him to build it.. obviously you found good prices on stuff alot better than his .. but maybe he charges alot to install ..

 

[dwschoon]

Why not buy or lease something like a Dell PowerEdge? They have systems that would definately fit your needs along with good pricing plans. Support is good - it's where Dell makes their money.

I showed my boss a pricing config for both dell and hp. We'll see what he does. They run quite a bit more. I think the one i configured was well over 3k in order to get dual cpu's, 2gigs ram, and scsi raid. that is with the support plan. doesnt include any software. It does make sense though. almost all of our other computers are dells.

 

[Jon]

Does this server absolutely need 2 CPUs? If it's only being used for light web/file serving, I really don't see the purpose for two other than adding extra cost.

 

[Cheator]

Does this server absolutely need 2 CPUs? If it's only being used for light web/file serving, I really don't see the purpose for two other than adding extra cost.

From what he has mentioned, he is using it as an exchange server, file server, web server, etc. From what I imagine, 2 cpus would give him breathing room.

 

[dark_15]

Exchange is a pure hog when it comes to resources... pure and simple.

Have you looked into Small Business Server for your organization? That would probably be your best bet considering what you need and how large your organization is.

 

[Jon]

Unless the web server is processing alot of transactions (ASP, CGI,etc.) it'll mostly just tax the SCSI array. Other than that, the Exchange service would probably be the only one to really worry about. Do you have any Exchange/Performance monitoring results regarding Percent Processor Time? Just curious how busy that server is.

Just trying to save some money if it can be done :]

 

[Cheator]

He ais before that the current one is only used for the web server.. or so I got form his explanation.

 

[Shelnutt2]

get a PC-DL and some 2.4 M0 stepping chips andbam there you go a server that will last them as long as they are on 32 bit-apps.

Total price for mobo and chips, ~$350.

You proably could get by on some 1.6 LV's but 2.4's would give you breathing rome.

 

[four4875]

I would go with someone else for the support aspect. when one of out servers decides to take a break, we are scrambling to get that stuff back up. our email server seems ot be the worst, when customers cant send and recieve their email, they get ****ed. then tons of phone calls, cant get any other stuff done, still worrying about the mail server... its a big hassle. if we had support from another entity, we would just call them and say "hey this is messed up, come fix it" and then we're done (aside from customer calls, but mail server is nothin compared to the calls we get when the colocated radius server goes kaput.)

I dont think that it is AS bad of a situation you have, but it can be pretty nerve wracking nontheless. and do baclups as often as you can. and dont buy cheap tapes for it either, those wear out and like to have spots on them where data isnt really there. hell if it would be possible, have it backup to an offsite computer connected by a wireless link, something like 900 mhz or 5.x ghz gear, with the right protocols and stuff nobody will be able to get in, unless they knew the exact config and had the right hardware, and then you could run som kind of vpn or something similar on top of all of that. that way if building goes byebye for whatever reson theres still data at the other site, and you would be able ot pull a good 40+ mbits through the link at least. Being without a good set of backups is a major pain in the *** when you have a drive failure. dont take that risk. but be secure in your backup efforts too, dont share th copies of the backups with people drivin by ;-)

 

[dwschoon]

Thanks for all the input guys. My boss isnt even going to look into anything untill next month. We will see what happens. I think he is going to go with dual cpu's though.