Building a company file server, any advice?

[grooble]

Hi, i am going to be building a file server for a company. It will be running Windows Server 2003, and serve around 50 computers.

Any advice on boards, processors? Xeons? Opterons? Itaniums? What's the difference?

Also, do you think it's better going with WD Raptors over SCSI drives?

And finally, any thoughts on cooling and keeping the noise down?

Max budget would be around $1200 excluding software.


Thanks!

 

[Gunbuster]

Dell, or H/paq - RAID5 with a Tape bkup. and UPS

 

[Yvo]

IBM or HP with a RAID5 & tape backup.

I have something against Dell.

You should build yourself something that has RAID5 and a good server class motherboard.

However CPU power isn't necessarily important in a file server. All you need is lots of space with a backup to each active hard drive. So you could easily have an P4 or Athlon power the entire operation.

You just need a lot of ram, drive space and 2-4x Intel/3com managed NICs.

 

[AluminumStudios]

It depends how critical the server is. My department needed some cheap network storage space with moderate reliablity so I took a gateway PC and stuck an IDE RAID 1 in it (two mirrored IDE drives.)

Their performance is good enough to keep up with the 100 megabit network which is the bottleneck in my case and the mirroring adds a little cheap redundancy (it's also backed up to tape.)

If all you're doing is providing storage space, you don't need high end CPU or RAM. My file server is a 2.6 GHz P4 and it works perfectly fine for my university department of about 40 desktop users (about a dozen of them use it hard throughout the day, the rest use it on and off.) Honestly, I don't see a need for a high end "server" board either if it's just a file server. But then again, it all depends how up-tight your boss is and what kind of theoretical reliablity they want. On a $1200 buget though I'd say just get a PC and throw an IDE RAID in it.

 

[rustyjeep]

If you are serious about people not loosing data, make sure to use real server hardware, not a fancy desktop. We have a dual XEON for our only server (file / print, lotus notes, etc), and it works fine, but I also have an old Compaq dual PII 300 mhz file server that works fine.

Don't spend money on a good processor, just get around a 2ghz pentium of some sort, and instead buy a true server with SCSI hard drives in a raid array. Make sure to have at least weekly tape backups - we use a sony TSL 9000 tape changer - holds 8 DDS 3 (12-24 gigs of data).

I think this would be great for what you want - COMPAQ PROLIANT ML370r DUAL PIII 1.0GHz SERVER-91G RAID

redundant power supplies - hot swappable drives...

 

[Comparisonman]

True, true....if you are looking for a good file server just get good reliable server hardware. Make sure that you have good redundancy and an extra backup solution.

 

[jose]

Dell, IBM or H/paq - RAID5 with a Tape bkup. and UPS & SCSI drives.

You should NOT build it your self...... These companies provide 4 hr.- 24hr hardware failure response times, stock replacements parts for 4 yrs. etc.

Also they are responsible for hardware failures, not you. If you build it your self, then be prepared to take the heat if something goes wrong....

PS Also get them to increase the Max budget ($1200), that won't get them anything but a destop computer.

Typically a dual 3.06 Xeon, 2 gigs ram, w/ 6 - 15k scsi + 20g tape will cost atleast $8000 That's without any Operating System......

Regards,
Jose

 

[grooble]

Hey thanks, i found out the budget is actually a lot more, around 2.5k, and they don't need software they already have it.

Yeah, its going to be running filemaker server database aswell, i'm thinking of getting a Dual Xeon set up and yes it will definatly have tape backup thats part of their requirements.

 

[magratton]

Scroll up on the page to the top and click on "IT Computing" tab. You were asking Opteron vs Intel, etc. Well that should give you lots to look at. In terms of CPU, I would go with either AMD or Intel as they are both excellent and will take care of you. In terms of putting my job on the line for a company's department server, I would tend to recommend IBM, DELL, HP, etc. But, that does not mean you cannot build. Put together several two proposals for hardware, and be realistic about the risk. Don't say home build will fail faster, but do say it will be you supporting it, as that is where the risk is.

Forget the budget, put together some realistic proposals, make your recommendation, and let the business decide. The funny thing is, they almost always go for the more stable, reliable, less risk option, even it was way more than their original budget.

Famous quote from the movie Contact: "Why build one, when you can have two for twice the price."

 

[lobadobadingdong]

it's hard to beat the dells if you get the 3yr on-site warranty.

 

[uOpt]

Get a good i875 board, ECC RAM. Run Linux or FreeBSD with RAID5 or if data is not important RAID0.

You want CSA gigabit or the NVidia 250GB integrated one.

If you can do RAID0, do not get extra fast harddrives, get very common ones. Three perfectly normal harddrives in RAID0 will max out a 33MHz PCI bus which is about 128 MB/sec.

If you do software RAID-5, which works fine for my server under Linux, get a little more CPU beef. However, Extreme Eition is useless as this is not cache-bound.

If you do software RAID-5 make extra-sure to get CSA Ethernet to keep the CPU free.

DOT NOT, under any circumstances, feel tempted to get a 1U or 2U 19" server. They die like flies compared to consumer mass-produced parts.

if you need more than 128 MB/sec out of the filesystem, get one of teh Xeon boards with faster PCI (not PCI express). There are SATA controller for 64-bit PCI for $50 and the board and one CPU is not overly expensive, it is within yor price range.

What you have a problem with is backup. Plan well

And again get mass-produced consumer-parts with some space in the case and no extra-small power supplies.

Only get redundand power supplies if you get a case where you can fit in one double-size PSU. Do not get a dual power supply that takes up the space of one normal PSU unless you are prepare to maintain it, which means have a spare module ready.

 

[bigshooter]

For 50 users you don't really need anything special, most likely you won't have 50 people trying hitting the server hard at all times.

Is your current hardware rack mounted? If it is get a 2U or 4U server case (so you can fit more than 2 or 3 drive), if not just get a standard tower server case. The last reply said something about 1U or 2U dying like flies compared to "consumer massed produced stuff". I just had to reply to this. What do you think is inside of most of these 19" rack mounted servers? If he builds his own then he can put almost any ATX motherboard he wants into the case. If you get a Dell they have a standard server class Intel motherboard. It may be custom produced for Dell's specs, but it's not like they are using some one off board. The only difference between a tower server/pc and a rackmount server is the case is made for sliding into rails and mounting in a rack. You can put whatever you want in there.

I would recommend getting a Dell. They have special sales all the time where you can get really good deals. If something goes wrong with the server, you can get different grades of support with it. If you get the 4 hour response and you have a raid controller/hard drive/whatever go out, they will have a replacement part to you WITHIN 4 hours. We had a raid controller go bad about 3 weeks ago on a Poweredge 2650. I had a replacement in my hands in 90 minutes. It wasn't even a critical system.

If you must build on your own, make sure to get enterprise class components. If you want to go IDE drives, then get SATA WD Raptors. They are the only "enterprise" class IDE drives that I have heard of. I know mine came with a 5 year warranty, and they are supposedly tested to a higher standard. I would recommend getting a decent hardware raid controller with 3 146gig+ 10K rpm Seagate SCSI drives, plus 2 36gig 10krpm Seagate drives (I just like seagate). Mirror the 2 36gig drives for system files, and then put the 3 146 gig drives into a raid 5 array. If you don't need a ton of system performance you can probably just get 4 scsi drives and raid 5 them instead.

You may also want redundant power supplies (like the last guy said, get two actual power supplies, and make sure they are decent quality. 350W supplies should be enough if you only have a single processor and 4 drives, but more is almost always better. A server class network card is also good(better at handling a large amount of connections than a standard workstation/pc nic). Depending on teh size and useage of your database, you may not need dual processors either. You could always save money by getting a single processor now and adding a second one later if needed when prices go down more.

If you want solid advice on this, please post storage requirements, types of apps that this will be running, and operating system that you will run.

edit: Oh yeah, unless you get an internal tape drive, make sure you have an external scsi interface for whatever drive you get. I prefer LTO/LTO2, but since you probably won't have that much data to backup, get an SDLT drive if you can find one cheap.