building a server

[laserjet]

My father owns a title company and needs to set up a server. he has four employees and each report to be placed on the server is about 1000 scanned pages. So there will be a lot of docs on the server but they won't be accessed often and not by a lot of people. i believe that they have their own domain so they will need server software.

My father called in a company to set it up but i think that they are giving him more than he really needs. here are the specs from the invoice. I am not really sure what some of the items so if you can explain anything with a question mark i would appreciate it

dell poweredge 2800 server raid 5
poweredge 2800 intel xeon processor at 2.8 ghz/1mb cache, 800 fsb free second processor (same as first) windows 2003 small business server standard edition 1 gb ddr2 400 mhz (2X512 mb) single ranked dimms, dell e773 17 inch, gray (3)73 GB 10K rpm ultra 320 scsi hd embedded raid (ROMB) (is this 3 hard drives????) perc4al??? onboard nics 24X ide dc rom active bezel option for tower configuration 1X8 hot plug scsi hard drive backplane drives attached to embedded perc4el- raid 5 (i dont know what the heck the last 4 lines are talking about please help??)
$2800

powerconnect 2216 unmanaged switch 16 port fast ethernet 49$
cat 5E patch cables 168$ (that is a crazy price)
apc smart ups 1000 8 outlet 120v line-int w/sw 450$ (another crazy price i think)
backup exec sm bus svr sto 9.1 combo 1 yr lb vip ????? 495$
backup exec sbs advanced open file opt 9.1 combo 1yr lb vip $195 ?????
backup exec windows v.91 media kit 50$
backup exec windows v.91 media kit 50$ (why he wrote two i don't know is this a mistake?)
exabyte 80/160 gb 8mm vxa2 scsi lvd kit packet drive ext black/media hd68 $1299 what is this???
adaptec 29160 Kit u160 lvd scsi 1ch univ volt pci 64 bit hd68 nt/net/ux 295$ ????"?
tripp-litesft scsi cable hd88m to hd88m double shielded $39.95 ????
imation 1 pk cleaning cart vxa1/vxa2 20 cleanings $39.95 ????
1 pk vxa2 v23 80/160gb tape cartridge 80$
pix 501-5- 3des bundle (chasis sw 50U 3des) 695$ ???????
maintenance 1 yr nbd 8X5 smartnet cat 1 (esd) 75$
quickbooks 2005 premier win 399.95 (what for???)

can anyone explain what some of the terms are and whether they are necessary. also can you guys suggest getting parts for cheaper??


thanks so much.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Looks like a decent server. Definitely get a Dell, it's cheaper than building your own.

dell poweredge 2800 server raid 5

(3)73 GB 10K rpm ultra 320 scsi hd embedded raid (ROMB) (is this 3 hard drives????)

Yes, 3 10k rpm SCSI drives.

perc4al???

The raid controller. They're doing RAID 5 with 3 disks. This, along with a good backup strategy, should help keep the data safe.

The rest is pretty self explanatory.

powerconnect 2216 unmanaged switch 16 port fast ethernet 49$
cat 5E patch cables 168$ (that is a crazy price)

Yeah, that's pretty crazy. Go get them at CompUSA or something (Don't crimp your own!).

apc smart ups 1000 8 outlet 120v line-int w/sw 450$ (another crazy price i think)

Maybe, look up the price online. I don't think it's too outrageous.

backup exec sm bus svr sto 9.1 combo 1 yr lb vip ????? 495$
backup exec sbs advanced open file opt 9.1 combo 1yr lb vip $195 ?????

This is the backup strategy I mentioned earlier.

exabyte 80/160 gb 8mm vxa2 scsi lvd kit packet drive ext black/media hd68 $1299 what is this???

Tape drive, for the backups.

adaptec 29160 Kit u160 lvd scsi 1ch univ volt pci 64 bit hd68 nt/net/ux 295$ ????"?

SCSI card, probably for the tape drive.

tripp-litesft scsi cable hd88m to hd88m double shielded $39.95 ????

Cable, for the SCSI.

pix 501-5- 3des bundle (chasis sw 50U 3des) 695$ ???????

Firewall and probably VPN solution.

 

[laserjet]

thanks but does my father really need all of this. the server is the top of the line dell server intended for businesses with over 50 users. my father has four users. where can he cut back and where should he go all out. tape backup sounds nice but does anyone at the office need to do anything to actually back it up or change disks? they aren't capable of doing any server related activities.

is tape backup even necessary with raid, and wouldn't it be best to bakup offsite instead of multiple backups in the same physical office? any suggestions?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: laserjet
thanks but does my father really need all of this. the server is the top of the line dell server intended for businesses with over 50 users. my father has four users. where can he cut back and where should he go all out. tape backup sounds nice but does anyone at the office need to do anything to actually back it up or change disks? they aren't capable of doing any server related activities.

I'm not looking up the tape drive, but chances are they'll have to change the tape. The admin can handle that stuff.

is tape backup even necessary with raid,

YES. RAID doesn't help when the building burns down or two disks go out.

and wouldn't it be best to bakup offsite instead of multiple backups in the same physical office? any suggestions?

Make the backps on site, and take the backup off site manually.

I didn't really see any places to skimp. The processor I guess. 1GB of ram is pretty minimal. Only having 3 disks in a raid 5 is the minimum. A big UPS is necessary. Backup solution is necessary...

 

[dwcal]

A SCSI RAID is overkill for 4 users. A cheaper server with SATA RAID would probably be fast enough.

The PIX501 is a firewall. It's useful if you want to use VPNs with remote users or offices, or if you're serving things to the Internet. It's overkill if you just want to support web access for the office.

Unless he's using Quickbooks to do his accounting, it's useless.

As n0cmonkey said, backups are important, even if they're expensive. $800 for Backup Exec, $1300 for the tape drive, $80 each for blank tapes. Server backup hardware is just expensive.