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New Server Advice Wanted :)

I

imported_Opal

Junior Member
Currently I'm planning on building a new server for work. The only worry I have is whether I'm picking the right parts for it. Currently my company is running off an old 400Mhz IBM Server, under windows NT. Basically its only being used as a fileserver. I wanted to implement Windows 2003, Setup remote access so the presidents of the company can do work while not having to be at the office. This is what I'm thinking for system specs. If anyone can share some advice I'd be more than happy. I want it for maximum reliability, file redundancy and no down time.

Tyan Thunder K8WE S28954AZNRF
2* Opteron 270
4* 1Gig DDR (OCZ4001024SSER)
3* 250GB Maxtor Diamond Max® 10 SATA-150 7200RPM 16Mb 9ms (My Main worry so far is deciding between which array to go with. What do people suggest? First thoughts was RAID 5, But I don't think the onboard RAID controller handles it. Then I was thinking RAID 01. Any suggestions ?
Antec 550w PSU / Or OCZ Powerstream 520
GeForce 6600 (Overkill? or should i just toss a 5200 in for 100 bucks cheaper)
16X DL DVD Burner
Antec Large Tower Case

Prices are Canadian prices
System Comes to roughly 4700 Before taxes

The network is a mixed cluster of 20 computer more with the room to add more.
I was planning on getting Open end version of Server 2003, I was told its $899 For server with 5 +40 for media + 45 each additional cal.

Be as elaborate as you want🙂 I'm here for advice, I'm planning on buying the system when I get all the information possible to help me present the Pros and Cons of upgrading. All opinions are welcome if you have links for good articles thats great too.
Thanks in Advance
 
Yea, On-Site support for a buisness server is a must.

When designing a new server, network, enviroment you must always ask these questions.

Answer these questions.

1) What is your backup plan or does this fit in our existing backup plan?
2) What is the purpose of this server?
3) What does this server need to connect/communicate with?
4) How is the previous server lacking?
5) How will downtime effect your company?
6) If there is hardware failure, how long will it take to get a replacement
7) What is an acceptable system outage for this piece of equipment?
8) How much growth do you expect in at least the next 5 years?
9) Can the system expand or meet this growth?
10) Are you being locked into a vendor that may not be there in 5+ years?
11) Have you looked at other options? (Tipically at least 3 bids for all softare and hardware)

I could keep going, but that is a subset of the basic questions i'm forced to answer when we add/modify anything on our network.


Start by answering these. You will find that in most cases, you need a support contact, you need a server from sun/dell/ibm etc. Now if this is just a website that doesn't bring much buisness or a backup mail server, or something that doesn't matter, maybe then you can build a box and stick debian on it. But for serious, this can't fail, we will be using it daily work. Like website sales, buisness level email, customer records, phone systems, credit card systems, etc. You really need a larger plan. From your raid questions, it sounds like you dont have a solid backup plan in mind. Do you do offsite backups? Tapes? What happens if you have drive failure? Raid is not a good backup situation. Its good to get backup from a disk failure, But what happens if the server gets a power surge or catches on fire, or all the drives fail before the raid array can be rebuilt?

Other things I noticed.
Why a video card at all? Get the cheapest thing you can find for setup, onboard is even fine. Its not gonna play doom 3, but if you can remote desktop in who cares. Why does a server need a dvd burner, why does a server even need an optical drive? Please dont say thats a backup plan :-(. Finally, depending on your expected growth, have you looked at a rack? A cheap rack and a 2U server would do fine for this situation. Plus if would keep you from wasting tons of floor space.

Based on your question, you want maximun reliablity, file redundancy, and no down time. Building your own server can not give you that. Unless you plan to keep backup parts on hand, already have a great offsite backup plan, and use quality hardware (which you are already doing). My suggestion, spec out a dell, sun, ibm, or other servers find one that meets your requirements (after asking all the questions above and answering with answers realistic based on your companys budget) Buy it, get a support plan and implement it.
 
Dual Opterons for a fileserver?

You people need to go and get some experience with servers in the real world. Dual Opterons will be a complete waste.

If Google's Mini search box that Anandtech just bought uses 1.2Ghz P3s, for indexing websites, then you can get away with an old 800Mhz Duron, easily.
 
Originally posted by: sourceninja
Yea, but google's mini doesn't run windows

*rim shot*

I kid I kid.
Click to expand...

Heh 😛 😀

That aside, fileservers don't need CPU power. Heck, a PPro/200 would do fine for 1-5 users.
 
I agree, phone dell you can geta full system with good specs for less than half that cost including onsite. My server cost me 1400$ and comes with 3 year onsite
 
This is the current situation. I'm a relitive of the bosses of the company, and have been doing their IT stuff for approximately 5-7 years. At least anything to do with their work stations. The previous server a pentium 2 they were locked into getting it fixed through a company and that company charged an arm an a leg for onsite tech support. I've since end of contract I've taken over all aspects of the company's systems due to cost. The main objective is to allow the President/VP and some of the workers to be able to access all their files remotely. As well as having flexibility within the company if a computer went down. Essentially just hoping on another one with their login. The workstations being used are far superior to the current server. The windows NT evironment isn't allowing us to do what we want to do. Sure minor fileserver could be used by any old computer, and in this case it has. But we want to get current with the technology.
I'm planning on building and setting up the network infastructure myself, and with a few collegues from my other job where I work as a technician. I want to make a system that will not only be expandable, but not need expanding for a number of years. Most workstations get updated periodically. This is a Tool & Die Company so most of our designers require uptodate systems.
The server will be used not only to store all of the company's files but also as a DC and RAS. Sourceninja hit the nail on the head with his post.

My Backup situation is currently Tapedrive backups, also implementing a RAID config should help if the array doesnt get pouched. Also external hard drive i usually toss changes on weekly. The problem I see outsourcing to another company is I havent had much luck with using them in the past. I'll be doing all the diagnostic and repairs myself, so if something went it shouldn't be a big problem with getting stuff replaced quickly.

The one worry from going to a centralized login, is the worry about downtime. Thats why I want input on all the best parts just to cut the percentage of downtime down that much more.

As I've said our current setup is 20 workstations. Will there be more added in the future? I could only assume so, with how well the business has been doing the last 25 years I can only forsee it going further. Thats why I want to implement a good system now. So 5-10 years from now, I'm not backpeddling to get everything uptodate.

P.S I've had major issues from Dell with some of our notebooks that we've purchased through them. Nothing but a run around over the phone the tech support was horrible, I think in my case I'm better off building something with nice parts, that I can easily find replacements for, than have to deal with someone over the phone for hours.
Perhaps Dell in the US is a little better? But in my opinion they lost one of their key factors that helped build the company, and thats customer service.

Please keep up the posting I like the volume so far. It is giving me some food for though! 🙂
 
You're better off with Dell or a similar OEM. 4 hour turn around by the OEM itself is nice, especiallly at 4am.

If you need uptime, get multiple server.
 
I just built a Windows 2003 Terminal Server with a Tyan K8WE (2895). Two AMD dual-core 275 Italys. 4gigs of RAM. LSI MegaRAID 2X PCI-X SCSI Raid Controller. 4 Seagate 15K 36.7gig Hard Drives in Raid 10.

Anyway, it is the fastest thing I have ever seen. All the users on the WAN are raving how fast there applications run through Terminal Services. I have been very, very, happy.


You wouldn't need this kind of power for a fileserver, however. Probably just one CPU if fine, go with GeForce PCX5300 graphics card, can get that for 60 bucks, and it will provide you both a DVI and DSUB hookup.

Raid 5 or Raid 1 are best for fileservers, since the onboard Raid does not provide Raid 5, go with Raid1. Hitachi has a 500 gigabit Hard Drive. Get two of these and that should give them plently of storage space for growth. It is likely your tape backup solution cant do more the 72 - 200 gigs anyway.

Just my thoughts on your predictament.
 
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