Server Upgrade Question

[supapowagamer]

First off, I have very little networking knowledge, some software knowledge and pretty good Hardware knowledge as far as building systems.

I have a client of mine that has a 13 person server. The server is extremely outdated and the client wants a new server system built. We are trying to eliminate paying someone $75 an hour to setup 13 people back on the server so my question is what is the best, most cost effective solution to getting everyone connected?

Will copying the files to the new server hard drive keep everything in order? If so, is there any software out there that will make this chore easier? If not, what do you recommend?

Thanks for the help.

 

[crimson117]

First off, this isn't really a hardware question at all; it's software.

So then the first question is what kind of server software do you use? Linux? Windows? Unix?

What other software do you need to migrate besides the OS and its users?

 

[RebateMonger]

What are you going to copy? If the hardware is that obsolete, then it's likely the Server software is obsolete, too. For many smaller companies, it's cheaper (and much more straightforward) to set up a new Domain (assuming you are using Windows Server), and migrate User Profiles, email, and data files.

 

[supapowagamer]

The server is currently running on Windows 2000 Server. As far as other software, all I need to move is a custom database program, that all 13 users have access to.

 

[zephyrprime]

What kind of database software aer they using?

 

[MichaelD]

There's nothing "wrong" with W2K server, as long as it's patched to the latest available security level. More than half of the 40+ servers at my place of employment run W2K server (2003 is SO much better!) and we've no problems.

You didn't mention a domain, nor Exchange...just some database program.

Anyway. I have several dual 1GHz P3 boxes with 1GB of ram that run Windows 2003 server very well. I also have two dual 700MHz P2 boxes that run Windows 2003 decently.

Is your old server older than that? If the old server is running say, WindowsNT, and the install is 6+ years old, the combination of the ancient hardware + ancient (and unsupported!) operating system will combine to make the server a dog.

Depending on the company's budget, you should either:

a. Upgrade to a newer server, load W2K server on it (fully patched)

or

b. Like a, but add Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition

ps
I hope you've checked out the networking setup. Do the clients have static IPs or is the server also running DHCP?

 

[supapowagamer]

I wish I could answer some of these questions but I am a noob when it comes to networks. I can build a system and thats about it. I'll see if I can find out the questions to these answers.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: supapowagamer
I wish I could answer some of these questions but I am a noob when it comes to networks. I can build a system and thats about it. I'll see if I can find out the questions to these answers.

If you don't know about server software and user accounts and stuff, just hire that networking guy. There's no easy answer.

And this might not be the best site to ask on, since it's much more a server networking question than a hardware question. (I know this site has it all, but most of the members' expertise is in hardware).