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small business network + file server - HELP

N

netclick

Junior Member

Hi Guys,
Any advice would be appreciated!

We are a small business running on 14 computers; we deal with a big number of data that we cannot afford to loose. We never had a serious backup procedure?.

We decided to proceed on getting a file server for the whole office where from now on we could map a network drive on every computer where the user would store all the information there and therefore access it via the server at all times.

This way we could proceed on backing up the server every once in a while + have a RAID 1 (MIRROR) in case of any hardware failure.


For the system, I have an ATHLON XP 64 5200+, 2GB OF RAM and the 2 x 500GB SEAGATE hard drives MIRRORED (RAID1).

Now the question remains in the file server setup. I have tried running everything via WINDOWS XP PRO?It was great? had all the user options, folder permissions?it was exactly what we we?re expecting for?.

However noticed later that it only supports 10 concurrent connections?. Therefore we always had the rest of the people from the office getting an error saying: the server has reached its max number of users?

Now, question is?. What do we do? I have a new copy of WINDOWS 2003 SERVER ENTREPRISE?. Does this operating system as well have concurrent connection limits? How would that work?

ANY HELP AND ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED!

 
Yes, with that number of users in your business, 2003 server is what you need, and the standard version will suffice. There is a lot to learn with configuring it properly and if you?re serious about your business I would suggest you find some consultation.

 
Hey guys, thanks for the help!

I'm trying to make a decision on what to do now.

I have the WIN 2003 SERVER ENTREPRISE BETA CD that was laying around for 2 years, I installed it to test it out... will give it a try and then make a decision making the purchases. What is weird is that this beta version actually seems to not have any expiration, is this normal ;-) ?
 
SBS 2003 will be the easiest OS to use in a business your size. It includes automated backups and backup monitoring, as well of other monitoring and other features that make it easier to properly maintain than the Standard (non-SBS) editions of Windows Server 2003.

For software, you'll need the basic software, plus User licenses for tha additional ten Users (beyond the five included with the packaged software).

To properly manage the computers and passwords, you'll need XP Professional, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate installed on your client computers. XP Home isn't suitable for daily use in a Windows Domain environment. It'll cost you more headaches than the upgrade cost (if you have a bunch of XP Home or XP MCE computers).

Don't "...back up the server every once in a while". It'll never happen. Get at least three USB or SATA removable hard drives, keep two of them offsite, and keep the third attached, doing backups each evening. SBS will do that for you and tell you if there's any problem with the backups. You need three drives because you need to guard against theft of your server and drives (or other disasters) at your office.

Once a week, swap out the onsite drive with one of the two offsite drives. It's near-zero effort, and you can quickly restore the latest version of any lost data. Suitable backup drives are in the $100 range.
 
Originally posted by: netclick
I have the WIN 2003 SERVER ENTREPRISE BETA CD that was laying around for 2 years, I installed it to test it out... will give it a try and then make a decision making the purchases. What is weird is that this beta version actually seems to not have any expiration, is this normal ;-) ?
Click to expand...
If you are trying to make a purchase decision, you'd save a lot of time and trouble and make a better decision if you asked a local Microsoft-Certfied IT consultant to visit you, review your needs, and show you how suitable software works. Properly setting up a Windows Server and a Domain is not something that you learn how to do in a couple of days. And you won't be able to properly evaluate the software if it's not set up correctly.
 
Properly setting up a Windows Server and a Domain is not something that you learn how to do in a couple of days.
Click to expand...

Actually, Small Business Server is pretty easy to set up and by far the best option in this case. Most moderatley tech savy people, if they are patient, can figure most of it out, including basic AD administration. In some respects setting up XP in a pier to pier arrangement can be much harder. Add each workstation to the domain and things pretty much run good from there.

Setting up Standard 2003 Server (Enterprise) will likely frustrate a novice - especially DNS.

Avoid setting up Exchange with SBS - unless you HAVE to have collaboration tools. If there's a MS product that does require an experienced Admin to hold you hand, it's that one.

The only problem that you might run into with SBS is it's not as friendly with hardware as Windows 2000 and XP are. Server 2003 is best run on boxes designed to be servers because drivers aren't often explicitly written for it.

 
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