Windows Server 2012 or Windows 10?

[deepakvrao]

Hi Guys,

I run [I'm the doctor, so IT knowledge is poor] a small hospital with about 10 computers. We have a hospital management software that till date was running on a Win 10 PC that was accessed by the other computers by a LAN.

AT most 2-3 computers would be accessing the software at a given time.

Last week the hard drive failed, and we had to reload Windows, and the software and the back ups.

To avoid such issues, they guy who looks after our computers suggested getting a dedicated HP server with Windows Server 2012, and CALs for the client computers. He said that the RAID would avoid such issues in future.

Questions:

1. I see that you can set up a RAID even on a Win 10 computer, so is a server with its added cost for hardware and software worth it?

2. The software uses SQL server [the free edition]. Again someone said that you cannot back up SQL server files while it is running, so will a RAID work for those file?

3. Any possibility to 'mirror' the hard drive with the software and the SQL database to an external USB drive?

4. Any other advantages to getting a 'real' server with server software? Cost will be more than double that of just a Windows 10 PC acting as a server.

5. If the software is installed in say partition D, with the OS on partition C, where is the SQL database maintained?

 

[MustISO]

Having a server won't change the fact that hard drives fail but setting up a raid array along with a good backup strategy is important when you're talking about data for a business. The server could give you things like a centralized management of user accounts and be a dedicated file server with management capabilities but the cost will certainly be much higher.

RAID can be enabled on any OS assuming the OS supports it or you have hardware RAID controllers that the OS supports. The OS could be in a RAID or not, if you have proper backups of the OS it won't matter. Putting the OS drive in RAID one does give you a good method of recovery should one drive fail and there should be little to no downtime.

For the data volume (SQL/Files ) RAID 6 would be a good option as it allows 2 failed hard drives before any data would be lost. RAID 5 would allow 1 drive failure. You could use RAID with mirroring or mirror the primary drive but there can be issues with RAID 1 (mirroring).

The free version of SQL doesn't have native backups so the backups must be done either manually or using backup that can quiesce the database for a short time during backup. There's an option for enabling a script to run the backups but the configuration can be a little complex for a non SQL or script person:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2019698

The database can be anywhere you tell SQL to put it. The OS/Program Files drive or another drive. Doesn't really matter where it goes.

One other thing I would suggest is doing image level backups of the OS (if you don't do RAID1) to avoid downtime should a drive fail. I would also suggest having backups offsite to avoid data loss from flood, fire or theft.

 

[mxnerd]

Most questions have been answered by MultiISO.

2012 Foundation & Essentials don't need CALs. But limited to 15 & 25 users separately, however.

Server is a lot harder to maintain for sure.