Small business server components - need some advice

[marcg1910]

I'm an IT student currently in the middle of a project for a course. In this project I need to provide a small architect firm with a network proposal.

Because I have not had any experience recommending servers before, I am currently a little stuck on finding a server that won't blow the budget and will contain the components I think the server will need. I am hoping to get some guidance and advice from those with more experience doing this sort of thing.

This is a list of the services the server will provide:

• 
  Domain Controller
  DNS
  DHCP
  Print server
  File server

There will be 9 clients (4 x PC's, 3 x Workstations, 2 x Laptops) added to the domain, and there will initially be 6 users expanding to 10 over time. The server will obviously need to allow for expansion over time, and also be as reliable as possible.

Here is a list of the main components I think the server will need (roughly):

• 
  Intel Xeon Processor E3-1226 v3 (8M Cache, 3.3GHz), Intel HD Graphics P4600
  1 x 8GB (1600MHz, ECC, RDIMM)
  2 x 2TB 3.5” SATA HDDs (7200RPM)
  Redundant Power Supply
  RAID controller
  2 x Single Port Gigabit NICs (redundancy)

I have put together a server on Dell's website with the options that were most suitable (keeping the above components list in mind). The quote they gave me seemed quite expensive, so I'm wondering if I could get those components in a server for a cheaper price?

This is what I put together on Dell's website and the price they gave me:

• 
  Base - PowerEdge T330 Server, TPM 1.2 FIPS, Common Criteria, Trusted Computing Group
  Chassis - Configuration Chassis with up to 8, 3.5" Hot Plug Hard Drives, Tower Configuration
  Processor - Intel® Xeon® E3-1220 v5 3.0GHz, 8M cache, 4C/4T, turbo (80W)
  Memory DIMM Type and Speed - 2133MT/s UDIMMs
  Memory Configuration Type - Performance Optimized
  Memory Capacity - 8GB UDIMM, 2133MT/s, ECC
  RAID Configuration - C8: RAID 1, H330/H730 for SAS/SATA
  RAID Controller - PERC H330 RAID Controller
  Hard Drives - 2 x 1TB 7.2K RPM SATA 6Gbps 3.5in Hot-plug Hard Drive
  Embedded Systems Management - iDRAC8, Enterprise with OpenManage Essentials,Server ConfigMgmt
  Additional Network Cards - Broadcom 5720 DP 1Gb Network Interface Card
  Additional Network Cards - On-Board LOM 1GBE Dual Port (BCM5720 GbE LOM)
  Power Supply - Dual, Hot-plug, Redundant Power Supply (1+1), 495W
  Power Management BIOS Settings - Power Saving BIOS Setting
  Advanced System Configurations - UEFI BIOS Setting
  Operating System - None
  Dell Services - Hardware Support 3Yr ProSupport: Next Business Day Onsite Service
  Bezel
  Rack Rails - Casters for PowerEdge Tower Chassis
  Internal Optical Drive - DVD+/-RW, SATA, Internal
  Keyboard - Dell(TM) KB212-B USB Entry Business Keyboard (English)
  Mouse - Dell MS111 USB Optical Mouse
  Shipping
  
  Total Cost: $3916

I hope I have given enough information, if I haven't let me know. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Karsten75]

9 users are quite small.

Domain Controller, DNS, DHCP and Print server are low-intensity workloads.
File serer can be a tad higher, but it depends on the work characteristic.

You don't need a mega-large server. Expandability "over time" is kind of bogus red herring. You shouldn't invest a lot of money/capacity in that. It's simpler to get a 2nd server to take over some of the workload and provide redundancy. It gets s little tricky with a file server, but there are ways around that as well - have a SAS enclosure with your RAID.

As for a RAID controller, most Intel chipsets will support RAID for all the on-board SATA ports.

For reliability, instead of a dual-hot-plug power supply (which is important, but PSUs don't fail that often) get a UPS to protect you from external power loss.,

Don't get RDIMM - they are slower and intended for very large RAM configurations. ECC RAM is sufficient. Make sure you get NAS drives for the file server and a separate pair of drives for the OS. I'd usually not recommend 2 drives as RAID for the file server, but if you are saving money, then OK.

Some Server motherboards allow for the OS to be on a USB stick - they have an internal USB plug for that and provide IPMI connection so you don't need a graphics card and can run the server from another computer.

The dual NICs are about as useful as the dual power supply - those are typically not major failure points. They are difficult to configure in a fail-safe manner.

You really don't need 2133GHz RAM - on servers the limiting speed is the network. not the RAM.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/systems/servers/towers/thinkserver/ts140/

 

[basroil]

I don't see an OS...

Also, NO HELP WITH HOMEWORK! It's right there in the rules...

I'm an IT student currently in the middle of a project for a course. In this project I need to provide a small architect firm with a network proposal.
Because I have not had any experience recommending servers before, I am currently a little stuck on finding a server that won't blow the budget and will contain the components I think the server will need.

 

[marcg1910]

I don't see an OS...

Also, NO HELP WITH HOMEWORK! It's right there in the rules...

I'm an IT student currently in the middle of a project for a course. In this project I need to provide a small architect firm with a network proposal.
Because I have not had any experience recommending servers before, I am currently a little stuck on finding a server that won't blow the budget and will contain the components I think the server will need.

I will be volume licensing the OSs for this network, so I do not need to buy a server with an OS already installed.

Also I see nothing in the rules about a student not being able to ask for some guidance and advice from more experienced people. I also see no harm in asking for a little guidance and advice from people with knowledge on this subject, I think it is a very effective way to better my knowledge.

I have done a LOT of research on the internet trying to find the knowledge I need in regards to this subject, and I have made attempts myself to put together solutions based on that knowledge. I have called one company to give me a quote on a server with the components I think I need, and put together a server on a website for a quote as well.

The problem is I am unsure if my solution that I have put together is the most effective one for this scenario, and my intention was to seek advice from experienced people to further my knowledge on this subject. I did not ask anyone to do the work for me.

 

[basroil]

Also I see nothing in the rules about a student not being able to ask for some guidance and advice from more experienced people.

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2668512/tom-forums.html
Conduct Don'ts #6

The you pose is in clear violation as the answer would basically solve your homework.

Now if you were to have asked if such a system can run those things because you are worried about storage speed or memory, the answer would be that you need to find out how many simultaneous users it will have and what they will do with it. If each user takes an average of 25MB/s and you have 10 users, you'll be both network interface and storage limited. Again, you need to know how many users are doing what and then decide for yourself.

 

[marcg1910]

9 users are quite small.

Domain Controller, DNS, DHCP and Print server are low-intensity workloads.
File serer can be a tad higher, but it depends on the work characteristic.

You don't need a mega-large server. Expandability "over time" is kind of bogus red herring. You shouldn't invest a lot of money/capacity in that. It's simpler to get a 2nd server to take over some of the workload and provide redundancy. It gets s little tricky with a file server, but there are ways around that as well - have a SAS enclosure with your RAID.

As for a RAID controller, most Intel chipsets will support RAID for all the on-board SATA ports.

For reliability, instead of a dual-hot-plug power supply (which is important, but PSUs don't fail that often) get a UPS to protect you from external power loss.,

Don't get RDIMM - they are slower and intended for very large RAM configurations. ECC RAM is sufficient. Make sure you get NAS drives for the file server and a separate pair of drives for the OS. I'd usually not recommend 2 drives as RAID for the file server, but if you are saving money, then OK.

Some Server motherboards allow for the OS to be on a USB stick - they have an internal USB plug for that and provide IPMI connection so you don't need a graphics card and can run the server from another computer.

The dual NICs are about as useful as the dual power supply - those are typically not major failure points. They are difficult to configure in a fail-safe manner.

You really don't need 2133GHz RAM - on servers the limiting speed is the network. not the RAM.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/systems/servers/towers/thinkserver/ts140/

Thankyou very much for your helpful input, I really appreciate it. I'll definitely take your advice on board and try to come up with an improved solution!

 

[marcg1910]

Also I see nothing in the rules about a student not being able to ask for some guidance and advice from more experienced people.

http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2668512/tom-forums.html
Conduct Don'ts #6

The you pose is in clear violation as the answer would basically solve your homework.

Now if you were to have asked if such a system can run those things because you are worried about storage speed or memory, the answer would be that you need to find out how many simultaneous users it will have and what they will do with it. If each user takes an average of 25MB/s and you have 10 users, you'll be both network interface and storage limited. Again, you need to know how many users are doing what and then decide for yourself.

I'm sorry but you are wrong this does not solve my homework at all.

My project is to propose an entire network solution, this is only the tiniest fraction of this project, and even so the advice I have received has not done all the work for me, very far from it.

I still have to come up with a server solution, and I will take the advice on board and come up with an improved solution. All this has done has cleared my confusion on the subject. I still have heeeaaps of work to do.

I have learned something new, it has not completed my project.

 

[bignastyid]

Basroil, offering some assistance and advice is ok as long as we dont actually do all the work.

 

[marcg1910]

Just an update to where I'm at:

After more research I found what seems like an excellent solution that will allow me to save money compared to my original solution, and will give me a great disaster recovery solution. In short the solution was to have a single server with Server 2012 R2 installed on it with only the Hyper V role installed. Then I would create a virtual Server 2012 R2 on the host. This VM will have all of the configurations and roles installed and will be the server everyone accesses.

This solution was suggested by the user choucove on this thread (read for more information): http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/354537-28-small-business-server-recommendations

Since the Server 2012 R2 license allows for up to 2 VMs there would be no additional licensing cost.

I have come up with another server setup with this solution in mind:

Lenovo ThinkServer TS140

Processor: Intel Xeon E3-1276 v3 Processor (8MB Cache, 3.60GHz)
Operating System: No Operating System
Form Factor: Tower Server, 280W, 85% PSU
1st Memory DIMM: 8GB 1600MHz ECC UDIMM
2nd Memory DIMM: 4GB 1600MHz ECC UDIMM
RAID Adapters and Upgrades : ThinkServer RAID 100 Adapter
1st RAID Configuration: Primary RAID 1 (2 HDDs)
2nd RAID Configuration: Secondary RAID 1 (2 HDDs)
1st Hard Drive: 500GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM, 3.5", SATA, 6G/s, Non Hot Swap
2nd Hard Drive: 500GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM, 3.5", SATA, 6G/s, Non Hot Swap
3rd Hard Drive: 2TB Hard Drive, 7200RPM, 3.5", SATA, 6G/s, Non Hot Swap
4th Hard Drive: 2TB Hard Drive, 7200RPM, 3.5", SATA, 6G/s, Non Hot Swap
Optical Device: Slim DVD +/-RW
Video Adapter: Integrated Graphics Adapter
Onboard Ethernet: 1 x onboard Gigabit Ethernet Intel i217 (Integrated)
Chassis Intrusion Switch: Chassis Intrusion Switch

Price (inc. postage): $2,497.60 AUD

I added more memory just so the VM has plenty to work with, it might be a bit of over kill but at least the RAM is there to grow into in the future if needed. Any opinions on this solution?

 

[basroil]

1) Don't mix memory sizes, and when possible take advantage of the 4 channels by using 4x2GB
2) Since this isn't really a critical server, you can save a bit of money going 4x4GB of non-ECC, and that will help with VMs as well
3) Try considering the use scenario. If that server needs to be online all the time, you might want to consider a single RAID 5 or RAID 6 group and enable hot-swapping. If one disk fails in RAID 1 you lose no data, but depending on how long it takes a technician to get to the server it could be unprotected for a day or two. On the other hand though, depending on how your raid controller works it might need to be offline until it rebuilds, which for a 100% full 2TB drive could be a day.
4) If you have that many roles on one system, consider getting 2 or more ports and using teaming. One gig-E port is only ~100MB/s which means slower file server performance if you have multiple users.

 

[marcg1910]

1) Don't mix memory sizes, and when possible take advantage of the 4 channels by using 4x2GB
2) Since this isn't really a critical server, you can save a bit of money going 4x4GB of non-ECC, and that will help with VMs as well
3) Try considering the use scenario. If that server needs to be online all the time, you might want to consider a single RAID 5 or RAID 6 group and enable hot-swapping. If one disk fails in RAID 1 you lose no data, but depending on how long it takes a technician to get to the server it could be unprotected for a day or two. On the other hand though, depending on how your raid controller works it might need to be offline until it rebuilds, which for a 100% full 2TB drive could be a day.
4) If you have that many roles on one system, consider getting 2 or more ports and using teaming. One gig-E port is only ~100MB/s which means slower file server performance if you have multiple users.

Ah yes ok that makes sense. Wasn't too sure about mixing memory sizes, I thought it might be ok if they are the same speed.

Thanks for the advice