Recommendations for a new data server at work

sablade

Recommendations for a new data server at work

I have a slow dell win xp home, which i need to replace

what do you recommend? the server is on a peer to peer wired network and stores data inc pictutes, database and docs with 4 users

what's important? 2 mirrored raid sata drives? processor? ram? win xp pro?

plese give me some/any advice?

sablade

the four users are reading and writing this data, the present 'data server' has a dat drive in it which backs up every night with a mon-fri backup, the tape taken home every night, there is also in the building an iomega network hdd also doing a nightly backup.

So the important thing is stable os, regular backups, fast drives and perhaps 1mb network card to the switcher? is that it?

sablade

Ian_Griffiths wrote:

Don't know if the OP is going to five figures...

cheers, excuse my ignorance, but what's op?

Little_John

ts_aly2000 is spot on, I told a company what was required for a new server a few months ago, buying from Dell, scsi Raid5, AIT drive for backups, redundency for the PSU as well as a UPS hot swapable drives,(not really essential).

They bought the server from another company saving £1500 maybe, unfortunalty it didnt have raid 5 it was raid 0 using SATA drives, no backup drive and I think it may have a dual PSU. one of the drives failed as raid 0 has no redundancy at all all the data was lost well usually it is the server was returned to the supplier who some how manaded to recover the data about £4k of data recovery work I think the guys worked day and night on it.

Dont ask for advise and ignore it.
your minimum requirements are proberlby 3x 36.7GB scsi drives raid 5 configuration giving 72GB of usable space. a DAT drive for backup of 40GB buy a bigger one if you think you need to back up more. It all depends on how valuble you consider your data, could you opperate if you were without it for a week during data recovery?

People go on about backing up to CDr or DVDr it just isnt enough automated backups just take the tap home each night and your fine CDr backups takes time and usually need initiating

Little_John

Fast network? 4 pcs and a server 100mbps will be fine as long as you have a small switch dont go buying a 24 port switch just becasue they are cheap. You will only benifit from 1000mbps if you replace your cabling with cat6. not that you will notice it opening documents and databases

albertross_2

What is the definition of slow, if you patch the server with windows update, and add some more ram (to improve cacheing), check for malware, things may improve dramatically, but it depends on what you have already..

Have you checked task manager to see if it is running out of ram, or has a process taking over the system?

For a 4 user system, some of these specs being banded about, appear OTT to me .. (no offence intended to the posters..just my twopenneth.. have used servers with a lot more users on and much lower specs, slower non-switched networks for years, modern kit should cope with this workload easily.)..

scheming_gypsy

Little_John wrote:

your minimum requirements are proberlby 3x 36.7GB scsi drives raid 5 configuration giving 72GB of usable space. a DAT drive for backup of 40GB buy a bigger one if you think you need to back up more. It all depends on how valuble you consider your data, could you opperate if you were without it for a week during data recovery?

People go on about backing up to CDr or DVDr it just isnt enough automated backups just take the tap home each night and your fine CDr backups takes time and usually need initiating

If you're going to go for 3xScsi drives using RAID 5 then you're looking at a proper server rather than a decent sized PC.
We use the HP ML350 G4P's at work and only had a problem with one. If you do as Little John suggests (which is the best solution) i'd expand it a bit. Add a dedicated RAID card instead of the basic onboard controller. Stick a small SCSI drive in for boot and system files using the RAID 5 drives for data only.
For backups i'd go for the DAT drive as well but also possibly another SCSI drive as well. Backup to this SCSI drive and then backup to tape from that, for extra resiliance and faster restores if you need anything from the previous day.
Not sure about XP Pro though as a server OS. Server 2003 is stable enough, we've about 11 servers running it and very very rarely have a problem.




Edited cos i don't know my 3's from my 2's

Bob63

Something seems to have been lost in the discussions about what disks, what OS, how fast the network should be etc.

* Only use a branded server and storage solution.
* Only buy a brand that you recognise and trust.
* Pay for a good quality on-site support contract with fast response times.

If this system is running your business then you cannot afford to ignore any of these three. If you do then you run a huge risk of things going badly wrong. Remember - cheap computers on the desktop, branded servers in the datacentre.

Mike (an IT professional with 20+ years experience in corporate computing)

intel

Cheapish Servers for backup..... http://www.misco.co.uk/categories/~201~/Servers.htm

But I agree with Cheesy.Mike :beer:

Gibblestick

You want a cheap server for 4 users, with manufacturer support, drive redundency and reliable base hardware?
Get a mid range dell PC. They support RAID 1 (mirroring) SATA drives, are easily upgradeable and if your company goes under, you can always swipe it and have a half decent home PC.