BF2S Forums New Server for business

Personally I'd go with the HP Proliant servers.  I used to build them back in the day.  Damn near bullet proof.

yep HP Proliant. Very good servers. We migrated from Dells to HP Proliants.

I have had better luck with Dell.  I manage about 25 Poweredge servers from blades to 2u and towers.  The 4 hr support can't be beat and you can get pretty good pricing if you know what you are looking for.  Let me know if you need help.  I also have about 12 small business clients i support and all most are running dell also.

Look at the SC servers if you need low cost or the 1800 for good value under $5000.

i would say stick with dell, for some reason the server support was better then the personal computer support

Dell purely for the support. If you can support the server yourself you might get better performance out of an HP, but if you need top notch support you generally can't beat Dell. They've been voted number one for support in numerous IT mag studies.

slo5oh wrote:

One more for dell.  A few years back the company I was working for ordered 3 HPs and 2 showed up DOA, turned out to be bad memory.  Took their support 2 days to get us the right memory.  That was horse $&*t.

Prices can't be beat either... you just need to watch for deals like this: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/product … 0038386869
If that link doesn't work go to fatwallet, and look under hot deals, so a search for dell and look for power edge.  The little SC430s are a great design.  You can even purchase it with w2k3 server, but you're small enough that you can just buy it and slap XP sp2 on it and setup everything you need from it.

*edit to add*
Backups are a PIA now that servers hold sOOO much info, i've all but dropped tape backups and just backup to an external drive (usb) in 1/20th the time.

damn - I just configured an sc430 yesterday and was about to call them today about it!  Thanks very much.

Good advice on the tape drive....I had many problems with the drive on the first server...it ended up dead after about 1 year....now I backup to a DVD every week....but I like your idea better, to an external drive (why external? so you can unplug it and protect it from viruses etc?).   Noted on the OS....although we might add 3-4 workstations in the next 1-2 years....so I might still get the w2k3 os....thanks again!!

Tunacommy wrote:

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damn - I just configured an sc430 yesterday and was about to call them today about it!  Thanks very much.

Good advice on the tape drive....I had many problems with the drive on the first server...it ended up dead after about 1 year....now I backup to a DVD every week....but I like your idea better, to an external drive (why external? so you can unplug it and protect it from viruses etc?).   Noted on the OS....although we might add 3-4 workstations in the next 1-2 years....so I might still get the w2k3 os....thanks again!!

careful with the darn drivers CD.   Not sure if it's the same one, but it took me 3 times of corrupting my OS by accidently leaving the "driver" CD in the server and booting... still not sure how that happened, but it did.  If that CD was in the drive when the server started buh-bye OS.  That was on a sc400.

The reason for the external drive is so you can take one off site... for SHTF situation like fire, flood, terrorists, or Sauron's armies invade,l it's good to have your data stored off site.  Even if you only do it once a week or once a month.  For the price of 2 tapes you can buy 1 external drive and it's going to do a full backup in 1/10th the time or better.  This obviously won't work for HUGE data servers, but the average small company it's the only way to go.

Good advice on the tape drive....I had many problems with the drive on the first server...it ended up dead after about 1 year....now I backup to a DVD every week....but I like your idea better, to an external drive (why external? so you can unplug it and protect it from viruses etc?).   Noted on the OS....although we might add 3-4 workstations in the next 1-2 years....so I might still get the w2k3 os....thanks again!!

Ypu want external for data protection, off site storage for disaster recovery.  Suggest cycling 2 HD so you always have one outside the building.  You may want to encrypt the data since it would be much easier to steal than a Tape.

KnowMeByTrailOfDead wrote:

If you realy want to stay cheap you will be limieted to SATA storage and probably not hot swapable.  Since this is only going to be a file server makes sure you ahve a good Raid array.  If you can pony up for the SCSI then you will see a nice speed imporvement with the 15k drives but that gets a little more pricy.  Also make sure you have a decent amount or RAM with room to grow.  Too many of the small businesses I work with assume that because a server is good when they buy it, it will still be good 3 to 4 years from now.  Make sure it can grow with you or at least have a plan for growth, even if it is a second server later.  May be worth the extra investment now to avoid having to migrate to a new server in 2 years instead of 5.

I hear you - that is pretty much what happened with the first one....and why I am looking for a new one now.  Configuring a Dell SC right now.....hope to have my order in today.  I like the idea of an external drive that I can throw in a bag and take offsite instead of playing with tapes and hoping it backed up overnight....can't stand those tape drives.  thanks.

KnowMeByTrailOfDead wrote:

If you are going to stick with external storage make sure you look for something with backup software designed for the usb connection.  Not all Software Handles the changing of the drives efficiently.  You may need to verify the destination for the backup after you swap drives.  Just something to consider when selecting the drive and software.

The built in W2K3 backup program works fine with USB external drives.  It's just like backing up to a 2nd or 3rd drive since the USB drive shows up with it's own drive letter.  There's even a simple registry hack that enables you to backup exchange with it.

Depending on how much you use in SBS 2003, i would be prepared to up it to 2 gig RAM.  Just depends on which features you use and how many people are using Email.  Other wise looks good for a small group.

P.S. consider using your old server to off load any extras like print sharing or WSUS.  Non mission critical services that are easy to replace and won't impact the network are good uses for old hardware.