General Questions About Servers

[ElectroPulse]

Hello, all!

I am spending this school year working at a low-budget mission school in Palau (student missionary program). I am the computer teacher/network admin/resident computer-fixer here on-campus. When I arrived, the state of the network was none too impressive... Linux installed on all the computers (even though all our software was Windows-only, and we had licenses for Windows), no central information storage, no separate user accounts for the students, access points not working, nobody knew logon information for web blocking, HTTPS wasn't blocked, etc.

Anyway, my goal for the year is that I leave this school with the most reliable, easily-managed network possible.

So, now that I have all the above listed problems taken care of, I am turning my sites onto the issue of reliability. Currently, we are running pfSense and Windows Server 2012 R2 on two separate old computers. They both feel like they're on their last leg... One has an issue with starting up (takes 5-10 attempts after a power outtage).

Another contributing factor to this, is that now students are starting to store their files on a network share that I set up for each of them. I am currently in the process of getting syncing working between the server and another computer here for backups (only one storage drive in the "server"), but would prefer a bit more reliable of a setup.

Anyway, I have some money that was donated to the school to be used in the computer department as I see fit.

At this point, I am trying to decide between one and two servers. Two servers would be great so that in the event of a failure (due to the electrical stability, this could definitely happen), there would be a backup. However, I am trying to determine whether it is worth the funds to purchase two of them. As I mentioned, this is a mission school, so a use for the money can definitely be found (I've got a couple of other projects in the back of my mind). One server would be sufficient, since I could run both Windows Server 2012 R2 and pfSense under a hypervisor, but am unsure as to how essential a second one would be.

Also, any recommendations of some inexpensive servers? They would need to be able to run pfSense and Windows Server 2012 R2 under a hypervisor without issue, and maybe a third OS if I found a need for it. The main source of hardware here has said that Dell would be the most readily-available manufacturer, so am looking into dell servers.

Thanks!
ElectroPulse

 

[Jay_2]

Do you have battery backup for the servers?

Talk to VMWare about their licensing, they may give you a discount.

For me the key for a new network is reliability and security

If I am going virtual I really like to have 2 identical servers with central storage so I can use vmotion, HA etc. I like to have a switch with vlan capability, UPS for power outages and a solid backup solution.

 

[diizzy]

What does the pfsense box do today, just acting as a firewall?
//Danne

 

[ElectroPulse]

Thanks for the replies!

@Jay_oasis: Yea, we have battery backups... The problem is, they are low-capacity consumer-grade ones, with ancient batteries... So power dies within 30 seconds of a power outage (and even then, the server restarts on many power flickers... I'm guessing the voltage drops too low or something). That's something I'm working on at the moment.

Hmm... When you say "central storage," do you mean a NAS, or a SAN?

@diizzy: Currently, it's everything except the AD server (which also deals with DNS for just the domain-connected computers, of course). It's our firewall, router, inter-vlan router, web blocker, QoS, bandwidth monitor, etc. I'm quite liking it... Took a bit to get it set up satisfactorily (had never used it before coming here), but I believe I've got it how I want it.

 

[Jay_2]

yes, a NAS or SAN

I would get the UPS sorted before you start looking at new servers