I need some advice for building a basic server

[torrey.smith]

Hey guys, I have been asked to build a server for my small company (about 5 people) that would serve as a vault for write-protected files and offer some redundancy as well. I am also interested in online backup sites.

My initial thought is an XP-based desktop that has few frills with the possible exception of a RAID controller card for 0+1 or 5, depending on what people think is appropriate.

I would like to have various people in the company have specific access levels to certain folders, and the ability to access the server from home would be really cool.

Thoughts?

 

[ND40oz]

Alright, first you need to figure out exactly what they need. Is this just for file storage, how much space do they need? Do they need to just be able to access the file shares remotely, or do want want more remote functionality? What does their current setup look like for file sharing, do they have a domain, how's email being done?

 

[torrey.smith]

Is this just for file storage?
We want to be opening and modifying files directly on the server

how much space do they need?
We probably need at least 500GB or 1TB of effective space

Do they need to just be able to access the file shares remotely, or do they want more remote functionality?
We would like to be able to log in from home and modify a file directly on the server. what would be an example of more remote functionality?

What does their current setup look like for file sharing?
We just have a couple of PCs at work and use email and flash drives.

Do they have a domain?
We do have a domain.

How's email being done?
We have email addresses at our domain. It's a pretty low-end service, with 7MB attachment limits.

 

[swatbat]

When they asked about the domain they ment a windows domain with an active directory. Sounds like you are talking about a website with an email host.

Are your workstations 2000pro, xp pro, or vista business/ultimate?

If so and you don't have an active directory domain in place I would say get a dell or hp server running small business server from microsoft. With it you can host files for in the office and the remote workspace in it as well as vpn server support means users can access said files from home. It also has exchange with it so you could host your email your self with pretty much no limits on storage(75 gigs of email total). For that you would really need to static ip though.

With an active directory domain in place security rights can be administered from one location which is nice. Hell you can have the server controll windows update on the workstations.

 

[ND40oz]

I second the opinion for an SBS server from one of the bigger companies with a hardware support contract. I know if you purchase SBS with a Dell Server, you'll get support for SBS from Dell as well.

For remote access, you'll probably want to use VPN, what networking equipment is currently in place?

 

[[LYL]Homer]

Third for SBS, our 14 person architectural firm uses it and it's very flexible.

A must is to get a decent SBS/network admin. You're going to be clueless about SBS if you buy a Dell SBS server and use it out of the box and you'll probably wonder why you even needed SBS because you'll run it like an XP box. I'm our in-house IT guy and handle the client stations (and I add/delete Active Directory accounts), but our network admin deals with the server. I've built/upgraded probably in the range of 400 pc's and have done minor management of our SBS server for 3 years, but I still don't have any depth of knowledge how it is configured.

Our SBS admin charges $125/hr. and we just bought a $2500 block of time from him for the 2008 year and we'll just use it up by Nov-Dec. in minor maintenance issues, him checking logs, updating software, anything with Outlook/Exchange, AV, and dealing with other little stuff. He comes in for about 2 hours every 4 weeks. Plus he's on-call 24/7 if the server ever grenades itself (he built it for us).

For comparison the server is about 2 years old now and runs dual-Xeon 3.0ghz cpus, 146gb SCSI drives in RAID1, redundant psu, 4gb RAM, Dell LTO-2 200/400gb backup tape drive, and a big ol' APC 1400XL battery. We also use our old Dell Poweredge 1500SC as a terminal server. Software wise we have 2003 Small Business Server w/ extra CAL's (licenses) to cover all our users, Symantec (Veritas) Backup Exec 10d, Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Excahange (SMSMSE) with Premium Anti-Spam upgrade (virtually no spam at all gets though). We run Exchange, have added MS SQL server as our accounting sofware requires it, and have added FTP and VPN.

Total cost for the new server hardware, Dell tape backup, APC battery, all the software mentioned, reinstalling Server 2003 on the old Dell server and configuring it as a terminal server, setup of accounts for all of our users, and transfer of all of our data off the old server to new server was about $14,000. In the last 2 years we've spent about $6000 in maintenance (and time adding SQL, FTP, and VPN).

Our people can log in anywhere via VPN, contractors can upload/download files, I can log in anywhere to the server, certain people can see certain other peoples calendars and a bunch of things like that in Outlook. In terms of data security we have daily backups taken off-site and rotate out the Friday tape with one of 4 others so we can go back a couple of months easily.

I'm being verbose about this because I was in a tough spot a couple of years ago trying to figure out how much this cost so I could present it to the boss. A good place to start is to find a SBS/network admin. and talk to them about what exactly you need and get some costs from them, even if you do end up buying a Dell or HP server. Their input up front could save a bunch of headaches not only about hardware but also expectations about what the server can and can't do.