Need help planning a network upgrade

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Dr. X

Supreme [H]ardness
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We're relocating our small architecture firm and in the process upgrading our network. We currently have a file/print/dhcp server running 2000 server, seven workstations, a couple laptops, an NAS box for archiving, and a few printers/plotters. Currently, everyone logs in locally at each workstation and uses mapped network drives to shares on the file/print server. It's as simple as that.

I'm the "IT department" and will be setting up the new network in its entirety. For the new server, I was planning on a Dell R510 rackmount running Small Business Server 2011 that will act as a domain controller, exchange server and file/print server.

What considerations do I need to make migrating from our current environment to an active directory environment? With only seven workstations I can't imagine it will be too difficult. Everyone will just log in to an account stored in active directory now, correct? And network shares will be configured from there?

Also, is exchange server pretty straightforward with this few clients?

I don't have experience with either active directory or exchange server, so any help that you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
 
What is your budget like?

I would personally go with a 710 if the budget allows and don't skimp on the ram, get at least 8GB; 12 GB would be better, SBS is a resource HOG. Also get 10k SAS at a minimum 15k SAS if budget allows since you are doing a one for all server. Either way get the Dell iDrac express or enterprise. You will thank yourself for buying lights out management the first time the server is unresponsive in the middle of the night. The enterprise adds a remote kvm features that are funny enough better than my kvm-over-ip.

Personally I would split it out into 2 or 3 servers but most of the time for small business this just is not an option. Don't forget to plan for a backup strategy. If you are looking for something cheap look into the Dell RDX drives. Uses a cheap ruggedized hard drive instead of tape.
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/powervault-rd1000/pd
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/powervault-114x/pd
 
Last edited:
schnell said:
What is your budget like?

I would personally go with a 610 or 710 if the budget allows and don't skimp on the ram, get at least 8GB 12 GB would be better, SBS is a resource HOG. Also get 10k SAS at a minimum 15k SAS if budget allows since you are doing a one for all server.
Click to expand...

Going to 2nd that, if you are going all in one don't skimp if you can get away with it. You will get better performance out of the box that way. Do you have any other plans for your setup besides what you listed? VPN/firewall/security measures?
 
Here's the full specs of the server that I was quoted for ~3600 which is at the top of our budget:

Code: 
224-8665
	1 	PE R510 Chassis for Up to Eight Hot Swap Hard Drives, LCD 		
330-5462
	1 	PowerEdge R510 Shipping 		
317-7302
	1 	12GB Memory (3x4GB), 1333MHz Dual Ranked RDIMMs for 1 Processor, Optimized 		
317-4019
	1 	E5503,2.0GHz,4M,800MHzMaxMem 		
311-3928
	1 	No Second Processor 		
317-2372
	1 	PE R510 Heatsink for 1 Processor 		
341-4158
	1 	HD Multi-Select 		
341-9809
	1 	PERC6i Controller 		
330-5575
	1 	PERC Battery Cable, R510 		
330-5574
	1 	PERC,SAS 6/iR Cable, 8HD 		
469-0406
	1 	MICROSOFT Small Business Server 2011, Standard, Factory Installed 		
469-0395
	1 	$200 SMALL BUSINESS SERVER 2011 STANDARD MAIL IN REBATE ENDS JUNE 30, 2011 REDEEM AT https://microsoft.young-america.com 		
313-7919
	1 	Baseboard Management Controller 		
330-5576
	1 	Optical Cable R510 		
313-9092
	1 	DVD ROM, SATA, INTERNAL 		
313-8551
	1 	Bezel 		
313-8552
	1 	Electronic System Documentation and OpenManage DVD Kit 		
330-5482
	1 	RAID 1, RAID 5 for PERC6i Controllers, x8 Chassis 		
330-3479
	1 	No Rack Rail or Cbl Mng Arm 		
330-6597
	1 	750 Watt Non-Redundant Power Supply 		
420-4018
	1 	Maximum Partition Size Override for Microsoft WindowsFactory Installed Operating Systems 		
310-8509
	1 	Power Cord, NEMA 5-15P to C13, 15 amp, wall plug, 10 feet / 3 meter 		
905-6667
	1 	Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus On Site Service Initial Year 		
905-7218
	1 	Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus On Site Service Extended Year(s) 		
906-0422
	1 	Pro Support : Next Business Day Onsite Service After Problem Diagnosis, 2Year Extended 		
906-9710
	1 	Pro Support : Next Business Day Onsite Service After Problem Diagnosis, Initial Year 		
906-0462
	1 	ProSupport : 7x24 HW / SW Tech Support and Assistance , 3 Year 		
989-3439
	1 	Thank you choosing Dell ProSupport. For tech support, visit http://support.dell.com/ProSupport or call 1-800-945-3355 		
900-9997
	1 	On-Site Installation Declined 		
421-5255 	1 	Microsoft Small Business Server 2011, Standard Edition with Media 		
341-8727 	1 	250GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3.5" Hot Plug Hard Drive 		
341-8727 	1 	250GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3.5" Hot Plug Hard Drive 		
341-8728 	1 	500GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3.5" Hot Plug Hard Drive 		
341-8728 	1 	500GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3.5" Hot Plug Hard Drive 		
341-8728 	1 	500GB 7.2K RPM SATA 3.5" Hot Plug Hard Drive 		
* 		-DISCOUNT/COUPON APPL

Think this will get the job done? I have our old server that I built a few years ago that could be used for something. Let me see if I can dig up the specs.

And we were planning on doing offsite backups through a company like Iron Mountain.
 
Don't forget the CALs also! While you will be able to connect to the server just fine (You don't "install" the licenses), you should have the paper documenting your CAL amounts in case of an audit.
 
you will want SAS drives if there is any way to afford it, especially on SBS since you will be running it all on one box. SBS is very taxing on servers and I would hate for a brand new server to run like shit. Don't get me wrong it is a great product for small businesses but the hardware suggested by Microsoft just doesn't cut it.

I would recommend against doing only an offsite backup. It is a great idea to have one but you will want local backups as well even if it is just a usb hard drive and rsync.

Also get a Dell rep. You will get a better deal than ordering off their website and you can do net-30.
 
Try the dell outlet instead if you really want a dell server. MUCH cheaper, you can get a lot more for your money and use the savings for a 4 hour response on site warranty
 
Definitely get yourself a Dell rep, or find a local reseller / preferred partner. We purchase everything that way, and usually save about $500-1k off the web price, sometimes more depending on configuration.

I notice you don't have rails in your config. If this is because you don't have a rack, then I would recommend looking at a T410 over the R510. To echo others recommendations SAS drives are definitely a must. SBS puts a load on the drives to begin with, then once you factor in exchange and shares, and everything else, going with SATA disks is a pretty large bottleneck. I would also recommend going with an E56xx series processor as they have more cache and a higher FSB, both excellent for processor intensive tasks.

IMHO $4,000 is way too low for a server budget. The closest I could get configuring a T310 or 410 was $4,600. (That was a T310 with the stock processor, 12GB of RAM, and 4 600GB SAS6 15k drives in RAID 5). If I were selling this to a client, that would be our minimum recommended configuration.
 
I have someone I am working with at Dell, is this what you mean by a rep? They configured that system you see above. I emailed them about reconfiguring with SAS drives to see the price difference.

They are recommending a separate RAID 1 array for the OS and then a RAID 5 for storage. Is this a good way to do it, or should I just put everything on a RAID 5 array and partition it?

Our current server is a dual Xeon prestonia @ 2.4ghz with 1gb of ram. Any way to utilize this machine in the new network configuration?

Oh, and thanks so much for all the help. I'm pretty confident with building/specing desktops and workstations but this is new territory for me.
 
IMHO there is no reason to separate OS partitions from storage partitions, and even less of a reason to have a separate array. There used to be value added to doing this, however I have yet to see any reason in sever 2008 to do so. So long as you have a good backup strategy in place you will be just fine if you are worried about data loss, and in RAID 5, hot spares never hurt.
 
Dr. X said:
They are recommending a separate RAID 1 array for the OS and then a RAID 5 for storage. Is this a good way to do it, or should I just put everything on a RAID 5 array and partition it?.
Click to expand...

That is what I prefer to do. Put the OS on drive C that is its own array..RADI 1 (and a pagefile..system managed)...and on the second "array".be it RAID 1, RAID 5, 10...whatever...store the data..and put another pagefile that is system managed. And if this is a database server or Exchange mail (well..that's basically database too)...putting those files on the second drive will increase performance because the server can run those two spindles separately...concurrently..and gain in performance. Versus having them fight over the same spindle of drives. It will run circles around a server with one huge RAID 5 holding all.
 
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