Small Business Server Setup

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p0lish

Gawd
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I currently manage a small business server(tower). It's currently to slow and does not have enough capacity for our needs.

Server Uses - DHCP, DNS, AD, PervasiveSQL, WSUS, File, Print, FTP, Antivirus

Possible additional uses - Exchange, pfSense

I'm currently proposing a 24u rack with the following components.
Dell - 2410 24u Rack Cabinet with casters
Dell 1850 - 2x Xeon 3.6GHZ, 4GB Ram, 2 73GB SCSI
Dell MD1000 - SATA Hard drives. 4 - 1TB Western Digital Drives in Raid 5, with plenty of room for expansion.
Tripplite Battery Backup - Rackmount, 1000w

My main question is connecting the MD1000 to the 1850. The 1850 is listed on the compatibility matrix for the MD1000, however im looking at this 1850 specifically.
http://www.stikc.com/Dell-PowerEdge-1850-PE1850-1U-Server-2x-36GHz-4GB-RAM-2x-73GB-HDD_2

Would that be compatible? Any input, suggestions, or feedback is appreciated.
 
as you appear to be running sql, that suggests you might be using some line of business application. take it from someone who has just been burnt - run your line of business application seperately from your small business server. also, pfsense is a router distro...the only way i can see you running this alongside sbs on the same hardware would be to virtualise them. for a production environment i would not recommend virtualising sbs, not unless you are going to run it on something quite a bit pokier than you are currently suggesting.

whats the budget for this project?

i've been really pleased with a poweredge 2900 III that i put in for a customer a few months back. single (dual capable) xeon quad core 2.5ghz, 4 gigs of ram, 5x 73gb 15k sas drives in two arrays, dual psu's, rd1000 backup. really nice performance, and honestly not that expensive - considerably less than the website price, get an account manager. this runs pretty much every feature of sbs 2003 r2, alongside sql and a line of business application - soon to be placed on it's own box!

run your sql on another box, appropriately specced for the number of users plus a bit of extra capacity for growth, and then run pfsense (also check out untangle) on something like a business hp desktop with some intel nic's.

edit: i suppose before getting on my soapbox and preaching at you about decent kit to buy, i should have asked what you are currently running all of those services on...often a few tweaks here and there can sometimes speed things up (things like more memory, replacing inefficient av solutions, splitting duties across arrays of disks etc)...alternatively your old hardware might be able to play a role within your new network - even if only as a backup domain controller or something basic like that...
 
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I was thinking about virtualizing the box. Thus the pfsense. Right now, we rarely have internet problems or connection issues. Our accounting department(3people) uses peachtree, which relies on PervasiveSQL. There is no set budget, it just has to be reasonable and meet our needs.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
I believe that the PERC4e controllers aren't compatiible with the MD1000 (doesn't support raid for the unit.) You would need at least a 5e or better.

As for configuration I would highly suggest spending the extra money to get a PE1950III, They have better scalability. It's just a better investment all around.
 
The 2950 III with a buncha 15k SAS drives shreds like a champ with SBS. Pair RAID 1 for the OS, triple up for a RAID 5 data volume. If the SQL service is a heavily used one..stick that on another pair mirrored.

I have one client running SBS Premium heavily using Exchange and SQL, network of 65..including WAN branch offices. Hums along nicely. It can do it easily with todays horsepower.

I don't like virtualizing an edge appliance on the same setup as your servers. Prefer my edge appliances truely separated.
 
Good Point. Probably no reason to virtualize it in all honesty.

Quick question about the MD1000, these do not require the 220v do they? The can run off of regular 110?

thanks everyone
 
why even use the MD1000?

what are their current data capacity?

for most of my sbs clients they are on single server, raid 1 with sas, and raid5 with sas.

virtualization and small biz clients doens't seem to make sense

you are talking about a 24u rack for like 7u worth of equipment heh
 
p0lish said:
I was thinking about virtualizing the box. Thus the pfsense. Right now, we rarely have internet problems or connection issues. Our accounting department(3people) uses peachtree, which relies on PervasiveSQL. There is no set budget, it just has to be reasonable and meet our needs.

Thanks for the feedback.
Click to expand...

3 user peachtree w/ PervasiveSQL is very little load.

How many users on exchange?
 
we are currently running on a 1.8ghz 512mb tower. the box is slower than any desktop in our office. it can be a slide show while moving the mouse. Reliability and redundancy are a priority, as is expandability.

We have around 30 users, 15-20 computers all pulling data from the server simultaneously. I've had 2 hard drive failures in the box in the past month(different raid1 arrays) and there is no physical space in the box for hot spares. we have approx. 1.5TB of storage currently, and only about 80gig free. Summer is when the data comes in, so i doubled it.

I been playing around with virtualization for a couple months, and it was just a thought. thanks for everyone's imput.
 
Wow it sounds like you guys needed an upgrade 3 years ago, anyway what kind of company and data growth is expected in the next year or so.
 
p0lish said:
we are currently running on a 1.8ghz 512mb tower. the box is slower than any desktop in our office. it can be a slide show while moving the mouse. Reliability and redundancy are a priority, as is expandability.

We have around 30 users, 15-20 computers all pulling data from the server simultaneously. I've had 2 hard drive failures in the box in the past month(different raid1 arrays) and there is no physical space in the box for hot spares. we have approx. 1.5TB of storage currently, and only about 80gig free. Summer is when the data comes in, so i doubled it.

I been playing around with virtualization for a couple months, and it was just a thought. thanks for everyone's imput.
Click to expand...

What are you using for backup?

2x current isn't enough for most companies on a server upgrade.
I would go 4.5TB min.
 
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p0lish said:
we are currently running on a 1.8ghz 512mb tower. the box is slower than any desktop in our office. it can be a slide show while moving the mouse. Reliability and redundancy are a priority, as is expandability.

We have around 30 users, 15-20 computers all pulling data from the server simultaneously. I've had 2 hard drive failures in the box in the past month(different raid1 arrays) and there is no physical space in the box for hot spares. we have approx. 1.5TB of storage currently, and only about 80gig free. Summer is when the data comes in, so i doubled it.

I been playing around with virtualization for a couple months, and it was just a thought. thanks for everyone's imput.
Click to expand...

Jesus. 512mgs ram for 30 users? The 2xDual Core 3.0 Xeon/4gigs Poweredge 2900 I installed for my last job handled all of that, but showed its weakness when everyone was online. Go to your local computer store ASAP, buy more ram, and get the new equipment asap.
 
To cut budget, have you considered having your systems hosted? You mentioned you are looking for reliability and up-time, perhaps this might be a solution.

The MD1000 should support 110v as your prior question, but always make sure and confirm before ordering.

To use the MD1000, you need a perc5 or higher.
 
To me this seems good for single server and one of those NAS devices.

A new Poweredge 2950 with 2 Quad Core Xeon, Raid1 SAS, Raid 5 SAS, with SBS or EBS 08 or SBS 03, and then a MD1000 or similar would be good.

I dont see the need for a dedicated server for the 3 pervasive users.

I have alot of 15-20 user clients on similar setups and it hums along. SAS makes a difference. Going with SBS08 or EBS08 will help too since you can load it up with RAM.
 
Okay going to make some assumptions:
1. You're a MS shop
2. You don't care for hardware support
3. Assuming you're running a win2k3 servers/domain

That being said...
Pickup a PETR610 with a Perc6i controller
2x (or 4x for raid 10) 15K sas drives
4x 1TB (or 2TB) green sata drives
dual quadcore xeons
12gb ram (2gbx6 sticks)
extra copy of Win2k8 (64bit)std

Setup:
In the perc6i setup your sas drive for raid 1 (or 10 if you got 4.) Setup your Sata drives for raid 5. This shuold present as two volumes to the OS.
Install Win2K8 as the host OS with the Hyper-V role.
Install a virtualized Win2K8 as a guest OS.
Do a p2v for the existing servers and stick it on the Hyper-v.

This basically should give you the same functionality and some scalability which should tide you over for a while. If you need more storage space then you can add a perc6e with a MD3000/MD1000 or even a nas.
 
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