Server setup questions

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Hi Guys

I very much appreciate all the help here but its seems im getting different info. See quote above.

As this company is selling products online id say it was pretty critical that the server is online as much as possible. So this takes me back to my original question. Am i better with 1 server or 2?

 

So can i do this with 2 servers running 2003 std edition?

 

OK guys Im torn between 1 server with as much redundancy as possible or 2 servers load balanced. Although my knowledge of load balancing is limited with regards to dhcp, backups etc and if the hardware has to be identical or not.

 

So NLB is possible between different versions of server 2003 esecially between SBS and Web edition? If the SBS fails can the web edition take over? And what is the best HDD / RAID / Backup plan here?

Sorry, i must be doing your nut in now

 

Can I refer you to this

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsserver/evaluate/features/compare.mspx

2nd column down says NLB is available on all of them.

Now im like the guy on the confused dot com advert

 

Datarunner, unfortunately you're only getting advice from one person along with my two penneth

IMHO It'd be good if you could get points of view from others as to what they would do too and weigh up all the pro's and cons before deciding

We each have our own perspective and in my line of work redundancy is of upmost importance, any down time soon starts costing us money and scrimping an a server is shortsighted

I've learned to expect the unexpected and take even the most unlikeliest event into consideration

Too many companies rely wholly on their IT yet give Business continuity very little thought until it's too late

Does anyone else have any suggestions as to the way he should go?

 

So im thinking 2 servers running std / SBS edition (same on each), NLBed. Just the backup to deal with now. Is there a way i can back them up and restore them independantly on 1 device?

Thanks for your time, patience and info on this

 

Sorry m8 didnt realise you had replied there. Yeah i hear what you are saying and value your opinion / advice as much as anyone elses.

Im new to this so im the guy asking yous for help

 

I think the reason not many people are pitching in, is that the advice being given thus far is sound and solid, especially given your allotted budget.

Clearly there are other ways of achieving your goal but the limited budget precludes them

Pete another SBS fan

 

OK we can draw this to a close. I must say that the advice here has been speedy and fantastic. Talk about a crash course in small business network / server installation. Ive certainly learned a lot.

The project is probably designed to be flawed to test ability, competence etc within a high uptime / low budget environment.

Anyway the project requires us to document atleast 2 types of approach and compare them. So I am going to propose and document both the single server with high spec / redundancy as well as the 2 server NLB approaches.

Then its up to what me and 3 other team members decide.

Once again I cant thank the people enough who contributed to this.

Cheers.

 

Just to say my comment about getting varied views wasn't aimed as a dig at your advice, just that depending what angle you look at it from then you could come up with a different point of view and the more the merrier.

BTW - I'd go for your last option of web hosting and SBS too

 

ROFLMAO