E5506 V E5606 - Hp Proliant DL380 G7 Server Advice

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We are currently upgrading our servers at work and I just wondering if anyone can offer advice regarding the above processors.........

The situation, before I came here, there was a outstanding plan of upgrading the main server here, as the current SBS 2003 server is just waaay overloaded. Think 100 users, with BES installed, BESR, Symantec Endpoint Protect to name a few, and a lovely constant memory usage of over 4.5 GB on a 4 Gig server.........nice

The plan was to get rid of the single server, and have a seperate AD, File, Exchange and BESR Image Server, which considering we have no more than 100 users seems a bit overkill for me............but I new to this type of thing

Anyway, we have had quotes for the equipment, and for 2 of the servers......Exchnage 2010, and the file server, we have been quoted for a HP Proliant DL380 G7 E5506.

The quotes we got just seemed to be expensive to me, so off I went and speaking to another source, they have come much cheaper with same servers, G7 etc but offering a E5606 instead of the E5506.

Not really having much involment in speccing out servers before, I just wondered if there was much difference bewteen the 2 proccesors

These servers would be running in 64 Bit with Windows Server 2008.


any advice appreciated............

 

Your plan for the number of servers (DC, file, exchange and BESR) seems okay to me.

 

With 100 users either/or would be up to the task if you carve out the seperate servers as you have suggested.
One thing you must keep in mind is in your current environment what happens if the besr service or similar goes screwy and only a reboot will do? If you have other roles on that server then they will be affected too and you cannot do a reboot within hours, whereas if you had the roles seperated its much easier to plan for reboots and things like besr you can handle a few minutes of downtime whilst it reboots during working hours without anyone noticing.

 

I didnt think of that actually, I guess my concern is we seem to be have a number of physical servers already, 5 in addition to the proposed ones...............hmmmm

Anyway thanks for the replies, Ill have a look at the Intel E3-1220 Wagnerk, cheers I am just trying to save money where I can, as i think this is why the server upgrade has been put off as long as it has. The quote with the e5606 is actually something like 4K cheaper from this other supplier, hence i wondered if there was much difference between the 2 processors.

Our main SBS server really is not well and needs updating ASAP..........oh the joy of IT

 

There is not point in buying new hardware unless you are moving away from SBS2003, as you are limited to a 32Bit OS meaning that the server will only see 4GB off RAM, you must be near the 75GB database limit on Exchange 2003 as well.

You cannot move to SBS2008/SBS2011 as they have a maxi mum off 75 users.

So the only choice you have is too purchase at least Server 2008 R2 64 Bit Standard, best advice is to have at least two servers one as a Primary DC and one as a secondary DC, you then need to think about roles.

You could even reuse your old hardware and install Server 2008 R2 and make this a File/Print and Backup DC and then on the new server makes this your Primary DC and Exchange 2010.

But to be honest who cares that much about chipset as whatever you buy is going to be alot better than you have now.

 

I think my Megadrives at home, tied together would make a better server than what we have now

The current equipment we have has been here I believe since the company more or less started more than 5 years ago. It probably wouldnt be as bad as it is, if everything hadnt been thrown onto one server............

Ive just came to this role a few months back, and not having been in a position before where Ive had as much involment with server side of things, i guess i feel at little uneasy regarding any suggestions I have re the new server implementation, hence why I asked if there was much difference in the chipsets mentioned. Perhaps I just need a little more confidence in myself......

The plan by our external IT support company, who have done all of the IT support before I joined in Late March, was to buy new servers as mentioned above. The plan was to roll out 64 Bit Standard 2008 OS on all the servers apart from the AD server. Apparently the AD server needs to be a 32-bit system to act as the printer serv for our existing printers?........That seems a bit odd to me, especially as we do not have that many networked printers............most are local USB ones, something which im looking to get rid off.....

One thing I wouldnt mind checking as its been niggling at me. There is a plan to install TS Licensing Server on the DC............in 2003 Im sure this is not recommended due to performance issues if memory servrs me...........would this apply to 2008 as well?

cheers

 

We have TS Licensing on some DC's out there running 2008, no performance issues.

 

Isn't it normally the recommended way to help with the discovery process?

 

I guess that explains the decision to install the TS Licensing on the DC, thanks

In regards to the current SBS, yeah it barely works somehow and there are various issues, the worse being that when the backup usb drive is plugged in...............it cuts out network conenctions for everyone for about ten mins............not great.

One of the issues from what I can tell here, is the external IT support have pretty much given the company whatever they have asked for, with no real advice stating, "if you do this you will have problems" or if this is the most cost effective way..............hence why we have BES eating up resources for 5 users..............

WSUS is one of the things I will be hoping to bring in when the new servers are implemented, and we currently have Synmantec endpoint as our central AV product.

The whole infrastructure needs upgrading though, its like the wild west compared to my previous IT enviroments..............

 

At least it'll look good on your cv.