New domain, new server, new everything! Advice needed.

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I have been asked to provide a solution for a small office (ten users on-site, 4 off-site) who are currently sharing documents in a workgroup and popping email. Looking for a file/print server with central point for e-mail.
All the machines are running XP Pro and Office 03, so I have suggested the following and would like to hear what you guys think;

2003 SBS Premium edition
Quad Core Xeon X3323 2.5ghz, 2x3MB, 1333mhz
4GB (2 x 2GB dual ranked)
4 SATA Hot Swop - RAID 5 250GB (partition to OS, Data and Exchange?)
2 nic's not teamed but enabled for remote access with ISA running behind a SOHO router (initially)
Exchange with OWA using 3rd party SSL.
RD1000 with Symantec Backup Exec 12d - Small Business Server Suite

1) I have read that the back-up utility built in to SBS 2003 Premium will back up everything (including Exchange) and also OK for a DR situation - 2008 is not. What media will 2003 SBS built in utility work with?
An internal RD1000 and Symantec adds another £400 when bought with the server, although I am looking for a complete back-up and DR resolution.

2) 2008 is cheaper, (when ordering with server) although there is no premium edition listed. I understand I have priced for an older operating system, but unsure that 2008 can be used in dual nic environment, and considering we have only budgeted for a SOHO router, we need ISA.

3) Not being sure of the enhancements with 2008 compared to 2003 (when used with XP and Office 03) - has the "no longer supported date" been announced yet?

4) Is it worth purchasing the OS seperately? OEM tied to unit (although a new poweredge should last a while!) and they will probably do a default install. I will contact Dell, but has anyone asked them not to install the OS? Other than that, it would be a few hours extra work to re-install.

5) Any advice for AV for SBS with Exchange?

Thanks for looking!

 

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What router? ISA is a ballache. We've got loads of sites with similar setups and they just use RWW through a Vigor.

 

Hi,

Just a bog standard ADSL device is there at the moment - WAG54GX2
Because their demands on the system may change in the near future, i thought it was better to go for Premium with ISA and price for an appliance should remote access/more complexity be required at a later date.
What Vigor's do you use?

Thanks

 

We use SBS 2003 standard here. NTBackup will work with anything that can be assigned a drive letter like tapes or external hard drives. Downside to NTBackup is it's dog slow to run a backup or a restore. Instead we're now using Dells RD1000 device that uses 2.5" SATA drives in a plastic case and Symantec Backup Exec. Altogether a much smoother running operation.

As for the AV, we're using Sophos Enterprise - works a treat and has a handy console on the server for monitoring everyone's Sophos clients in one place.

 

Thanks for the info.

I went for the external RD1000 after. I think it was about £150 more than the internal version, although Dell claim it works quicker and you also have the benefit of being able to use it for DR testing etc on another machine.
I'll take a look at the Sophos stuff too.

Simon

 

Backup Exec and a tape drive.
Sophos installed.

Usually Draytek Vigor's 2800s.

 

thanks for that. I'll take a look at the 2800 series.

 

I looked for about two hours today; there are some really nice idealstor teralyte drives that give you the backup to disk options which allows for the DR solution under Win. 2008. Also found some really inexpensive USB SATA storage options that would give the same thing. However; I haven’t done it before, don’t' know anyone who has done it before, and obviously a new customer install isn't the way you want to learn when it's paying work.

2008 has no issue with dual nics. You're perfectly right of course, if you need ISA then 2008 SBS doesn't have it.

2012 I think. It's been a while since i operated off of a non-subscription based license, but in all the licenses I do buy we have downgrade rights. IE, we can run a version behind on any product we purchase (Vista liceneses let us run XP, 2008 liceneses let us run 2003 R2, Office 2007 lets us run 0fffice 2003). Maybe you could look into buying a license that gives them a path forward in this fashion?

I've worked for Dell and with Dell, you can order the server naked if you'd like, but if you do the install yourself be sure to install the OpenManage Agents and use IT Assist to do the install. It really does help later when it comes to monitoring server hardware.

http://www.gfi.com/products/gfi-maildefense-suite/pricing

I've personally used this product before and can honestly say my experiences with it have been exceptional. That is the MailDefense suite right there, it is composed of two products called MailEssentials(Anti-spam + other goodies) and MailSecurity(Anti-Virus). Also, both products can be purchased seperatly. I like MailEssentials for its RBL and Bayesian Analysis engines, and I like MailSecurity because it uses four (or five?) different anti-virus engines. For the small office SBS setup's like this, I think it's the best.

That looks like a real nice setup, I bet they are going to be very happy with it overall and I bet your going to have a good time setting it all up and getting it going for them. And hopefully well paid as well.

Enjoy!

J.

 

You'll need 10 of these:

 

guys,

thanks for all the excellent pointers here and sorry for the delay in replying to you.
I arrived home last night and the phone line was dead. Reported it to BT who aim to have it fixed by Tuesday. I now have my E71 hanging out the window to get 3G and connecting my desktop to tinternet that way.

I placed the order yesterday on behalf of the customer and did go for 2K3 for all the reasons listed here.
I opted for the external RD1000. I am keen to make all transactions via website forms, e-mail etc, but to be fair: the "server expert" at Dell placed a quote that was £230 cheaper than using the on-line form!

This is a starting point for the company, so there will be other implementations to annoy you with!

Sparks- funny you mention Go-daddy. Trainsignal do on the Exchange training course.
Triton.Deep - thanks for your help
Jonnymx - thanks for taking my screen so long to load up!

 

Thanks mate.

Ticket submitted to BT for reverse dns (one static) and I have told the perosn who registered the domain how to amend the mx records when required, although may end up doing it for them. Talking of which, what are you opinions on postini?

Just looking at the nod site -it's cheaper than the network edition of AVG....

Happy days. For now!

Thanks again.

 

Not as a replacement to sbs, but in addition; all mail is routed via their mx you have very good spam control, email retention and no need to install something on the server.

 

For our SBS 2003 clients, we use NOD32 for the AV and Exclaimer for spam filtering, so far it has been excellent (we replaced Spamfighter with it) and for small number of users, GFI was too expensive.

with regards to Sparky's comments of Sage and 2008 server, I have been on contact with Sage and the latest 2009 will work on a 64bit platform, but I will be able to confirm this for definate in May when I setup a new SBS 2008 install.

As mentioned, ISA is a pain to setup and can be a full time job to maintain, especially from a external source.

we sell Drayteks to our clients, now the current model is the 2820 and it also supports ADSL2 (Im on bethere's 24mb service)

With regards to the backup, yes the internal RD1000 is quicker as its directly attached to the sata controller instead of USB and the "tapes" themselves are 2.5" hdd's in a solid casing, for ease of backup, I would recommend the Backup exec 12.5 sbs suite, it's one of the few items I dont buy from dell.

another place for an SSL cert is https://domainsforexchange.net/

I bought one for our SBS 2008 install and it's been fine (once I found the powershell command to apply it)

Good luck with your install

 

Guys,

Thanks for all the excellent posts on this - appreciated!

Just to let you know, the server is now installed and serving! I wiped it in the end - Dell only reserved a small amount of space for the OS and by the time ISA and everything else went on there was not much room. The Dell disk sorted the RAID out and then it was a matter of sitting through the 4 CD's and setting the domain, exchange and ISA up.

Just ordered a Vigor as recommended. .

Simon