Required Hardware for server.

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Heya People! i hope your soaking up the wonderful weather, unless you in britian like myself then its dodging the random rain falls.

To the tasks at hand:

i've been pulled into a new company as there developer of ASP C#.net, but they have also asked what hardware requirements the office would need, the office would be just myself, and 4 others.

I need to know, what hardware for the server serving 5 different computers. the networking hardware, i.e. hub?
etc etc.

there will be 3 computers runnign through the server, with possiblity of 2 adsl lines comming into the building, is there a way to allow the usage of both lines via the server to the 5 computers.

i've never built a multi user network before its always been wonderful cross overs or my xbox 360 hooked through my router to my pc.

anyhelp would be great!

 

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We'll need a lot more info to answer that one.

Running two ADSL connections *can* be a problem, mostly from routing and load-balancing (if that is required). Why two?

What do you mean by 'machines running through the server'?

For 6 or so machines in an office just one switch will do nicely, unless you are going to be shipping Terabytes of video files about.

What router you might need will depend on just why you have two ADSL connections.

Harry.

 

The two adsl lines aren't needed 1 will be fine, i've been stating that two lines aren't needed due to their sites being hosted externally. i'll throw the load balancing and router issues at them i've sure that'll curve that.

What i am looking for is What parts i'd need in the server, its going to be accessed by 5 different machines storing a fair amount of information.

hell if anyone had a guide on a nice little setup that'd do great, its the whole issue, maybe i should tell them they need to get a certified network technician in to advise and not ask a programmer with A+ experience : o)

they are looking for a typical small office setup is all i can say really with a server serving 5 different computers also providing internet access to them all.

Thanks for the reply!

 

The server doesn't need anything fancy - as long as it has:
1) A network card
2) Lots of disk space (depending on just what it will be serving)
3) Lots of memory (again depending)

You will need a network switch - which they probably have already. An 8 port will do, unless you are going to expand soon.

What sort of things will the server be expected to do? Just store files? Or handle email? Or act as a web server?

You will need to check that the ADSL router has a firewall - and that it is switched on and is configured fairly tightly.

Harry.

 

they currently have nothing, asides an old website (business deal went bad due to no contracts 2 years ago) as such they are starting again contracts this time.

The server will simply, provide access to media files and solutions and personal storage. also access to the internet via the router and access to the printer.

So a simple 8 Port switch,
1 Adsl router with built in firewall

what hardware would you suggest in the server. it currently needs to do only the above. would a simple intel Q6600 G0 & 4gb ram on a nforce board do it? or with the server should there be a seperate network card?

 

I assumed that you already had the server. If not then it will depend on what their budget is.

If they merely want shared storage, and a network printer then almost any high end unit would do. These days they all come with a network card built in which would be easily good enough.

What OS you run on it will depend on the abilities of the local IT - which sounds like you! Linux would be cheap, and would only need Samba and the print queues set up.
Or you might just get by with XP Pro - but that has limited connectivity when used as a server. With the current numbers it would work, but expand and it would be in trouble.
Or you could look at Server 2003, which would scale better than XP.

You should be able to source such a unit, almost ready to go, from Dell among others.

Harry.

 

It does sound like i'm the local IT doesn't it, i suppose i am really.

Thanks for all the info! i'll take a look at dell see what they have and check out high end pcs as well, i guess they will go for win server 2003, i am keeping quiet that i've used linux and got aol broadband and dialup to work on it.

Once again thanks for all the help it is much appreciated!

 

At the moment Dell are giving away a 42U rack if you buy a PowerEdge 2950 Energy Smart server - I got the email on Wednesday I think.

Now a 42U rack is way more than what you need currently, but if there's a chance the company will expand then it might be worth looking at as they cost the best part of a grand themselves

EDIT: Here's the link

 

I'm not certain that SBS is required here. There is no requirement for email or other things that SBS adds to the basic server OS, which is why I didn't mention it.

The one important item I didn't mention is backups! If the people at the company are going to keep files on this server, then they will expect to be able to get at them, even after a disaster! So you need to factor in some sort of backup solution.

Harry.

 

Thanks BrizoH, i'll look into that.

Email will be provided by the web host AFAIK, so no email server needed.The cabling will be run around the room, Does server 2003 provide a backup process ( i assumed it did). I'll make sure that they have backup devices, i've been in programming situations where the techi/owner didn't do backups regularly and we lost 6 months work, that was a big kick in the lower region.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

I would strongly suggest that the server has at least two hard drives setup to mirror (they probably don't need to go to full-blown RAID5).

Want a cheap email solution without the expense of Exchange ? - Have a look at www.pscs.co.uk the VPOP standard prog is excellent for pulling in mail, distributing it around, using assitants, autoresponders etc and it's a small one-off lic fee. I've used this wiith small setups for years because it's just so easy to administer.

I'd say at least 2 Gb ram on the server, can prob get away with a P4 rather than Xeon's and supplied by a local shop or Dell the oem version of the standard server o/s is about £350 + vat trade (this will be supplied and installed with the machine) so total cost shouldn't be massive.

Have a look at ASUS servers too (should be able to find a local supplier) as they have an Advanced Replacement Warranty service whereby a faulty part is shipped to you direct within 24 hours and then you send the old part back. Very useful. They have some excellent entry level stuff too : http://uk.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=9&l2=40

 

I can also vouch for PSCS, I've used that for email within a small company that didn't want to get an exchange and it's been great. Nice and easy to configure and administer. You'd probably want a better spam filter to go along with it though.

 

Agreed !

 

Wow thanks guys, sorry for the slow response i will certinally look into that. i wasn't expecting such amazing responses, as for hardware the computers were designed with help of scan, 3 beastly machines just waiting on the funders.

once again thanks.