Network Server/ LAN/ WAN/ WAN redundant recommendations

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vear01

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Jul 6, 2013
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10,510
Server hardware upgrade recommendations and offsite (home) WAN backup suggestions,
I’m updating the “Win server 2008 std (R2)” to “Win server 2012 std”,
Current setup:
CPU: Gateway FX530xv, with Quad core Intel Q6600 2.4, 4mg L2, 1066FSB, 3 Gb DDR2 667 Mhz
(Box installed December 2007) socket LGA775
PSU: 700w, 4-12v 18a, 18a, 18a, 16a, 50a max total
OS: Win server 2008 std(R2)OS installed on separate HD,
Raid 1: 2 - Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 Rpm Hard drives
Internet Modem: Comcast cable using Motorola SB6141 modem (same at both house and office)
Router: Connected to
1. D-link Dir-655 Wireless router (same at both house and office)
2. Which at office connects to D-link DGS-2208 Giga switch (8 port, 5 used plus 2 for in/out)
3. which connects to a “Netgear GS116 Switch” 16 port (7 used, plus 1 in)
4. and second “wireless router”(client guest use)D-link WBR-13105
Networked computers: (3 win-7 pro, 2 win-8 pro)
hard wired: 3 desktop printers, 1 MFP printer, time clock, credit card terminal, extra printer port.

Due to a RAID hard drive failure on this 5 ½ year old box. Replacement is indicated.
Will be setting up new OS (win server 2012 std) on SSD Samsung 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD256BW 256GB SSD -, 540MB/s Read Speed, 520MB/s Write Speed SATA III
A Raid 1 for files on 2 Seagate HSSD Momentus 750GB drives 7200rpm, SATA III

Question 1:
Which CPU For Server/NAS/ file server?. Since I will need a mother board replacement anyway, which CPU would create the fastest long lived solution? I generally mildly OC 10-20% and install high capacity cooling
A. I7 3770K ivy Bridge 3.5/3.9 quad core socket LGA-1155 $249.00 @ Micro Center, Integrated graphics
B. I7-4770K Haswell 3.5/3.9 quad core socket LGA 1150- $279.99 @ Micro Center
C. Xeon E3 1275 V2 3.5GHz 3.9 quad core socket LGA 1155 $299.99 @ Micro Center but no duel CPU boards yet
D. i7 3820 Sandy Bridge-E 3.6GHz /3.8 quad core, QUAD 1600 Mhz mem channel 64GB memory LGA 2011 $229.99 @ Micro Center
E. i7 3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz /3.8 SIX core, QUAD 1600 Mhz memory channel 64GB memory LGA 2011 559.95 @ best buy

I’m a leaning toward D or E due to quad memory channel and twice the memory capacity, but with SSD OS and HSSD RAID drives, is the extra memory even a factor?
I7-3930K due to six core, even at the premium price. If it lasted 5 years again that is $52 a year, 4.33 month,
even with just a 10% processing time improvement and say it only saves 1 hour a week @ $12 per hour rate it will pay for itself in 5 months.(We do accounting write up using Excel, Word, QuickBooks (should be “bloated snail books”) Photoshop design for clients.

Question 2: Mother board recommendations Although I prefer to use EVGA Motherboards and GPU cards due to their excellent support, especially for overclocking, I am open for Mother board recommendations, (have also had good results with Gigabyte and Asus) but must have the following requirements;. SATA III 6 GB, min 1 for OS SSD drive, plus would like additional 2 SATA III for RAID, min of 2- LAN 1. GB connections, built in RAID 0, 1, 5

Question 3; WAN redundancy with auto or live backup to second server off site? How to accomplish inexpensively? Goal to have seamless redundant NAS storage and backup. Would like my home location (about 2 miles away) to be a redundant backup location. (Both have Comcast Cable) Where, if my office building is destroyed by Tornado or burns down, system will automatically continue to operate with simple WEB connection, such as with a laptop until office system is replaced.
Was told a VPN to home location could add home computer to office LAN network simply using two old basic computers as terminals.

Facts. I believe in investing what is required for a solid dependable long term system, (I previously had a computer retail/ repair store and was Novell certified (20 yrs. ago), I’m still a Microsoft partner) but I do have a tight budget. Our small business only grossed about $80,000 which supports 3 families plus has to cover occupancy costs for a downtown store front office. So any input would be highly appreciated.
Steve@taxbully.com
 
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Just to make sure I'm reading everything correctly:

Your current setup provides ~500 GB of storage to 5 computers. All 5 computers are connected using Gigabit Ethernet. You've currently got a Core 2 Quad running Windows Server 2008 R2. The current server is old and probably needs replacement. You want to do an upgrade that will be "future-proof" and last for roughly 5 more years. You've got several options spec'd out. At present, you only do file sharing from your server.

To be honest, your specified replacements are massive overkill. I used to work at a community college with ~1200 employees. Our file server was a VM with only 1 CPU core and 2 GB of RAM, and was able to provide ample throughput for all 1200 employees. (Granted, the...
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rusabus

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May 19, 2007
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Just to make sure I'm reading everything correctly:

Your current setup provides ~500 GB of storage to 5 computers. All 5 computers are connected using Gigabit Ethernet. You've currently got a Core 2 Quad running Windows Server 2008 R2. The current server is old and probably needs replacement. You want to do an upgrade that will be "future-proof" and last for roughly 5 more years. You've got several options spec'd out. At present, you only do file sharing from your server.

To be honest, your specified replacements are massive overkill. I used to work at a community college with ~1200 employees. Our file server was a VM with only 1 CPU core and 2 GB of RAM, and was able to provide ample throughput for all 1200 employees. (Granted, the VM's storage was on a ~$65,000 SAN, but we were supporting many more users than you.)

If I were building a replacement file server, I would go for low-cost, low-power, but high-quality components and run FreeNAS or NAS4Free. With FreeNAS, you can build two boxes, have one off-site, configure snapshots and replication and have a backup/disaster recovery solution that would be a lot less expensive than even just your Windows Server 2012 license.

If you wanted to stick with Windows Server, for file and print services withe a 5-user group, anything will suffice - that is to say, any hardware that meets the minimum spec for Windows server 2008 R2 or 2012 would easily be able to serve up data to a 5-user workgroup. If you want an offsite backup, you could consider something like Spider Oak. Spider Oak is compressed, encrypted, and de-duplicated online backup. I find it works very well and is quite affordable.

Just my opinion. Hope it helps.

--Russel
 
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vear01

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Jul 6, 2013
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10,510
I really appreciate your input and time.
One of the reasons I would like a fast server is that I am currently running all tax programs, QuickBooks Premium and Adobe suite off the server, in addition to being a general file server.
As a former OEM and current Microsoft Partner, have the action pack which includes the complete suite of ALL Microsoft solutions at no additional cost over the annual fee. including one win server 2012 license with 10 CALs available.
Plus. If business expands, which I plan on, we will add at least 3 more work stations. One on the challenges of a tax accounting office is storing the huge amount of scanned documents used for tax prep and accounting securely.
My goal, in the very near future, is to be paperless and to be able to access and work on all files remotely, from a laptop, IPAD or another desktop, possibly at the client’s office. With VPN setup possibly utilizing Microsoft Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP).
I do have a web site with secure portals for clients to drop work, but have not implemented.
Do I realize I am overbuilding, yes.
But as I mentioned, if you gain speed, when you are paying someone by the hour, it will pay for itself in the long run. Plus it extends the life against new larger future resource gobbling programs.
The Key is where the costs exceed the benefits.
Ever since I bought my first business computer ($4,500, 286, Cyrix math co-processor, 1Mb ram 40Mb HD (they recommended 20Mb) outgrew it in 90 days), computer sales people have under-estimated the requirements in the tax and accounting field.
Again I appreciate your input.
 
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rusabus

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Okay, so I assume you are running this way for software licensing reasons - Adobe suites after all are not cheap (neither are tax/accounting apps). You might want to double-check the licensing requirements for these applications. They may not be licensed for this use scenario, but that is outside the scope of your original question . . .

From a performance perspective, I would guess the best thing to do would be to install your applications locally and just use the server for storage, but I suspect this may be cost-prohibitive from a licensing perspective. So, running all the software centrally definitely changes things. To best know where to spend your money, I would take a close look at your current environment. Where are your bottlenecks? RAM, CPU, storage IO?

I would almost certainly guess that storage IO is currently your biggest bottleneck, followed by memory capacity. For the tax and accounting applications, I doubt CPU is a factor at all, but that probably comes into play for Adobe suites.

Any SSD will resolve your storage IO bottlenecks, but since this is business-critical, I'd use a pair of Intel or Samsung SSDs and run RAID 1 on them. (I personally believe Intel and Samsung make the most reliable SSDs because they have greater control of the entire supply chain, but I have no data to back up this belief.) I'd also make sure I had some sort of frequent (validated) backup scheme in place that backed up data to another physical volume.

I'd then look at maximizing the amount of RAM installed. You can get 32 GB of DDR3 for around $200, and I would suspect that would make a bigger difference in performance than any amount of CPU.

As for the CPU, I would not look at any sort of overclocking. There is enough of a price premium needed for overclocking that I don't think it is worth it in a business environment. Just look at your current CPU usage to determine if you need more CPU power. I would suspect that any i5 would be sufficient for current and future needs, but it is impossible to say without looking at your current usage.

--Russel
 
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