File Servers

[Chaotech]

I am the developer for a large company of about 350 users. Recently our file server has been acting up which is expecting seeing its about 6yrs old. We are aiming to replace it but are limited to a budget of under $10,000. Of the 350 users only about 150-175 will be connected at any one time. We do not have a network admin, or a true server hardware guy working at our facility so i am looking for some help to pick the right file server, i have looked at lots of servers on HP's website but i cannot seem to find the right server to match with the right drives using their customizing tools....

We will need atleast 500gb, 1tb would be nice and have room to grow.
The file server will also have about 10-20 network printers set up on it to share.
It will also have to have a SCSI card to allow our tape library to connect up for backups.

If you cannot provide an actual model # for a server any info would help.
What is most important for a file server i would imagine, RAM, Redundant drives, fast drives? NIC Cards? the more connectivity the faster downloads will be from it (i.e. 4 network connections instead of 2) ?

I am not worried about spending $9,999 as long as it does not hit $10,000 with tax then it would need higher approval.

Please advise, your knowledge is very appreciated.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I was able to put this together on Dell's site:

[fixed]PowerEdge 2950 Qty 1
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5310, 2x4MB Cache, 1.60GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Windows Server® 2003 R2, Standard x64 Edition with SP2,Includes 5 CALs Unit Price $7,138.00
Catalog Number: 5 MLB1673

PowerEdge 2950 Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5310, 2x4MB Cache, 1.60GHz, 1066MHz FSB
Operating System Windows Server® 2003 R2, Standard x64 Edition with SP2,Includes 5 CALs
Additional Processor Single Processor only
Memory 4GB 667MHz (4x1GB), Dual Ranked DIMMs
TCP/IP Offload Engine Enablement Broadcom TCP/IP Offload Engine Enabled, Microsoft OS Only
Riser Card Riser with 3 PCIe Slots
Primary Hard Drive 300GB 10K RPM Serial-Attach SCSI 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
Primary Controller PERC 5/i, x6 Backplane, Integrated Controller Card
Floppy Drive No Floppy Drive for x6 Backplane
Mouse No Mouse Option
Network Adapter Dual Embedded Broadcom® NetXtreme II 5708 Gigabit Ethernet NIC
CD/DVD Drive 24X IDE CD-RW/DVD ROM Drive
Bezel Rack Bezel
Backplane 1x6 Backplane for 3.5-inch Hard Drives
Documentation Electronic Documentation and OpenManage CD Kit
2nd Hard Drive 300GB 10K RPM Serial-Attach SCSI 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
2nd Controller Dell single-channel Ultra-320 SCSI PCIe Host Adapter
Hard Drive Configuration Integrated SAS/SATA RAID 5, PERC 5/i Integrated
Chassis Configuration Rack Chassis w/Sliding Rapid/Versa Rails and Cable Management Arm,Universal
Hardware Support Services 3Yr SILVER ENTERPRISE SUPPORT: 7x24 HW/SW, NBD Onsite
Installation Support Services No Installation Assessment
Power Supply Redundant Power Supply with Y-Cord for PowerEdge 2950
4th Hard Drive 300GB 10K RPM Serial-Attach SCSI 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive
3rd Hard Drive 300GB 10K RPM Serial-Attach SCSI 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug Hard Drive

TOTAL:$7,138.00
[/fixed]

This server is a PowerEdge 2950, 4GB RAM, quad core Xeon, 4x 300GB SAS 10K RPM drives in a RAID 5 (900GB usable space, partition out 20GB for the system partition, 880GB for use as file storage). You can add 2 more 300GB drives later for a total usable space of 1.48TB. The SAS drives are very fast, optimized for server applications, and designed for 24x7 heavy use.

The Broadcom NetXtreme II Gb Ethernet has TCP/IP offload and will more than adequately serve your 150-175 users. You can team and/or VLAN the dual Gb Ethernet interfaces for a possible 2Gb of bandwidth to the network.

The single channel U320 SCSI controller is included to connect to your tape backup.

This is priced with a Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard license. If you already have a Windows Server 2003 R2 license, you may not need this. Another thing you may need to look at is your client access licenses (CALs), this pricing doesn't include them. You may already have them if you already have a Windows 2003 server.

One recommendation I have is that you're on the borderline for storage being inside the server itself. The modern way is to virtualize your storage via iSCSI or Fibre Channel SAN units, with a NAS head server that is independent. This unmarries the storage subsystem from the server, allowing server upgrades without touching the storage system, allowing the storage system to grow, and pooling storage for multiple servers (i.e. database, e-mail, VMs) into one unit.

Using a SAN unit with a NAS head server here would push you above $10K, and since you don't have a hardware expert or network admin, the setup and maintenance of the SAN might be something you don't want to deal with. I'm not exactly sure how you have 350 users and no network admin or hardware expert, however.

Anyway, this server will do the job. An iSCSI SAN unit and a PowerEdge 1950 with multipath IO to the SAN would work better, but it'd be $20K or more.

 

[Chaotech]

This is a very nice setup, appreciate the time you put into this... I'm sure at one point in time we may have had a hardware specialist, but our site director doesnt think much of IT, and will not allocate more positions for IT so the IT manager and myself the Developer are basically being jack of all trades in the meantime... im sure when there is a major catastrophy he might come to the realization that we need some hardware support but until then we will have to do.

 

[xrodney]

You can also look at some IBM servers, there is lot of choices and many of them nice setup, have SCSI and price under 10k $.
Me personaly dont like DELL as their desktop PCs was sometime making me crazy when i worked as HW technician (dunno maybe their servers are better and more compatible).
There is also posibility to build your own server, but that is out of question if your company dont employe experienced HW/SW technician.