Building a Server

[DrFat]

hi, i'm a trainee it consultant and my boss has asked me to get a quote for a new server for our office. i know a bit about computers, but not a whole heap about servers. i've worked out what ram and storage devices i'll be getting, but i'm not too sure about motherboards and cpu's.
we'll be running about half a dozen computers plus a couple printers off the server. any help with what sort of motherboard or cpu i should get would be much appreciated.
i'm thinking minimum 2.6 ghz processor, sata, pci express and my boss specified we'd need 3 NICs.

 

[jim552]

Additionally, you need to know what Operating System to get?

In reality though, with only half a dozen systems running off of this pretty much anything with average speeds will be up to the task.

Our current standard server configuration is:
Asus SK8N Moterboard (officially discontinued now)
1 GB RAM
LSI Logic Mega RAID SATA-4 or SATA-6
Storcase SATA frames and carriers
SDLT for Backups
ATI Radeon 9200
The case we use also has redundant power supplies

We use the onboard Ethernet, but have some systems with the multi-port Intel cards. (NOTE: The dual-port Intel cards work fine the Quad-port Intel cards will not work with this motherboard. Read the Intel WEB site carefully, and with any luck you will skip the page that has been in error for over a year.)

I am not sure why there will be 3 nics, maybe it is for remote connectivity? If the goal is for "multi-homing" the Server under Windows Server 2000 it has been my experience that is much more difficult than useful.

I had grand plans to divide each office network into three physically separate spaces. Each office would be divided in half onto the dual-port Intel Ethernet cards, and the motherboard Ethernet would be used to communicate between the Servers as a "system network".

It worked, but it did seem to introduce alot of headaches. Primary in the headache department was that not ALL of the Windows Services were multi-home capable. It appeared that some of the Services were designed to ONLY service requests on one network card at a time.

After playing, and testing, I have given up until such point in time as we have converted all of our Servers to be running Windows Server 2003. (That should be before the end of the year.)

I hope this helps a bit.

 

[apesoccer]

I personally would make a purchase from dell small buis. You'll get the same computer as putting one together yourself (parts wise), but you have the oportunity to blame any problems on dell(if you get the added cost of a good warrenty-2yr on-site; which is about the cost of the server, but is awesome in emergency situations). Whereas if you take responsibility for creating the server, you can run in to problems.

Also, are you talking about creating a file server, email server, what all is this server going to do? I know you're going to do some printing...Routing? Web server? If you're going to be file serving, and this is an environment where there is going to be hd intensive tasks, then you're going to want a dual processor setup with min 1gb ram and probably (if its in the budget) raid 5 hardware. The more things this computer is going to be doing at the same time, the more you want to lean towards a dual or better cpu setup.

High end- ($2000-5000)
dual or better cpu setup
1-2gb ram
raid 5 hardware

Med End ($1500-2500)
dual cpu
1gb
raid 5 software 3disks

low end cpu ($600-1200)
single cpu
512mb
raid 1 - mirroring

Don't even consider not, at least, mirroring your hds. Also you need to consider what kind of back-up solution you're going to need. IE tape-backup. Tape backup alone runs $800-4000 (dlt 40-80gb).

So...Add $1500 for tape drive(tapes also cost around $80 a piece...you'll want a minimum of 5 plus a couple archive for monthly off-site backup). Warrenty's run all over the place...depends on how fast you want your service. But in the end, even on the low end server...you'll spend probably a minimum of $2500 or so. Also...why do you want 3nics in it? If you're using it as a firewall/router that only requires 2. 3rd as backup? Or if this was a small buisness, i suppose you could have a second internet connect coming in and bridging the two...seems like a lot of overhead work to me tho. Anyway, good luck. I hope i haven't mucked your thoughts on this up to much. Ack...don't forget to pick up a apc 500-1200 as well, don't want your server crashing in a power loss/outage situation, not to mention it's much much better at protecting your computer then a bloody surge protector.

Last comment...if you're wanting rackmountable stuff...ignore everything above...and proceed to Dell. Add to your end cost by an extra 30-50%.

Current machines running F@H:
AMD: [64 3500+][64 3000+][2500+][2000+][1.3x2][366]
Intel: [X 3.0x3][P4 3.0x2][P4 2.4x5][P4 1.4]

"...and i'm not gay" RX8 -Greatest Quote of ALL Time<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by apesoccer on 05/05/05 05:43 PM.</EM></FONT></P>