I'd suggest the consideration of something aftermarket as an option for them (since you said the words 'property management company' and having supported a few of those in the past I'll make crass generalizations about budget limitations/thriftiness)
www.buysellservers.com ... you can go build a 1U dell for instance with what you want in it (like a real RAID card) and also still get a drac/warranty/etc at aftermarket prices. We normally do new ourselves, but I'm also not against getting the occasional 1U 'a few years old but with a fresh warranty' dell for swiss-army-knife server basic stuff like a dc/dns/ad/dhcp box. So sometimes we'll grab something like an R420 poweredge and put a RAID card in it/drac it and even ESXi it to internal USB bootable for a few grand less than new (but still with new hd's) Just throwing it out there, I know folks sometimes cringe at the 'used' market but in certain situations it works. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kurt Buff Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2018 6:46 PM To: ntsysadm <[email protected]> Subject: [NTSysADM] Server build recommendation The owner of a small 5-6 person property management company has approached me to help acquire a new server. They're currently running a 10+yo machine with SBS 2003, and wish to replace it. They've migrated their email to gmail, so don't need exchange, but do want a DC for account management, DHCP/DNS, etc., so they're looking to go with Server Essentials. The fellow he's nominated at his firm to be their sysadmin is quite green, and got a quote from Dell for a tower box with a software RAID card, and I told them to hold off on that purchase, while I look at alternatives. I was leaning toward an HP Microserver, but haven't played with one in years, and it looks like the current generation is using an AMD processor, and doesn't come with a RAID card to support RAID1. Anyone have a recommendation they can make regarding hardware? Kurt
