I had further discussion with them today. The LOB is Timberline property management software, and they're adamant about keeping it in-house. They were also set on Dell, so we finally settled on a Dell T430, with an H330 RAID card, and two 1tb NLSAS drives, and 16gb RAM. The Windows Essentials will come from Amazon for a lot less than what Dell was charging - and they weren't bundling Essentials with this machine anyway.
They have moved their email to gmail (which was news to me - last I had heard from them they were still using their SBS 2003 Exchange). They also wanted to keep their RD1000 unit for backups, which seemed pretty reasonable - actually, they'll be getting a new RD1000 bundled into the new machine, and probably keep the old one for an emergency spare. I'm going to turn that server into a combined AD/DNS/DHCP and file server, and I think I can convince them to keep their Timberline software on a domain-joined Win10 machine - I just gives me the shivers to install third party software on a DC. I didn't save them much on pricing (maybe $100-200), but I think I got them a much better machine. And, as a followup, once they have ordered it and it's in house, I'll be waling through their guy on setting it all up. If I could, I'd virtualize it all, but doing that right would involve two hosts, and more servers than they need, I think that it's pretty good the way we went. Kurt On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 9:11 AM, Susan E Bradley, CPA/CITP/CFF, GSEC <[email protected]> wrote: > What LOB needs do they have? What storage? > > Premise peeps: The Gen 10 Microserver doesn't have the fans it once had, my > peeps are recommending HP ML110e > > Cloud peeps: Do they really need a server or a rethinking of what they do > needs to be done and office 365/mapped drive to Sharefile or Google drive > would be a better plan going forward. What LOB is keeping the need for the > on premise server? > > These days, check that chip to see if it will get a spectre/meltdown patch. > > > On 1/25/2018 8:18 AM, Rick Berry wrote: > > 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 > > >
