Why two hosts?
On 1/25/2018 7:09 PM, Kurt Buff wrote:
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
