You can actually go to IT Creations on ebay, they're a good refurbisher,
and get an IBM System X 3550 M4 for around $3,000 specced with 2x 8 core
Xeon, 256GB RAM 2x Enterprise Value SSDs, 2x 10Gbit SFP+ and 4x 1Gbit
RJ45, IMM upgrade for remote KVM etc... Oh, and dual power and redundant
cooling. And a 5 year warranty from IT Creations.
Of course, that's probably massively overkill. But you could get a
custom spec by chatting them on ebay. Very reasonable price, and these
IBM servers tend to last forever in my experience.
James Pulver
CLASSE Computer Group
Cornell University
On 01/25/2018 07:03 AM, Gantry Zettler wrote:
They are pretty long in the tooth at this point, but I've had very good
luck with Lenovo TS140s. Cheap and reliable, has full KVM remote access
at the BIOS level which is good for emergency situations.
The two big things I have for small servers are SSDs and to virtualize
them. I use the built-in RAID1 with Samsung Pro 850s, not the highest
end setup but I've had few issues.
On Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 5:58 PM, Gordon Pegue <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Do they have a budget Kurt?
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>] On Behalf Of Kurt Buff
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2018 4:46 PM
To: ntsysadm <[email protected]
<mailto:[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
