Low Power Active Directory / file server

[kefegg]

Hi,

I'm thinking about building a small home network. Not a Workgroup but a domain.
The idea was that if I build a server which can run Active Directory, everyone in the house could use his or her account on any pc in the house (we have 4 and one laptop). And all data would be stored in a central server.
I want to get rid of a few pc's and run that server instead.
Files that would be shared would be 80% pictures and 20% office.

OS that will has to run on the server is Windows 2008RC, the clients will run Windows 7pro.
My pc stays on 8.1 pro.

Budget: €500,- (660USD) max, lower is better.
Housing: Small (ITX if possible)
Hdd: 2TB would do
Power-consumption: low as possible

What I found so far:
http://www.alternate.be/html/config...pcBuilder&id=041f966bd41605e2a418591f1ef83dee

Questions:
Is Raid necessary? If I use a second HDD that runs a incremental backup every week.
Do I need extra or other hardware to make this possible?


thanks guys.

 

[Cerb]

OS that will has to run on the server is Windows 2008RC

Do you mean R2? Because I'm pretty sure RC would involve piracy, a time bomb, or both.

Is Raid necessary?

No. Mirror and parity RAIDs allow a single common point of failure, a HDD, to not cause the system to go down. If you have 50 people using a file server, and a <$300 HDD failure causes all of them to not get work done like they had been, you're going to lose a lot more than <$300 that a new HDD might cost. That is the sort of the case where it is necessary, along with when it is required for other reasons (FI, I'm going to set up a server soon for a very small business, and a mirror style RAID array is a system/licensing requirement, regardless of whether incremental backups would suffice or not).

That is not to say it is a bad idea, as it can save you time, in the event of an HDD failure, compared to restoring from backups. It does not replace backups in any circumstance, though, and is a convenience, in home, and many small office, environments.

The lowest power option would likely be:
Gigabyte GB-BXBT-2807
8GB DDR3L SODIMM
2TB Spinpoint M9T

TMK, the M9T is the only 2TB HDD at 9.5mm. The cost in cart is 205 EUR without it (your store of choice doesn't seem to carry it). It should be in the range of 100-150 EUR. You may or may not need to get an adapter cable for the display output. You could also get a small SSD

IMO, go ahead and take the plunge into making bootable USB installers of ISOs, while you're at it, skipping the ODD.

 

[kefegg]

Sorry for the late response.
It was 2008R2, that I was planning to use.
After some debates with some friends, I decided to leave windows and go for a linux server.
I quite thinking about RAID after hearing a lot of nasty things about restoring data and stuff. So I keep my weekly backups and incremental backups.

The hardwarelist wil change a bit, as soon as everything is up and running, I'll post how it's working.