Small Business Server

[Statzere]

Recently, I have taken on the task of building a server for my Dad, who is a partial owner of a small business with about 20 or so employees. My Dad has worked his way through several other solutions, and we have finally decided to venture into a Windows 2003 server (to be mainly used for file sharing -- no web hosting, just saving files in a central place).

Now my knowledge does not extend as far as enterprise class hardware, so I am planning on staying away from SCSI drives and server boards (using Xeon & Opteron processors) with PCI-X slots and the sort. However, as data security is essential to any business, I am planning on using a RAID 5 array. I have lined up the following hardwares for this array:

ASUS P5GD2 Deluxe ? has an onboard SiL 3114 controller
and
P4 630 (3.0GHz)

From what I?ve read, the Sil 3114 controller runs pretty much at the software level, but it seems to hold its own here:

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=r52005&page=9">Sil 3114 Review</a>

Are my presumptions correct?

I would also be running:
3x Seagate 7200.8 250GB drives on the controller (thinking about adding a hot spare)
and
1x 80GB Seagate for the boot drive -- do these picks sound decent?

Now for the total storage amount of the array, everywhere I have read states that only the total of one drive is used for parity. So would the storage capacity of the entire array be 500gb?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and thx ahead of time


::Edit -- wrong motherboard model::

 

[Statzere]

No help from anyone?

Can someone atleast tell me if my Raid 5 presumptions are right?

3x 250GB drives in a RAID 5 will give me 500GB useable space?

 

[DaveSimmons]

3x 250GB drives in a RAID 5 will give me 500GB useable space?

Yes. Of course if you only need 250 GB of storage then RAID-1 mirroring with just 2 drives would be cheaper.

For a good case, I'd suggest Antec SLK3000 for good airflow around the drives, especially if you add a slow and quiet intake fan from someone like Nexus (www.siliconacoustics.com)

 

[sharkeeper]

If you plan on using SBS2003's features such as SQL and Exchange don't even think about using that configuration. That system will crawl. It's a server, user server hardware or you will be sad.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: sharkeeper
If you plan on using SBS2003's features such as SQL and Exchange don't even think about using that configuration. That system will crawl. It's a server, user server hardware or you will be sad.

Quite possibly, but this is a small business so it might be fine.

It really depends on how much email and what kind of database app(s) will be run. At my old job we had a low-traffic order tracking database and file server running on a Pentium 133 MHz with 2 x 4200 RPM 2.1 GB IDE hard drives. Of course it was NT4 and Access rather than 2K3 and SQL Server.

 

[PlatinumGold]

if you are just using it as a file server, why not go linux and save yourself lots of money?

20 employees, will there be more than 10 simultaneous users of the files being shared at any time? if not just use WinXP.

don't buy more than you need, it's better to get just what you need now and upgrade when you do have need for other features.

 

[Agamar]

I have quite a few servers at different locations set up with dual 72G raptors in a Raid-1 mirror. One is a SBS 2003 server with 30 clients. They all work fine.

 

[Kenazo]

what the heck do you need 500gb of storage for? I'd say go w/ dual 72g raptors in Raid1. Get a tape backup.

 

[bigshooter]

That system will be plenty fast for SBS 2003. "Server class" hardware isn't normally that much faster than equivalent desktop technology, it has just been tested for compatability and reliability. A 3ghz P4 w/1meg cache is going to be pretty close to a Xeon 3ghz w/1 meg cache. Just be sure to put plenty of ram in the box. 2 gigs would be overkill, but it's cheap enough to just go ahead and buy.

 

[wisdomtooth]

If this computer is a mission-critical system, dude just get a Dell.

 

[TechSerf]

Statzere,

If this is going to business-critical, you are honestly better off buying a name-brand system (i.e. HP, Dell, IBM. etc...) than building your own as wisdomtooth suggested. Not only do you get a tried and tested system, but there is the support and warranty aspects as well.

The RAID 5 is a good thing for data protection, but don't forget your backup solution (i.e. tape, disc, etc...) as well. Also if you want decent RAID performance, get it implmented in hardware. Most software solutions are performance killers even on a small system such as you are looking at. I also suggest SCSI, but SATA is becoming an economically acceptable choice it seems.

One more thing. If you do buy a server or build your own, buy a retail version of Windows 2003 Server. If you go OEM, Microsoft won't provide support when/if you ever need it.

Good luck!

 

[sharkeeper]

Running Exchange on a RAID5 array means he'll have to partition. Log files, database files and paging files should be on separate physical disks. On partitions with RAID5 performance will tank seriously. It may install quick but once you have 30 users and their mailboxes fill up and your database can no longer fit in your system memory you will hear static from users.

Consider this. Now you will never see a store this big due to the 16GB limitation in SBS, but this database is only about 1 1/2 years old and there are about 515 users that are active. The stream file is very large because a majority of the users are OWA clients. This is for a child in a larger forest as well!

Server hardware is not only more reliable, it's designed to handle multiple users. Benchmarks will often show a desktop system with similar specs having better performance but once you have tens of users hitting it, the *real* server will pull ahead.

2GB of RAM is also standard with this configuration. Make sure your board supports ECC and buy ECC ram! Don't skimp here!

I cringe at the use of RAID5 for an all in one system with hardware SCSI controllers even with battery backed up cache. To do it with SATA in software is suicide. You will run aground sooner than later.

Always have a good backup plan too!

One more thing. If you do buy a server or build your own, buy a retail version of Windows 2003 Server. If you go OEM, Microsoft won't provide support when/if you ever need it.

MS will support any installation for $245 per incident. This charge applies whether you have a retail copy or OEM. The 2 calls inclusive policy for retail was abolished with 2003 server products forward.