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Help Me Replace an Old IBM xServer Running SBS 2003
MTUser2012
Member
I have an office network that consists of windows 7 machines (20) networked through a old IBM tower server (x226, dual 3.0Ghz gen 1 Xeons) running small business server 2003. As I don't trust MS to get things right at first (I think history validates my view), I waited when SBS 2008 came out, then SBS 2012 came out. My system still works, but it is very slow machine, plus 10 minutes to shut down and restart.
I'd like to get a recommendation for a new tower server (not rack) that has hot swappable drives. I'd also like a recommendation on which OS I should upgrade to. I am not doing anything fancy. Just running a file server so all the client machines save files to the raid 5 network share, and some networked printers.
The members here know so much about a lot of things, not just low end VPS & Dedis, I figure I'll get the best advice for moving forward.
Comments
Why not host it in the cloud and get away from hosting it at home ?
imo just go for 2012R2.... despite all the nay most M$ server product is acceptable for most releases.
The problem is that Microsoft doesn't provide upgrade paths forever. Can you upgrade directly from SBS 2003 to the latest SBS? Or do you now need to do the 2003->2008->2012 progression? In general, skipping upgrades isn't a great strategy where Windows is concerned IMHO.
Is Windows the only family under consideration or do you want to consider Linux, etc.?
Is your box acting as a domain controller or is it just a workgroup?
Are you comfortable supporting samba? If you're not, then I wouldn't consider Linux.
I guess it depends if you're looking for a Windows Server or a NAS. If you just need a NAS, go buy a NAS (e.g., Synology at the high end consumer/SOHO side, and there are many more as you go up in cost/features). Or buy your own hardware and use something like FreeNAS so you're just administering a NAS file share without getting into full OS admin. Some NAS will allow printer sharing as well.
now is the time to consider linux servers from debian,centos and for paid then RHEL
if you don't have an ms requirement then now is the time to nix it all
I see what you did there with your nix pun...
I am located in a rural area and internet is not reliable enough. When my ISPs go down, I can still work when everything is local. If I lived in a city with reliable Internet, I agree, this would be a good solution.
i have no idea what that means .. sorry ..
<translator>help</translator>Thanks. I'll look at this to see how much it costs.
Slang for Unix is 'nix...translated make the pun because of dual meanings:
I'd probably do fresh install. I've kept this server running since its original installation in 2003, so I'd just clean up and begin again.
I like linux and have learned quite a bit about it over the years I have been hosting websites. But I have employees who have to work on windows desktops, and who need all the programs associated with MS, like Office.
It is a domain controller now.
I am familiar with Samba and have set up some shares that work on linux server we do have, but that I don't use much anymore. It used to run a php based inventory utility.
I'd prefer to just have something windows that I can administer, but don't have to spend a lot of time on.
I understand the sentiment, but I am locked into Windows for a while. I enjoy how everything works in Linux. But I don't want to turn into a full time system administrator.
So Windows 2012R2 it is. Any advice on new hardware? Tower server with raid?
put here the best meme of "getting the pun late"
Make a list of which Service is running. Complete your Specs from the Old Server.
Does it need to run more stuff in the future or not.
Carepackage or Support Contract?
I'd go for HP.
Whats the budget?
Not everyone is a native speaker and usually you have to be a native to get puns.
pretty much need to figure out what is your requirement. And what existing infrastructure you have that you can work with. Depending on your budget. You can get a full blown dell tower, or something like supermicro, both works. Your goal is to get the most redundant thing possible within your budget, and when something breaks down you won't need to panic because you live in rural area and not possible to source for spare parts. If you have the extra budget go for a raid card.... If more budget go for a hotspare HDD.. and higher level raid and ReFS is something you also want to look into instead of the standard NTFS(takes a hit in your performance but data safety > everything imo).
Look into what your current data store, try and predict what you need in 5-6 years. For CPU, most e3 will do, 20 workstation without heavy AD or special service it's more then enough. Would rather put more money into hotspare psu/ram/disk.
Most will suggest going for nix since you are starting fresh, but how I see it, especially in an business environment.... why change something that works?
I am not sure. I tend to buy equipment/cars that is about 1 year old. Bleeding edge new stuff is too expensive for what you get. Stuff that is one year old is usually pretty fast and has depreciated some already, maybe 30%, so a much better deal.
If I couldn't pay for it in one go, I could lease it.
So please suggest away, not really constrained by a budget. But not top of the line, brand new equipment.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I agree, I'd rather put money into data protection. The old X226 server has 5 bays. I've run raid 5 for years, and it has saved me so many times. If a hard drive goes bad, this server has a hot-swappable spare, and another spare.
Do you have a particular dell tower in mind that would have your ideal data protection features?
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Hi MTUser2012,
I do exactly these kind of migrations day-in/day-out in my day job so here's my 2c:
New Server Hardware:
HP ProLiant ML150 Gen9 with Server 2012 R2 Essentials ROK
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/proliant-servers/product-detail.html?oid=1008829931
Hope this helps
This is exactly what I wanted for advice. I've already started looking at ML350s on eBay, and 2012 with 25 licenses. Thank you. I'll follow it. Is it possible to provide this service remotely?
That's awesome @mik997 - thanks for posting.
BTW, do you see people doing a lot with Azure AD federation? I know some big companies federate to Azure for resiliency. I heard of one small business doing it to get out of running their own domain controllers but it seemed dicey to me.
You could try Dells outlet stuff the majority of the time they have tower and rack servers.
Atleast here in Australia it's available I don't know where you're from, but it might be worth a shot if you don't want brand spanking new equipment.
@raindog308 no problem - thanks for the feedback
I don't get asked to do ADFS often by our SME customers - it's mostly the larger companies who go to the trouble setting up ADFS/SSO to unify identity management across their hybrid on-premise/cloud AD and 365 deployments.
I'd highly recommend the ML350p Gen8 if you can find a good example at the right price .. 2012 R2 Essentials has a 25 user limit just so you are aware - there's a good comparison between the 2012 R2 editions here:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ie/server-cloud/products/windows-server-2012-r2-essentials/comparison.aspx
Also, just sent you a PM ..
@mik997 summarized the mainstream upgrade path nicely. It will work smoothly and will enable you to use handy Windows 2012r2 features such as data deduplication and fast backup/recovery for Windows 7/8/10 clients. I strongly encourage you to upgrade from the x226 ASAP. The RAID BBU battery may be dead already; if you still have a active maintenance contract, IBM will charge you an arm and leg at the next renewal date (it renews automatically).
The only downside is this: any modern enterprise-grade hardware with hotplug drives such as HP ML350p or Dell Poweredge T630 (my favourite choice) is oversized for a workgroup server role. The performance is incredibly higher than your current x226. You will struggle to load the CPU more than 5%. The plus side is this: you may also use the new server as remote desktop server (maybe in the future) and start to replace the older Windows desktop PCs with thin clients. A Thin client may be a specialized hardware (plug and play solution - really) or any Linux machine with proper configuration (we also use Rapsberry Pi 3s). The windows desktop virtualization has several advantages and this post is not the best place to explore the thecnology. If you want to buy a ML350 / T630 class server, avoid the lowend model with E5-2603 cpu. It is OK for fileserver role but will not have enough RAM and CPU cores for virtualization. Select a configuration with one or two 8-core CPU (avoid 10-core+ CPU because they will need costly extra licenses to upgrade to Windows server 2016 in the future) and 64Gb of RAM, it adds very little to the total purchase price but enables a lot of extra flexibility. The remote control option (Idrac enterprise on Dell machines) is also useful if you want to outsource support. On the Windows licensing side, a Windows 2012r2 standard license + required CALs will enable you to spin-up a second Windows server virtual machine and start to separate roles. This may be unnecessary complex on your current environement, but since you obvioulsly don't upgrade the server often, it may be useful in the future and may avoid the expense of a further windows server license should necessity arise.
Edit: If you use the SBS2003 email server feature, be sure to evaluate the impact of the migration from in-house email to hosted service.