Re: Server Upgrade

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Regards,
Hank Arnold
Microsoft MVP
Windows Server - Directory Services

KenM wrote:
I'm replacing a Dell poweredge sc420 that I have used for a server for the past year and a half. I don't have a lot of experience with servers, the SC420 was my first attempt at running SBS2003. I want to make sure that I'm purchasing something that will give me much better performance as well as reliability. My old machine has 2 80gb sata drives on a raid 1. Here is a description of the new machine.
It's a poweredge 2900 with a Quad Core Xeon Processor E53352x4MB Cache, 2.0GHz, 1333MHz FSB, I chose 4GB 667MHz (4X1GB), Dual Ranked Fully Buffered DIMMs vs 8x512. I don't know if I was better off with the single ranked 512 or the dual ranked 1gb. I chose a Integrated SAS/SATA RAID 5 PERC 5/i Integrated. I got 3 - 73GB 15K RPM Serial-Attach SCSI 3Gbps 3.5-in HotPlug HardDrives. I will be running Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 R2 with SP2 Standard Edition. For a NIC I got Embedded Broadcom NetXtreme II5708 GigabitEthernet NIC. I had them put a cd-rw/dvd drive in it. Also getting Redundant Power Supply with Dual Cords for PowerEdge 2900. For backup I will be getting RD1000, Ext USB Drive with bundled SW, and 3- Removable Hard Disk Cartridge for RD1000, 80GB Native/ 160GB Comp. Also purchased Symantec Backup Exec v11d Small Business Server Suite.

I would suggest that you make sure that you have the external tape drive on a separate SCSI card from the RAID. We have a file server that has a RAID card with two external ports. One is attached to a PowerVault storage box and the other was attached to an HP tape drove. Worked great for about a year. However, over a s month period, we lost a RAID array. We were lucky and able to rebuild it w/o losing any data. The second time, the Dell tech suggested that having the tape drive on the same adapter as the RAID array was causing timing problems tat messed up the array. We bought another SCSI (non-RAID) adapter and it's been clean ever since.


Now is this a good setup? My network consists of 4 client computers running XP pro, and 3 network printers. All clients access the internet. We also connect to our computers from home using remote access. I plan on adding 2 more clients eventually, but won't ever really need much more. We run Quickbooks in multiuser environment, UPS Worldship, and we use Outlook Office for shared contact list, calendar, etc. Will this be much faster than my old machine which was a Pentium 4.

Also, Dell sets the entire thing up on one partition. In the past I had reconfigured (reinstalled) everything to put operating system on C: partition, Data for exchange & fax & other shared files on D: partition, and other program files like outlook, and client apps on e: partition. I know nothing about how raid 5 works. I just finally figured out raid 1. should I leave it the way it comes for now, or would I be better off starting over when I get it and reinstalling? Will it work the same as raid 1? In the past I created array ( build/clear it), then I install sbs, created partitions and then completed install with the above partitions.

RAID 5 uses 3 drives to give you the same storage as RAID 1 does with 2 drives. It will be slower, but has better recovery in the event of a single drive failure.

Ideally, you should have RAID 1 for the OS, RAID 1 for the log files and RAID 10 for the databases/data stores. That's a total of 8 drives. Each should be on their own RAID channel. That's a lot for a small operation, though.

Also, NIC. Do I want 1 or 2. I'm real confused about the way to go with this. I've been reading the community a lot and I get mixed things. And am I going to have problems with the NIC installed in that computer.

I always have 2 NICs in every server. I don't use teaming. I disable the second NIC and keep it as a backup in the event that the one in use fails (and yes, I've had NICs fail).


Any advise is appreciated.

Thanks, Ken
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