New server advice please

[Jobos]

I'm looking at replacing one of our servers this term and would appreciate some advice please.

Current situation

Server A:
Dual Xeon 2.4 Ghz 3MB RAM running Server 2003
FSMO
DNS
DHCP
IIS
Exchange 2003 (clients use Outlook and OWA)
Sims .Net/FMS (4 users)
SQL 2005 full version
Main file server holding 93GB of data


Server B:
Dual Pentium 4 3Ghz 4 MB RAM running Server 2003
DNS
Print Server
WSUS
Anti Virus Server
Ghost Image file server

Both servers backup to NAS each night using NTBackup

Server A is now 6 years old so that's the one I'm looking at replacing. There are 160 XP machines in the domain but no Win 7 or Vista machines yet but that will change during the life of the new server.

I would like the new server to run Server 2008, Exchange 2010 and SQL 2008. What sort of spec will I need for that!

[SYNACK]

If it was me I'd be looking at something like a DL380 G6 with dual quad core xeon 5000 series CPUs (i7 based so 4cores+4hyperthreads each) an extra dual port NIC and as much RAM as you can afford (16GB should be safe initially) as both SQL and Exchange love their RAM. Hope you mean 2008 R2 server also.

If your storage is not catered for by a SAN I would be looking at getting the battery backed cache module for the embedded RAID and running SAS drives in either RAID5 or 6.

[Jobos]

If it was me I'd be looking at something like a DL380 G6 with dual quad core xeon 5000 series CPUs (i7 based so 4cores+4hyperthreads each) an extra dual port NIC and as much RAM as you can afford (16GB should be safe initially) as both SQL and Exchange love their RAM. Hope you mean 2008 R2 server also.

If your storage is not catered for by a SAN I would be looking at getting the battery backed cache module for the embedded RAID and running SAS drives in either RAID5 or 6.

Right, thanks for that. What about backing up as I understand server 2008 doesn't use NTBackup in the same way as 2003 did. Should I go for a 3rd party tool like Backup Exec?

[FN-GM]

Right, thanks for that. What about backing up as I understand server 2008 doesn't use NTBackup in the same way as 2003 did. Should I go for a 3rd party tool like Backup Exec?

Yer i would look for something like Backup Exec. Are you planning on using Server 2008 R2 as Backup exec isnt out for it yet.

PS: only 3 & 4 mb of ram in your current servers. god they are one

[Edu-IT]

Yer i would look for something like Backup Exec. Are you planning on using Server 2008 R2 as Backup exec isnt out for it yet.

PS: only 3 & 4 mb of ram in your current servers. god they are one

It's out tomorrow. (BackupExec 2010)

[Jobos]

Yer i would look for something like Backup Exec. Are you planning on using Server 2008 R2 as Backup exec isnt out for it yet.

PS: only 3 & 4 mb of ram in your current servers. god they are one

There seems to be one problem after another with this project! This software doesn't work with that software... that software has problems with with software. I've held off replacing this server for 9 months because of the problems with server 2008 and exchange and now if I go with 2008 r2 I won't be able to back it up and that's not even counting the extra cost of Backup Exec as NTBackup was free and with a little help from vbs did the job quite nicely.

Any dates of when the new version of Backup Exec is released?

[Edu-IT]

There seems to be one problem after another with this project! This software doesn't work with that software... that software has problems with with software. I've held off replacing this server for 9 months because of the problems with server 2008 and exchange and now if I go with 2008 r2 I won't be able to back it up and that's not even counting the extra cost of Backup Exec as NTBackup was free and with a little help from vbs did the job quite nicely.

Any dates of when the new version of Backup Exec is released?

As per my previous post it's out in the US tomorrow. Can't find it on the UK site yet.

http://www.symantec.com/business/bac...indows-servers

[Jobos]

As per my previous post it's out in the US tomorrow. Can't find it on the UK site yet.

Data Protection, Data Restore | Symantec Backup Exec for Windows Servers

Is this it ?

Symantec Backup Exec 2010 for Windows Servers | Symantec | Products | ... discounted software for education establishments

[FN-GM]

Is this it ?

Symantec Backup Exec 2010 for Windows Servers | Symantec | Products | ... discounted software for education establishments

That is the one indeed

[Jobos]

That is the one indeed

Thanks. Is £500 a good price for that as I wasn't banking on spending that much?

[FN-GM]

In all honesty i dont really know. I have never done the buying for it, someone else always dealt with it. I know it doesn't come cheap. It is a good bit of software though.

[Jobos]

I'm a bit unsure of Backup Exec as I've never used it before and there's a shed load of requirements listed for it which is confusing me so would it backup the server data and Exchange database to NAS OK as there's no tape drive fitted on the new server?