How much to setup SIMS server?

[themanfromict]

How much would it cost to setup a SIMS server in a small (60 pupil) school?

We current host SIMS with Capita, as the school never had full time IT bod. Now that we do I'm keen to work out how cost effective it would be to move SIMS on-site.

Any ideas?

Neil

[EduTech]

I suppose really all you would need to purchase is a decent server that could run SIMS, if you have it hosted off site i am guessing that all you will need to do is get the installation from capita so you can install it on your internal server and then they just need to get the database to you so you can attach it.

Do you have any servers at the moment that could run SIMS?

Edit: Just to note, and didn't think about it at the time.. but yes some of our primary schools run SIMS on a Standalone Machine and it works well so by what i said above ^ think i mean go and buy some powerful beast

ICT Direct have some great servers and for very little cost :-)

James.

[FN-GM]

For 60 kids it might just be worth sticking it on a desktop machine that has decent RAM in it.

[synaesthesia]

A few of my smaller primary's (up to 100 children) just run sims on a single standalone station with 1gb of ram. Works fine - if you'd like it on more than one machine, you can pick up one of those HP proliant servers for £250 quid, fill it with 4gb of ram for pennies and you've a decent all round server for very little. Installation of SIMS itself is a breeze when you've got the setups, it's the requirements you need to check for (.net framework, sql etc) that take a bit of time. Give someone from Capita a call, first to ask how much it'd cost for them to do it for you, then/instead to ask how you'd go about getting the relevant installation media and cost etc. Can't hurt to ask even if it's just getting you a comparison price.

[sparkeh]

How many clients are going to be access the data? In a school that size I should imagine there aren't going to be many.

When we only had a few clients we ran it off the secretary's desktop machine without any issues (as per FN-GM's suggestion)

[t_h]

We run ours fine on a pretty standard Core 2 HP workstation with 2GB RAM. Those cheap ProLiants would be more than capable. Personally I would add another GB of RAM and another HD in RAID1 to those ProLiant boxes and you'd have a nice little server.

Question is, how much do you want another box to look after and create a backup routine for? At least with it being hosted at the moment it is one less thing for you to worry about. I'm trying to get servers out of my office, not in!

[themanfromict]

One of the main reasons I'm looking into moving SIMS into the the school is due to Capita's support. I spoke to Capita on Friday about running the LP+ import tool, which I needed to run over the weekend. Told they could give me an answer NEXT TUESDAY.

We currently have no servers on site. Everything is ran standalone. I'm basically trying to write a list of reasons to justify a server to the bursar. Eg. We could host SIMS, saving money. Backups from one machine, instead of ten. Central file depository. Basically anything that saves me time and money (in the long run).

[themanfromict]

The schools current backup routine is everything is copied to my pc, killing the network, and then synced to 1 usb drive weekly. Daily can't be done as I have 400gb of data. Gah!

[EduTech]

If anything you main priority should be to get at least a central server that can manage all your user accounts and storage.. and maybe a small NAS to backup to.

Once you have one server looking after the core roles, then look at getting your SIMS Server hosted internally, your main priority i think would be getting the main roles sorted.. so it does not have to be done via your machine. that just is not practical!

James.

[t_h]

Agree with the above to be honest. As you only have a small amount of users you would probably get away with one machine running both domain controller and file server roles. If you have the money for a server and a NAS then you'll have a much better setup than you have currently. Many NAS devices have the option to back up to USB which means you won't be flooding the network and it will be much more convenient for yourself.

The prospect of losing up to a weeks worth of work alone should be enough to justify spending a few hundred quid to improve the setup.

[GrumbleDook]

@themanfromict
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[vikpaw]

Sounds like you need to get yourself a decent server to solve a number of issues.
Price up one of those. See how much Capita will charge you to hand over your data.
Then you've got all the free tech support you need right here :O)