Minimum specs for server 2008 R2? File share/Print/DHCP server.

[dany2010]

Hi,

We are looking into introducing a few windows server 2008 r2 systems into our network to store files, share printers, and act as DHCP server.

We currently have a network built using a windows server so the only server function that will be needed is the DHCP and the ability to have more than 10 connections.

We have been look at the basic Dell servers and wondering if they would do the job.

When we were looking into FreeNAS we found that having over 8GB of ram improved speed greatly as it enabled pre fetching. Is there anything like this that we need to look for when purchasing a server for these functions?

Many thanks,

Dan.

[glennda]

Tower or Rack Mounted? If you are going with windows the Raid Controller is going to be the key part for serving files - but if you are only serving 10 machines most Raid Controllers should be able to cope.

[nephilim]

I would suggest raid 10

16gb RAM
Quad core xeon
2tb hdd
Dual 1GB NICs

Should serve you well for print, dhcp and file server

[glennda]

I would suggest raid 10

16gb RAM
Quad core xeon
2tb hdd
Dual 1GB NICs

Should serve you well for print, dhcp and file server

I would say a touch overkill if its for 10 or so connections

[nephilim]

you would be surprised, some print jobs may suck up a lot of ram. I had a server for 4 people with 8GB ram and identical for the rest, the ram was eaten mostly on print jobs!

[glennda]

you would be surprised, some print jobs may suck up a lot of ram. I had a server for 4 people with 8GB ram and identical for the rest, the ram was eaten mostly on print jobs!

I run 35 Printers off a Server 2008 R2 VM with 4Gb ram and they don't have any problems - depends on the drivers to be far as some are awful!

[nephilim]

indeed...all Konica Minoltas in that place, thats what did it!

[Michael]

As a rough guide:

2008 R2 Standard
Core 2 Duo CPU or better
4GB of memory or more
500GB or more disk space (RAIDed ideally)
1Gbps Ethernet, although may get away with 100Mbps. Depends on your needs.

This should be suitable for 10 more or users comfortably without breaking the bank.

[jamesfed]

How much storage you need is going to be the key part of this and also what kind of speed of storage you need - if its heavy graphics/3D work then time for some SAS goodness but if not stick with SATA drives.

Personaly it sounds like you are after simple like a HP ML110 G7, nice simple Intel Quad Core and 8GB RAM (8 is the new 4 in my world). Above all else I would say invest in something good for backup - by that I mean even a simple QNAP iSCSI box hooked into Windows Server backup.

[dany2010]

Thanks for all my replies,

At one site there could be up to 30-40 consecutive user accessing their documents and occasionally printing. Would the above figures still be ok with this load.

With Raid i have been looking at software raid that can be done with server 2008, would this cope with max 40 users?

We currently have a netgear NAS and a seperate print server so im hoping there will be no difference in speed. I understand that if someone is going to print a huge doc then it will slow down but would like to minimise this slow down.

The current NAS's will be used for media streaming so these machines will only be used for docs and pictures occasionally.
The server will be a tower.

DHCP isnt used much so traffic from that should be low.

Our current print server at one site has 1GB ram so i think i will monitor it tomorrow and see how it copes.

[nephilim]

My specs would be more than capable of coping with max of 40 people

[glennda]

I would say something along the lines of this HP ML150 G6 with an extra 6Gb ram (total 8 1 x 4gb 1 x 2gb) You can get away with Sata at that kind of load 2 x 2TB HDD's

Total from HP's site - £1761 which is probably £2/300 over what you should be paying - talk to @Millgate and i'm sure he can find it cheaper for you!

[SYSMAN_MK]

Or if you're on a budget then the Xeon based ML110s would be fine. Have 2 as DCs serving approx 120 clients / 500 users Just upgraded the memory to 8GB and added a couple of 2TB WD RE4 drives back when HDDs were cheap

[dany2010]

What would something with the specs below cope with?

Is the E3-1220 That much faster than the i3-540 processor. PassMark says around 3x in their cpu mark

Memory 4GB Memory, DDR3, 1333MHz (2x2GB Single Ranked LV UDIMMs)
Processor Intel Xeon E3-1220, 4C/4T, 3.10GHz, 8M Cache, 80W TDP, Turbo

Its a dell and looks similar to the HP. It comes to £349 which brings the total to around £525 per mahine with 2x 2tb HDD

Sorry, also forgot to say we are on a tight budget.

How would this compare to a terastation Nas box with file transfer speeds?

[glennda]

What hard disks are you buying at 2tb x 2 - i wouldn't use desktop Hard disks in a server (they may not support raid) and also reliability wise you may suffer.

Yes that looks a good price for that - if you are going dell have you looked at the Outlet site? they tend to have some really good ones on there which people have sent back. Nothing there at the moment though!

What raid card has the machine got? if you are looking at the Dell PowerEdge T110 II it doesn't have one.

Plus what are you going to do about OS?