Server

[wesleyw]

We are looking to upgrade our current infrastructure in the school.

 

Adding wireless coverage (I know, a shock we don't already have it! lol).

 

Upgrading the servers -> Only 250 Clients at present soon another 60 odd workstations will be added. Suggestions? I'm looking into the blade SAN external backup

 

Removing our RM Connect 3 network -> Moving to Windows 2003.

 

Fibre Optic Backbone between all switches and 1 GB copper on the Servers.

 

Any Suggestions or Comments? Problems with moving to Windows 2003 from and RM network have you suffered anythign I should be made aware of?

 

Wireless problems? (Its a 1960's school)

 

Thanks

 

Wes

[Dos_Box]

Re the buildings age, you may fins that in a metal framed building that wireless coverage is strangely erratic beyond the boundarys of a single room. Are you planning to use wireless as a main means of running your LAN? If you I will beg you to re-consider. The technology is not quite good enough yet and the way Windows activates wireless connections means that you may not be able to logon at times.

[MkII]

My school is Circa 1960 and wireless is a nightmare. The signal will not travel through walls at all, even line of sight through windows is poor.

 

I'd strongly recommend getting an AP to try around the place first.

[DMcCoy]

I have to work with a '70s building. Reinforced concrete floors, ceilings and a steel frame. Fun

 

Virtually no wifi atm

[webman]

I'd only recommend wireless access for portable laptop stations - it's (as already said) nowhere near good enough as Cat5e@ 100Mbit. Try and visualise your WAP as a single port on a switch. It's a shared medium, and once you get many clients connected to one AP logging on & off etc it can soon slow right down. Web browsing will generally be OK though. Even still, several (2-3) APs for one set of laptops (20-30) is still a good idea. Also do real-world test with a single AP to get an idea of the actual range you will get. External antennas can help in some situations but not always.

[wesleyw]

Yeah we had a couple of companies come in and do a survey doesn't seem to be too bad for signal but I can understand your concerns especially if we're running 30 laptops from the same point 54mbps/30 not good really and thats only if they're lucky probably be more like 11mbps/30 or even 1mbps/30

 

As for the servers I've read that some of you lucky buggers have got blade servers and 10 SUN 1U servers and SAN what sort of cost where they and where from I want some lol.

 

 

Wes

[Ric_]

@wesleyw: that reminds me... need to post the new server room pics

 

A Sun dual Opteron 244 with 2GB RAM and 2x 73GB hard disk was just over £2K and the EMC AX-100 with 3x 160GB disks was just over £2400. The APC SmartUPS (7500VA with extra battery) was just over £2500.

 

Blades have their uses but with the new dual core Opteron boxes that contain 4 cores in 1u, you'll be hard pushed to find the need for increased processor density.

[tarquel]

Failing that - HP Proliant Xeon based servers are the bomb lol :D

 

well...serving me good so far

 

*touches as much wood as he can find*

 

PS should we move this to Networks or Hardware, as its a bit techie for General Chat? hehe

 

Cheers

Nath

[wesleyw]

Sorry Ric I'll have to post them ASAP.

 

Sounds like a good setup to me buying a few of those servers would be a very good idea me thinks!

 

If the forum admin would like to move this thread I have no objections!

 

Wes

[wesleyw]

@Ric_ How many Servers have you got running through the UPS?

 

If I were to say buy three of the SUNs and SAN and that UPS would they be able to have time for a decent shutdown?

 

What backup hardware and software are you using for them? Veritas or ArcServe (Sorry name has probably changed since then erm.. BrightStor?)

 

Autoloader AIT2/3/4 LTO/2?

 

I've used Retrospect a little but Veritas has more functionality and Veritas 99% of the time has drivers for any backup unit you can buy!

[Ric_]

I have 10 of the Sun servers, a Dell Powerdge, Fujitsu Siemens Dual Xeon and a Celeron box plus the tape library, SAN and switch running through the UPS. The UPS reckons it will run for upto an hour on battery!

 

Use the calculator on the APC website to calculate your requirement - be warned, my UPS is that big I had to have a 50A feed brought in from the main consumer unit on the other side of the school!

[wesleyw]

You utter B*#@[D! What a setup! I really wish I could afford that lol not sure the school would go for a £30K setup though! Not enough clients for a start, oh well The server room I believe has a 125A feed going into it with 2 x 16A rings for the Techs and 2 x 32A for the servers, should be okay to change that I believe and allow for the big UPS. Another 5 - 7 years and the school gets demonlished anyway then we can start afresh! I'm really looking forward to that (Only fi I'm still here of course, I can hear the sounds of industry calling me away again.......)

 

If you had a completely blank slate to build a school what would you make sure of?

[DMcCoy]

You utter B*#@[D! What a setup! I really wish I could afford that lol not sure the school would go for a £30K setup though! Not enough clients for a start, oh well The server room I believe has a 125A feed going into it with 2 x 16A rings for the Techs and 2 x 32A for the servers, should be okay to change that I believe and allow for the big UPS. Another 5 - 7 years and the school gets demonlished anyway then we can start afresh! I'm really looking forward to that (Only fi I'm still here of course, I can hear the sounds of industry calling me away again.......)

 

If you had a completely blank slate to build a school what would you make sure of?

 

Oh dear, I'm going to keep quiet about mine then

 

I've only got 100A 3 phase though

 

I have air con on 2 phases and the power distribution unit for the servers in on one, with the ups being on another phase. The ups has to be hardwired, but we decided that it would be ok with iec connector wired into the ups, that way I can unplug it still and have a secure connection.

[wesleyw]

Sounds like a good idea I'll have to have a chat with the electrians about this I think!

 

@DMcCoy

 

Go on then spoil my Christmas what setup have you got?

 

Wes

[woody]

We have just had a professional wireless system installed by a company called Madge. We are planning to use it for teacher's laptops so they can register electronically. I am expecting big problems from January onwards when we start using it across the school. We have already been having problems with inconsitant connections / applying of group policy etc etc.

 

I will let you know how it goes!

[DMcCoy]

Sounds like a good idea I'll have to have a chat with the electrians about this I think!

 

@DMcCoy

 

Go on then spoil my Christmas what setup have you got?

 

Wes

 

Dell Blade Center

6 1855 Blades. Blades are: Dual Xeon 3.0, 4GB Ram, Dual Intel 1000 server NIC, 2 36GB SCSI drives (RAID 1), Dual Port Qlogic 2300 HBA

VMWare ESX 2.5.2

 

2 Brocade Silkworm 3250 SAN switches

 

1 Dell 1850 (For Virtual Center and Backup Exec)

 

1 Dell PVT-132T 20 tape library with single LTO2 installed

 

1 APC Smart-UPS 5000VA RM 5U 230V

 

Dell KVM and Rackmount screen (with blue light )

 

1 EMC CX300 with 15 146GB 10k rpm fibre channel drives and 2GB ram.

 

And a Rack to keep it all in.

 

 

 

Seems I am out of fashion though, no dual core, no SATA

[wesleyw]

@ Mark

 

Lesson Monitor from Capita?

 

Just don't use PDAs for it!

 

Nothing but problems my brother has been banging his head against a brick wall trying to get them to work but the PDAs are rubbish laptops seem okay with it though so you should be fine!

 

Wes