localzuk Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 So, I'm thinking ahead again here. We're soon to be taking on the IT for 3 other schools. All those schools are on the LEA WAN, with fibre between them all (not sure of speeds yet - based on school size, I would guess one site (2 schools) has a 100Mbit line, but the other would have a 10Mbit at most). The plan is to manage everything from here - to make the sites OUs within our domain, with an AD server on-site at each site, along with an SCCM DP at each - on the same physical box. The sites would also have local storage of some form - they're not gonna have a lot of data, but they will want to be able to access reasonably quickly - a 10Mbit line just isn't gonna be good enough for transferring files on the fly. So, what do people think in terms of the server for the job on each site? One site has about 30 users altogether, the other around 220.
localzuk Posted February 2, 2015 Author Posted February 2, 2015 I'm wondering if an HP MicroServer would be up to the job...
localzuk Posted February 2, 2015 Author Posted February 2, 2015 Well, we don't have one as yet. I'm going by functionality rather than cost. That said, I want it to be quite cheap - as saving some money is kinda part of this process.
3s-gtech Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 Microserver or one of ICT Direct's deals. Spec the Microserver up with as many quality drives as possible, plus a couple of SSDs shoehorned in for the OS. Be fine for DC and storage - no idea if it's up to SCCM workloads. You can use things like DFS-R with the flexible bandwidth capability that it has to help.
Kamran7860 Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 How about these: Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 4GB Xeon E3-1225 v3 3.2GHz Tower Server - Ebuyer
localzuk Posted February 2, 2015 Author Posted February 2, 2015 I'm more questioning what sort of spec I should be going for. Would 4GB RAM be enough, considering SCCM can't run on a box with AD, so it'll end up being a virtual machine atop whatever box we put in (as well the other functions to be honest)?
3s-gtech Posted February 2, 2015 Posted February 2, 2015 If virtualising you'll need to consider how many services/VMs you'll need. I'd say that 4GB of RAM won't be enough total - but 8GB might be. A DC should work with 2GB, then maybe 4GB for SCCM and 2GB left for the hypervisor.
localzuk Posted February 2, 2015 Author Posted February 2, 2015 I'm thinking that due to the size of the sites, 2 VMs is where we'll end up - 1 DC/Print/Storage/Random stuff and 1 SCCM DP. There may also be SIMS, but I would probably make that a central service hosted here on our full sized infrastructure and then have it accessed via RDS.
nathan Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 I'm looking (very early stages in planning) at something similar for our trust other than the master server will be centrally located at our ISP's datacentre. Will feed back anything i find into this thread.
Michael Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 It seems a relatively simple setup - a single server in each building, configured as a RODC, with a few virtual instances as required. Memory is cheap, so I'm confident you can easily budget for 8-16GB, even if it only comes with 4GB as standard. I suppose the other consideration is a backup solution. Try and avoid backing up over your WAN links whenever possible.
Davit2005 Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 If your sticking VMWare 5.5 on the Lenovo then be aware you may need customize with a driver for the NIC. It's not too difficult, I made one for a MAC Mini which seemed to work OK. Found this because I am thinking of moving away from HP for home servers due to the Support issues. VMware ESXi 5.5.0 on Lenovo TS140 fix for buit in network card - Virtualization - HomeServerShow Forums
localzuk Posted February 5, 2015 Author Posted February 5, 2015 Try and avoid backing up over your WAN links whenever possible. Hmm... Why? It won't be used at all overnight normally.
Michael Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 Hmm... Why? It won't be used at all overnight normally. I guess (talking from experience) backing up over night is fine, but then if you're forced to restore, you're more than likely going to do that during the day when the link (depending how fast it is), could be busy with other traffic.
localzuk Posted February 5, 2015 Author Posted February 5, 2015 I see what you mean, thing is, if the data is big enough that it'd cause such a problem, the other sites are only a short drive away, so restoration would be a case of visiting the site and copying to a removable disk or something like that.
Michael Posted February 5, 2015 Posted February 5, 2015 I see what you mean, thing is, if the data is big enough that it'd cause such a problem, the other sites are only a short drive away, so restoration would be a case of visiting the site and copying to a removable disk or something like that. That's very true, plus for 30 users it shouldn't be enormous (he says)
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