New Server Question

[NewBoy]

Hi Guys,

 

I am new to the forum so please be gentle :-)

 

I have been thrown in the deep end a little and have been tasked with replacing a server at a mid size primary school,

they currently are running a single 2008 R2 server with the usual roles, AD, DHCP, DNS etc.

 

What's my best options to replace the server with a new one running Server 2012, as I am not sure what the previous support company did

to the server I am tempted to just rip it out and replace it with the new one, different name and IP etc, I realise I would have to go round each PC and laptop

and join them to the new domain etc. But would I have to dcpromo the old domain or could I just take it out as all users etc would be re-created ??

 

 

The other option is obviously to join as a member server promote to DC to allow replication of AD then import DHCP and DNS (although would I still have to transfer the FMSO roles) ??? then dcpromo the old DC down ???

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated as I would like this to go as smoothly as possible :-)

[altecsole]

If it's currently the only server I'd keep it as a backup DC. There's no need to join workstations to a new Domain.

[twin--turbo]

look at going virtual its free to do on VMware and Citrix.

 

You will get a lot more out of the hardware that way and avoid future hardware upgrade problems.

 

TT

[DJ-1701]

look at going virtual its free to do on VMware and Citrix.

 

Citrix? Do you mean Hyper-V Server?

[Mr_Jiminy]

Have you got a approximated expenditure for this project? It would help a great deal to know this before hand.

 

Also, sounds like the existing server is an 'all eggs in one basket' set-up, so I'm guessing this includes files?

Edited January 18, 2016 by Mr_Jiminy

[twin--turbo]

Citrix? Do you mean Hyper-V Server?

 

Er, no I mean Citrix.

 

Personaly I would run vMware (actualy my home servers are on vMware) , but Citrix is free too.

 

TT

[DJ-1701]

Citrix is free too.

 

Interesting , I must be behind the times then.

[twin--turbo]

IIRC its been free for many many years as a Hypervisor, They made a change a couple of years back to make it more free.

 

We run our xenapp farms ( 25 servers on five hosts at HQ, 20 servers on 4 hosts at DR) on Xenserver supporting 500 thin sessions when running at HQ.

 

 

At home my little quad core desktop is on ancient VMware 4, it runs my old SLES server, sophos UTM, XP test desktop, Media server and 2nd file server...

 

I cant imagine living without virtual servers. Or work cabs would have 100 servers rather than 10. TT I can clone live to test easily, add/remove disks/ram/cpu . virtual networking is fantastic in vmware too.

 

TT

[NewBoy]

Thanks for the replies guys, no idea about budget as it's the school paying for it so more than likely going to be as little as possible im afraid, will no a little more on that one this afternoon. As for VM I'm afraid thats out the question as well as the boss doesn't want them, I have tried explaining the case but i dont think hes interested.

[twin--turbo]

Thanks for the replies guys, no idea about budget as it's the school paying for it so more than likely going to be as little as possible im afraid, will no a little more on that one this afternoon. As for VM I'm afraid thats out the question as well as the boss doesn't want them, I have tried explaining the case but i dont think hes interested.

 

We keep getting flyres for a company called serversource, they seem to have some outstanding deals on new Dell servers. Never used them and in our place the Mgmt are averse to buying from anyone but their normal channels so not likly to although we could save over 50% on our costs .

 

Is the Boss technicaly adept? whats his reasons for saying NO? I can't think of a good reason not to use it.

 

TT

[NewBoy]

Not really sure to be honest TT he just said virtualisation was not an option, cant understand it myself to be honest. I am really considering flattening everything and creating a new domain though (in effect starting again) as apparantly 3 support companies have had there hands on this server so dont want to spend all my time fire fighting what they have done.

[Steve21]

Only my personal opinion, but if you're in a position (like job wise) to spec and replace the entire domain, you're in the position to "tell" (Note forcefully put) the reasons that VM are the way to go. Whether it's the head or business manager or what not, if there's a valid case put forward to do it they still need to provide an adequate reason not to as they're accountable to higher powers too

 

No point in replacing the whole network with something that's out of date as such.

 

Steve

[IanT]

Virtual is the way to go, we run Hyper-V at 40 of are academies and in the center.

 

Server wise - depending on budget we have always been a HP ProLiant house but more recently we have just started getting in Lenovo ThinkServer Servers, alot cheaper than HP for the same spec!

[dapaulio]

I cant understand why anyone with half a brain cell would vote against virtualisation.

Tell him/her that you would be doing your part in saving the planet by reducing the carbon footprint. Management love that 🌲🌲🌲

 

I have in my secondary school 3 hp dl380 hv servers hosting 15 servers. 2 physical dc a san, couple switches and a ups in my rack. Think how full my cab would be if I had 15 additional physical servers.

 

Definitely saves money in the long run.

 

Primary schools we often set up a single hv server full of ram and the largest disks

Edited January 24, 2016 by dapaulio