speckytecky Posted March 4, 2016 Posted March 4, 2016 We currently have a 7 year old tower server as fileserver, DC and most other roles on a 2008 Domain, with SIMS on another tower server a remote desktop tower and a Mini Mac Server. We have SWGfL FTTC (giving download 30.90 MBPS Upload 9.8 MBPS), Sophos, Impero, the current Adobe CS6 FTE based agreement that's currently in dispute and Microsoft FTE licensing for Office etc. The Domain is NT legacy that's been migrated several times now and has lumpy bits in it! Fiber runs between various rooms but far from all. Decent Ruckus Wireless across our small site. An eclectic bunch of switches the best being 2 HP Proliants. Workstations are all running windows 7 Pro, some being 32 bit because they are so old (8 year old Fujitsus and a few 5 year old laptops). We are a small EDB Special School and our lads currently are very prone to breaking kit; especially laptops. We are looking at developing and implementing a new Strategic IT Plan. Obviously mindful of budgets a rolling plan. What to go for? Server 2012 R2 and virtualisation for sure but we are looking for advice and quotes on all other aspects - perhaps a clean fresh domain rather than a further migration, review of connectivity to all classrooms, Cloud based storage / backup and SIMS. Which would almost certainly need faster Broadband and with that I guess in-house Filtering - Smoothwall? About the only thing we don't need to change is Ruckus!
ass17 Posted March 4, 2016 Posted March 4, 2016 May not be the best approach but it works for us is: Two SANs, one replicating to the other for backup purposes via Veeam. Have 9 VMware host servers pulling the VMs from the SAN. 4GB trunk to the SANs. You need a core layer 3 switch, and each switch siting on the edge needs to support minimum gigabit to clients and provides PoE for IP phones and wifi APs. I would defo start a fresh with server 2012r2 on each server. Because your going VM I would also breakup some of your services so there is minimal downtime. Two DC's for failover purposes. Keep your user home folders on a separate server, print server separate, web server separate, MIS server separate, applications server separate, terminal server separate, mail server separate, wsus/sccm server separate, two smoothwalls for failover because you will become heavily reliant on all things internet in the future. Our internet is 100mb and we wouldn't consider anything less. Especially if you will go cloud services in years to come. Other people will offer other solutions so I'm sure in time you can build a good picture of what you need. You can't build a network if you don't know what you are going to serve!! Speak to management to find out their visions/plans because they really should involve IT one way or another... 1
nicholab Posted March 5, 2016 Posted March 5, 2016 (edited) You can use a software like datacore sansymphony in HA mode with 2 boxes to do your SAN. Also products like dell vrtx or hyperconverged solutions (san less) or ms cluster in a box are all options. Edited March 5, 2016 by nicholab 1
speckytecky Posted March 5, 2016 Author Posted March 5, 2016 Was there more than the one word intended in this response? Subscribe
speckytecky Posted March 7, 2016 Author Posted March 7, 2016 Thanks for the useful replies so far. Any more suggestions on this one please folks? I was rather hoping that some suppliers might start nibbling - Smoothie etc perhaps?
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