adamholt1 Posted March 22, 2016 Posted March 22, 2016 Hi, Been asked to spec a server for a average sized primary school. How would you spec this server? Processor? Ram? Don't want to go majorly overkill but do want enough power and 'futureproof' in the box for it to last. Are you able to recommend a server? Preferably a tower server due to the location! Many thanks
adamholt1 Posted March 22, 2016 Author Posted March 22, 2016 What does the server need to do? Size of school? Size of school. Approx 400 kids and to act as the primary domain controller of the network so everything really. Possibly run a few VM's of HyperV too
rom1984 Posted March 22, 2016 Posted March 22, 2016 At one of my primary schools which is about 450 students we have the following... "Main Server"... 2 x Intel Xeon CPU E5-2609 2.5Ghz 16GB RAM Server 2012 R2 200gb (RAID 1) for os and hypervisors 2TB data storage (of which 500gb is used) RAID 10 We have the following VM servers on that physical server.... DC01 (DHCP, DNS, ADDS) file server help desk (Linux) Foldr (Linux machine for external access of file server) Win 8 test machine Event Viewer consistently shows it uses about 50% of the memory and for CPU performance rarely goes about 10%. If I could go back the CPU is overkill for what I need. We have another secondary server that has he following spec Intel Xeon E5620 @ 2.4ghz (single) 8gb RAM Server 2012 250gb drive On this we have dc02 RDP server (4 people use for external Sims access) Event Viewer normally shows it uses about 80% memory and CPU can go upto 15-20%. 1
sted Posted March 22, 2016 Posted March 22, 2016 you going to be running physical or virtual? how many vms? or the flip answer 1
adamholt1 Posted March 22, 2016 Author Posted March 22, 2016 At one of my primary schools which is about 450 students we have the following... "Main Server"... 2 x Intel Xeon CPU E5-2609 2.5Ghz 16GB RAM Server 2012 R2 200gb (RAID 1) for os and hypervisors 2TB data storage (of which 500gb is used) RAID 10 We have the following VM servers on that physical server.... DC01 (DHCP, DNS, ADDS) file server help desk (Linux) Foldr (Linux machine for external access of file server) Win 8 test machine Event Viewer consistently shows it uses about 50% of the memory and for CPU performance rarely goes about 10%. If I could go back the CPU is overkill for what I need. We have another secondary server that has he following spec Intel Xeon E5620 @ 2.4ghz (single) 8gb RAM Server 2012 250gb drive On this we have dc02 RDP server (4 people use for external Sims access) Event Viewer normally shows it uses about 80% memory and CPU can go upto 15-20%. Great - along the lines of what i was thinking. What make and model do you tend to go for? Also what sort of price does this fall into? Thanks
adamholt1 Posted March 22, 2016 Author Posted March 22, 2016 you going to be running physical or virtual? how many vms? or the flip answer [ATTACH=CONFIG]35809[/ATTACH] Physical - Virtualisation only a maybe if so can't imagine been more than 1, absolute maximum of 2 virtual machines.
LeMarchand Posted March 22, 2016 Posted March 22, 2016 Physical - Virtualisation only a maybe if so can't imagine been more than 1, absolute maximum of 2 virtual machines. 2 out of the 3 Primaries I cover are both 1 host, multiple VMs (the other one will be at the next upgrade). I know that most folks will recommend a physical DC, but try selling 2 servers to a Primary head! A bit of compartmentalisation makes it much easier to reboot a (virtual) server if necessary. In the "1 physical" site today, but will try to check the specs at my main site tomorrow. (The other site was installed before my time and I'm still trying to work my head around some of its idiosyncrasies). TL;dr: I'd definitely consider more virtualisation.
sparkeh Posted March 22, 2016 Posted March 22, 2016 Primary with 600 pupils and about 100 staff. HP ProLiant ML350 Gen9 x1 Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2620 v3 @ 2.40GHz 32GB RAM x2 300GB HDD for OS and VMs (RAID 1) x4 1.2TB HDD for Storage (RAID 6) This runs the following VMs DC 1 - PDC, DHCP (primary), DNS DC 2 - DHCP (secondary), DNS, printers, KMS File server Direct Access server I would always run with x2 DC so you know its replicated somewhere. Unfortunately our second server (HP ML 350 Gen5) died last week which could do with replacing to add the extra redundancy back in). Edit: Virtualise! 1
mikkydoos Posted March 22, 2016 Posted March 22, 2016 you going to be running physical or virtual? how many vms? or the flip answer [ATTACH=CONFIG]35809[/ATTACH] Hope you know where the keys are for those Dells are @sted - - - Updated - - - Primary with 600 pupils and about 100 staff. HP ProLiant ML350 Gen9 x1 Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2620 v3 @ 2.40GHz 32GB RAM x2 300GB HDD for OS and VMs (RAID 1) x4 1.2TB HDD for Storage (RAID 6) This runs the following VMs DC 1 - PDC, DHCP (primary), DNS DC 2 - DHCP (secondary), DNS, printers, KMS File server Direct Access server I would always run with x2 DC so you know its replicated somewhere. Unfortunately our second server (HP ML 350 Gen5) died last week which could do with replacing to add the extra redundancy back in). Edit: Virtualise! Same as this here but with more RAM and a physical 2nd DC and file server.
SHimmer45 Posted March 22, 2016 Posted March 22, 2016 a server which is running as just a dc in a small environment can be very cheap if you wanted one alongside a more beefy machine for running everything else
rom1984 Posted March 23, 2016 Posted March 23, 2016 We paid £2,900 from Broadberry.co.uk which included a 3year on-site warranty. I'm not sure how much the other one was as it was already here when I arrived.
witch Posted March 23, 2016 Posted March 23, 2016 Primary with 600 pupils and about 100 staff. HP ProLiant ML350 Gen9 x1 Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2620 v3 @ 2.40GHz 32GB RAM x2 300GB HDD for OS and VMs (RAID 1) x4 1.2TB HDD for Storage (RAID 6) This is almost exactly what I have in my 350 pupil junior school. We run no VMs and no other servers. The only issue I have had is that it gets quite hot and we had to move it into the IT suite where there is air con
mattpayne Posted March 23, 2016 Posted March 23, 2016 physical or virtual, there should be no question on this one! always virtual... makes backups and migrations and DR so much simpler...not much complexity in it and the server 2012 licence allows for 2 servers plus host so you win a free server! allows room to migrate MIS, run Direct Access, and just play with extra servers, workstations and stuff. again, DR is my main reason for never going physical again - with a site without any failover, like a primary, using Veeam I can repurpose any available hardware and have the network back in 30 minutes. my last new midsize primary (400) was last year so guideline spec... Dell T630 2 12core Xeon 64GB RAM the faster RAID card with more cache to make up for RAID5 HDD is flexible, but I've been going 4x600GB sas RDX Veeam for about £4k my bigger schools get less RAID6 and NLSAS for data storage
LeMarchand Posted March 23, 2016 Posted March 23, 2016 OK, the server at my main site 330 odd kids, 40 odd staff: Dell PowerEdge T620 w. 3 Yr NBD 2x Intel Xeon E5-2609 v2 @ 2.50 GHz (Possibly overkill) 32 GB RAM 4x2TB RAID 5 (Probably didn't need this much space!) £3.1k Runs as VMs: DC-01 - Domain controller, AD/DNS/DHCP etc DC-02 - Duplicates functions of DC1 + SIMS and School Cash Office etc FP-01 - File & print server MGMT-01 - KMS, WDS, VAMT etc Minecraft Server - Currently switched off due to angry kids, was on W8.1(?) Also various VMs that get turned on when needed for image creation and messing with older GPOs Use VEEAM to back up to external disks.
sted Posted March 23, 2016 Posted March 23, 2016 Hope you know where the keys are for those Dells are @sted well theres one in each frontplate just about visible one in my pocket and i diddnt take them off to put my glasses there lol. What i did manage while cleaning is to knock the ruckus power cable enough that when i put the kb/mouse away it pulled it out and had to go back after i got an email as i was literally unlocking my front door as to spec im currently setting up a dell poweredge t430 as other have said these days id install 2012r2 s a hyperv base then run a pair (or more depends on lics) of vms if nothing else when you need to reboot them its tonnes faster
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