Server Suppliers

[glastotech]

Guys,

 

Am in a slight pickle here at our school, our servers our getting near the end of their workable life and am looking at being able to reduce and replace the current configuration we have. The supplier i used to use is also no longer around.

 

Does anyone have any recommonendations for suppliers who also help with the installation and setup, my school is based in the south west.

 

Thanks in advance

[pmassingham]

Whoever you pick, make sure you consider virtualisation. We have 14 VMware servers on 5 blades (3 Tb mirrored SANs). Been running for 2 years - what a time saver!

[dhicks]

Does anyone have any recommonendations for suppliers who also help with the installation and setup, my school is based in the south west.

 

SCL - this forum's sponsors - should fit the bill nicely. Look in the "New Suite" thread for us all saying how great they are. They supplied a couple of server machines for us as well and I've found their technical knowledge to be very good for a hardware vendor. We've had cheap servers off Dell in the past, too, and they've been very good bits of hardware, but "support" consists of a bunch of clueless people saying random stuff - fine when all you want is cheap hardware, but rather a palaver if you want someone to help figure out what switch hardware you need.

 

I'd second the virtualisation idea - I run all our servers as VMs so I can mirror them. I use Xen, which I've found to be very usable, although lots of other people on here seem to use VMWare.

 

--

David Hicks

[speckytecky]

 

I'd second the virtualisation idea - I run all our servers as VMs so I can mirror them. I use Xen, which I've found to be very usable, although lots of other people on here seem to use VMWare.

 

...

 

Going off thread a bit but any chance please of a pointer toward virtualisation and how to apply it in a school network?

[glastotech]

Thanks guys have emailed SCL, and would also appreciate help and pointers on virtulization

[ninjabeaver]

Going off thread a bit but any chance please of a pointer toward virtualisation and how to apply it in a school network?

 

Yeah, I'd second that. Mainly because space is at a premium here now.

[Sirbendy]

in what sense? We virtualise here in a limited way - our "auxilliary" servers (print, personnel, ghostcaster, accounts) and our VMs for teachers to allow them to Netsupport control their rooms, change passwords and manage printers are all VM based. As are 2 or 3 "VPN" remote terminals for staff access, and a Windows 03 server for french testing software.

 

We just buy the dirt cheap Dell base servers (1 dual, 1 quadcore at the mo), bump up the RAM, give it an extra disk and install VMWare Server. No hassle whatsoever.

 

In the new building, all the servers will be virtual, ESX3i based.

Edited October 13, 2008 by Sirbendy