Anyone got Dell Poweredge servers?

[sidewinder]

Im looking for a basic server to replace my backup server and Im currently looking at a Poweredge SC1420

 

Few questions though because of Dell's reluctance to provide any details about the system board etc

 

- Does the board have PCI-X sockets? I suspect the answer is yes, but I wanted to check

 

- How many drives can fit in the case? Ie how many internal 3 1/2 bays are there?

 

- I want to install a PCI-X SATA RAID card and have an array of 5 or 6 drives. Could the PSU included support this many?

 

- A general question about SATA raid arrays - Would I be better off with a case that has room for hot swap caddys/bays?

[sidewinder]

Ah, thanks

Where did you find all that? (I was probably being stupid and missed it in an obvious place)

[Dos_Box]

I have 4 Dell Poweredge 2650, and damm nice they are too. Incredibly reliable.

[Face-Man]

I take it money is tight if not have a look at the website

 

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pedge_sc1420?c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1

 

It looks like it can have a raid card factory installed and can have upto 4 hard drives. why not have it included in your purchase and get it covered under their warrenty

[wesleyw]

We've got 5 Dell Poweredge 1850 they seem to be running very well indeed.

 

 

Wes

[Guest]

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/tower_servers?c=uk&cs=RC1050266&l=en&s=pub

 

Just click on the details link at the bottom of the page.

[pete]

Mostly dells here, never had a problem. Service has always been prompt and my account manager has clue.

 

Buy the 3yrs onsite service, it'll save your bacon when your server gets toasted by lightning.

[kingswood]

We have five PE Servers and they are brilliant. :-)

[sidewinder]

I take it money is tight if not have a look at the website

 

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pedge_sc1420?c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1

 

It looks like it can have a raid card factory installed and can have upto 4 hard drives. why not have it included in your purchase and get it covered under their warrenty

 

Nah money isnt tight, far from it

 

The thing is though, if I go wth one of their SATA RAID configs, it doesnt give me the option to have a SCSI controller as well, and after all the trouble Ive had with them recently, thats the bit I really want guaranteed to work and be covered

 

Hence why I was going to buy the basic SCSI version and do the SATA RAID myself

 

Unless anyone can recommend a very good, reliable SCSI controller for less than a few hundred quid? (Doesnt need to be a RAID controller)

[wesleyw]

Adaptec 39320?

 

 

Wes

[plexer]

I've got a Poweredge 2800 this year and so far it's been rock solid. 800GB RAID5 array.

 

Ben

[Geoff]

Always sworn by Mylex raid controllers personally. They are now know as LSI Logic. In paticular the MegaRAID range is what you should be looking at.

 

http://www.lsilogic.com/products/megaraid/megaraid_320_0x.html

[Irazmus]

We've got a pair of PowerEdge 2800's and I love em

[djm968]

I have installed PE 1425's 1850's 2850's DELL PoverVault DAS 220s and PV 122 autochangers, never had a problem with them.

 

At one site the air-con in the server room failed and cooked the Dell rack, an hour after nice cold air had been restored, all servers fired up with no signs of any issues and have been running fine for 3 months.

 

I would recommend them to anyone.

[Joedetic]

Woah woah woah...a school....money...not tight!!

 

I'm not going to ask which mob boss you asked for money from

 

It's alright for some with a nice budget

[wesleyw]

Our school seems pretty good with budgets I've only had to curtail some of the more outrageous items out of my spending sprees over the last 2 years!

 

 

Wes

[sidewinder]

Despite the fact there are not really any budget worries, Im still finding this hard - in my head I cant justify the huge amount of money a Dell server with the storage I want is going to cost when it can cost so much less if I did it myself

 

I need at least 1.2Tb, but realistically probably more like 1.6. One with 3 500GB HD's is going to cost nearly £2,000, with the cost of a SCSI card on top of that

 

Just thinking maybe it might be better to buy a basic server just to run the tape drive and backup software, and buy a Terastation to actually store the backups on?

[djm968]

Most of schools I deal with take ICT seriously and have therefore invested a sensible amount in their IT infrastructure, there is also continued pressure from the Government on schools to embrace ICT because they believe it raises standards overcomes inclusion issues and improves home school links.

 

I wouldn’t recommend DELL servers to these schools if I wasn’t confident they were up to the job.

 

The thing that worries me, is how these schools are going to be able to refresh all this ICT (I know….lets install 20 whiteboards/projects and watch the bulbs all pop at the same time) which is why some of my clients are looking at thin client solutions, but that’s another forum.

[djm968]

If money is not an issue then I can't understand why you are even thinking about a DIY server, think about the piece of mind you get with 4 hour or next day responce. Why make life hard for youself? If the thing does go down it's not your responsibility to fix it.

[NetworkGeezer]

Hey Russ, Dos_Box

 

If you want to solve EduGeeks money problems just offer Dell the opportunity for the right price to quote this thread in their advertising

[djm968]

Hey Russ, Dos_Box

 

If you want to solve EduGeeks money problems just offer Dell the opportunity for the right price to quote this thread in their advertising

 

 

Good point....

 

Sure none of us are on commission? Better throw HP and IBM in the hat just in case

[wesleyw]

Sun Microsystems?

 

 

Wes

[broc]

DIY servers are ok for none critical tasks, but I would always stick to branded for critical stuff like SIMS.net, file servers, DCs etc. With brands like DELL, IBM,HP & Sun you are buying into a support, service & parts organisation as well as a piece of kit. Unless you carry spares for your DIY servers you face the hassle of finding parts in a hurry when they go down.

 

You need to be especially careful with RAID solutions that rely upon you having exactly the same disk controller hardware to be able to access your data if you lose a system board/adapter. On a DIY server you have to source this yourself, with a branded server, the manufacturer will ensure you get the parts you need to recover.

 

We use DELL Poweredge servers, but we do have a couple of 'cheap' DIY servers based upon identical Intel server boards because I needed to host 6 SATA disks. One of these is used for network management tasks, hosting WSUS, Ghost images, Secondcopy backups etc, the other is a remote DR server. Neither is mission critical in the sense that the school cannot function without them.

[sidewinder]

Thats the thing, if this server went down it doesnt effect the network in the slightest, it would just mean backups would take longer until it was fixed (would have to go straight to tape rather than disk first)

 

For this occasion though I think I am just going to go with a Dell, mainly to save me the hassle of building and supporting something else, as someone else mentioned

[djm968]

I think you are making the right decision. Managing a network is hard enough without having to worry about sourcing parts for break fix repairs.

 

It’s always nice to have someone else to blame too. I think its called delegation! 8)