Recommend Upgrade to Server storage

[TechSupp]

Our server is an NEC Express 5800 with two HD's mirrored in raid (two partitions c: and d:) and noticed that D: is getting a bit low on space and with a little money to spare before the year end, what would my best options be to add more storage as not sure how to do this wth raid etc. Currently they are two SATA 150Gb drives with two more connections free on the Motherboard. Would this be an easy job to upgrade myself?

 

As an addition after taking the side off, it currently has 512Mb in one stick of memory with two free slots on the board, what would be a suitable upgrade in terms of amount etc.

 

If money becomes an issue of what to change I may have £800 to £1000 to spend.

Edited January 22, 2010 by TechSupp

[Ric_]

The easiest thing to do (assuming the MD supports this) is to add two new SATA disks to the spare channels and create a mirrored set there.

 

Next, rip out the 512MB stick of RAM and swap it for 2x 1GB sticks. This should give you dual-channel memory mode (which is quicker) plus it will give you a sensible amount of RAM!

 

Of course, this is making assumptions about your mainboard since I have no experience of that particular machine.

[TechSupp]

Hmm, not thought about that. Not got much info on the server so not sure what the motherboard supports, may have to try and do a bit of googling. Have asked the original suppliers for a quote as to what they would reccomend (they were NEC servicers - don't think thts a word but it seems to fit).

[Dos_Box]

With that kind of money I'd give ICT Direct a ring. You could get quite a nice new (well second user with warrenty) server with quite a bit of storage for £1000.

 

ICT Direct - computer hardware for ict in education - primary, secondary, special needs schools and colleges

 

Or do what Ric suggested. 512MB RAM is a pitiful amount for a server to be running on!

[Haptic]

we do have a few entry level HP servers on offer if you would like to pm me your details I'll put together a few options for you on Monday;)

[IanT]

Build ya self a server, get a couple of cheap 1Tb disks from ebuyer for £60

 

Samsung EcoGreen F2 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - OEM - Ebuyer

 

Not an ideal option but a bit of fun!

[TechSupp]

Think I just want to upgrade at the moment as much as I would like a new server the thought of getting it all transfered over and set up again just fills me with dread (although I know at some point it would need to be done!). Maybe a stop gap but they don't really stress the server here (reason why it still poddles along on 512!) and it may be better to eek out a little more life out of the current server before we bite the bullet in a couple of years. Ric's suggestion sounds fine by me at the moment, its what we had had done a couple of my other schools raised memory but just added another single drive (one server had mirrired drives added but that was becuase the original ones died at the same time!).

 

Out of interest how would you go about migrating to a new server with regard to replicating DNS, permissions, users, shares etc. etc. Never done it and seems like a nightmare time, must be a simple way I guess? We back up using NTBackup with the save system settings option ticked so I suppose that would come into use?

[IanT]

If you want to keep all current permissions etc on the shares and files, there are a number of tools........our very own Edugeek do that.........eduMove or securecopy