Primary School Servers

[techie08]

Im just curious to know what sort of server set people run in a primary school with roughly 60 PCs? ie do you run just a server for the Domain controller + file and print and one member server for SIMS or run two domain controllers? or just one server and thats it!

I was looking at using ESXi and going completely virtual but i am now thinking thats going to be overkill and it adds that extra layer of complexity

 

Thanks

[elsiegee40]

Current primary (48 PCs)

1 Server running 2003 does everything backing up to NAS in another building miles across the site every night. We don't have a MIS (yet).

2nd server going in this summer more to upgrade to 2008 than for load-spreading.

 

Last primary (70 ish PCs)

1 server running SIMS maintained by LA

1 server doing everything else maintained locally.

 

Neither setup installed or speced by me.

[Tricky_Dicky]

I run a good Curriculum server that handles DHCP, DNS,AD, Printing and most file storage. Then a second Administrator server that also runs DNS and AD and CMIS. Just purchased a good NAS for file storage because of the amount of photos/videos being generated recently.

I did look at virtualising it all a little while ago but with the extra servers and for what actual application processing we do it just isn't worth it.

It's a large primary, 740 kids, 60+dektops, 150 laptops plus staff laptops but I find that it's rare that everything is logged on at once. The big thing I have issues with it the amount of rubbish flash based software we have to run on the network and over the internet and so I'm trying to improve out network before anything else. The school was SIPped before I started with some lovely Cisco switches however it's got a 100Mb back bone which just isn't enough when you have that amount of data running over it.

 

Hope my ramblings help

Rich

[pagelad]

We just have one DC in our primary schools for about 60 machines. I run one virtual ubuntu server on my server but thats just for our Xibo sign in the entrance.

 

We have Serco though and its on a seperate mini admin network were not allowed to touch. Dont think they evenhave a server, its just a shared database.

[chrbb]

Admin on separate network, so just curriculum network setup - consists of:

 

One domain controller for file serving, printing, sophos.

Wsus installed on workstation set to dual boot server 2003/xp pro.

[pooley]

4 servers here

 

1 for AD/DHCP/DNS - linked to Nas for file serving.

1 Webserver / wsus server

1 Exchange server

1 Mac OS Server

[dhicks]

I was looking at using ESXi and going completely virtual but i am now thinking thats going to be overkill and it adds that extra layer of complexity

 

For a smaller primary school I'd say get one decent physical server and install a bunch of VMs on it (DC, print server, SIMS server, file server). You can just use Windows' built-in virtulisation, it's not that difficult, and each application gets its own dedicated server to use.

 

--

David Hicks

[sparkeh]

We have roughly 100 machines to manage.

Used to have 1 DC to do everything but the strain started to show so I bought a new server to run Hyper-V, virtualised the old server and added a new 2008 R2 DC which everything will eventually move to.

Currently old Server 2003 is PDC with AD/DNS/DHCP, home folders etc and 2008 R2 is running SCCM.

Also we have separate SIMS server.

 

I agree with David above, virtualising is worth it for that size school.

[techie08]

We have roughly 100 machines to manage.

Used to have 1 DC to do everything but the strain started to show so I bought a new server to run Hyper-V, virtualised the old server and added a new 2008 R2 DC which everything will eventually move to.

Currently old Server 2003 is PDC with AD/DNS/DHCP, home folders etc and 2008 R2 is running SCCM.

Also we have separate SIMS server.

 

I agree with David above, virtualising is worth it for that size school.

 

So you are are going to build a new 2008r2 DC on a new server, and put the hyper-v role on that?

[sparkeh]

So you are are going to build a new 2008r2 DC on a new server, and put the hyper-v role on that?

 

Ok so what I have done is buy a new server, installed 2008 R2 and enabled Hyper-V. I then virtualised the old 2003 server and made sure this was all working. Then (as the 2008 R2 Standard with Hyper-V licence allows you have one virtualised instance) I installed a virtual 2008 R2 server and added it to the domain as a DC.

 

Therefore I have a non-domain 2008 R2 physical server running virtual 2008 R2 and 2003 DCs.

[techie08]

Ok so what I have done is buy a new server, installed 2008 R2 and enabled Hyper-V. I then virtualised the old 2003 server and made sure this was all working. Then (as the 2008 R2 Standard with Hyper-V licence allows you have one virtualised instance) I installed a virtual 2008 R2 server and added it to the domain as a DC.

 

Therefore I have a non-domain 2008 R2 physical server running virtual 2008 R2 and 2003 DCs.

 

So your 2003 dc is your PDC?

[BrianG]

In my schools I just have one DC. A HP Proliant ML115. Great little servers and with 50 + 60 machines around school and around 400 kids it bares the load really well. I've only just finished installing new servers in all my schools. The old ones are going to be turned into Linux servers to run FOG, possibly a second backup site ( I'm paranoid about backups) and anythign else I want to play with.

[techie08]

Ok so what I have done is buy a new server, installed 2008 R2 and enabled Hyper-V. I then virtualised the old 2003 server and made sure this was all working. Then (as the 2008 R2 Standard with Hyper-V licence allows you have one virtualised instance) I installed a virtual 2008 R2 server and added it to the domain as a DC.

 

Therefore I have a non-domain 2008 R2 physical server running virtual 2008 R2 and 2003 DCs.

 

Just out of interest, how do you back these up? is the file level or backup the complete VM? Do you host the backup drive on the actual physical server?

Edited February 12, 2010 by techie08

[SimpleSi]

I just run one physical server on cuuric side of each site (7 of them) just as DNS/DHCP/File/Printer server not domain controller.

 

Admin is separate network with bursar machine maintained by county - no server.

 

I just do a differential backup of the user data to a USB drive in a different class from the server.

 

I run VMs on a few servers for FOG (and still got a Win98 VM file server as I havn't finished transferring it to W2k3 yet in one school )

 

regards

 

Simon

[sparkeh]

So your 2003 dc is your PDC?

 

Currently yes, with extended scheme due to 2008 R2 becoming a DC. This will change as when I get some down time I will probably move the roles.

 

Just out of interest, how do you back these up? is the file level or backup the complete VM? Do you host the backup drive on the actual physical server?

 

Both servers back up at file level to a NAS box. Also the VMs are backed up on the host machine which is then handed off to the NAS, you know, just in case. I need to get another NAS to mirror the first, then I am happy.

[techie08]

Currently yes, with extended scheme due to 2008 R2 becoming a DC. This will change as when I get some down time I will probably move the roles.

 

 

 

Both servers back up at file level to a NAS box. Also the VMs are backed up on the host machine which is then handed off to the NAS, you know, just in case. I need to get another NAS to mirror the first, then I am happy.

 

Are you happy backing up the dc as a virtual machine?? would you run into problems if you need to restore it?

[ICT_GUY]

2 domain controllers, one isa and one smart cache.

Server 2008 on the domain controllers.

 

100pcs due to be increased to 140 next year.

[sparkeh]

Are you happy backing up the dc as a virtual machine?? would you run into problems if you need to restore it?

 

Well if something goes wrong I have two options, either restore from the normal backup or revert to the VM snapshot. What I would do depends on the what went wrong.

 

As both DC VMs are being backed up at the same time, you could restore both at the same time to ensure consistency.

[SimpleSi]

Are you happy backing up the dc as a virtual machine?? would you run into problems if you need to restore it?

 

What sort of problems can you get?

 

regards

 

Simon

[SYNACK]

What sort of problems can you get?

 

regards

 

Simon

 

The main issues occour if you have multiple DCs, if the AD sync gets messed up by restoreing a previous backup if another server has been left on AD can tear itself to bits which is a pain to fix. In general there is no issue of DCs on VMs unless the VM host relies on one of its own virtual DCs, it is snapshotting that you really need to be careful of as it is a snap to restore a machine to an inconsistant (within AD) state with this feature.

 

If restoring DCs in any environment is is best to use a good backup tool and then you can perform an authorotave restore of AD to one server which is forced out to all of them making them all consistant.