cheap server

[t_guest]

hi all

as most of you know i am starting to learn on servers and i was wondering were could i buy a cheap server from for £.100.00 if possible or would i be better to buy a cheap laptop and put server 2003 on

[ChrisC]

100???

 

That's a little toooooo cheap to be honest.

 

Chris

[MkII]

Upgrade your ram and do it virtually

[t_guest]

Upgrade your ram and do it virtually

 

i have tried this approach and it never works i can never seem to get virtual server working

[bishopsgarthstockton]

I baught an old proliant server of ebay for just over £100 would have used virtual server but when i seen the offer i couldnt refuse. very happy with it

[tosca925]

We haver a couple of old servers we no longer use. We were thinking of sticking them on Ebay but if your interested....................?

 

I'll see if i can find the spec for you. I know we had 2003 running on them both. One was running Sophos but could no longer cope because of lack of memory. The other was just s small file server.

[SimpleSi]

I wouldn't spend money on a server at the moment - just get hold of any old machine and try it out on that one.

 

I've got a 800MHz machine with 128MB RAM running W2k3 - its fine for playing with.

 

I'd back the idea of more ram for your own machine as it will come in usefull for other things apart from server emulation.

 

I'm sure people here could help out with the Virtual Server install issues

(I use VMServer myself unfortunately)

 

regards

Simon

[t_guest]

I'm sure people here could help out with the Virtual Server install issues

(I use VMServer myself unfortunately)

 

ok if you want to help me pm for i can get started please

[sidewinder]

Agree that you dont need a server - any old crap PC will do

Have even had test machines running on 400mhz Celerons in the past, as long as you have at least 256MB RAM it will run fine

[acrobson]

I agree with the VM ware option, as even if you could get a serving machine for £100, you then have the server 2003 license cost on top, and they ain't cheap. At least the legal version, anyway!

[mattx]

But a server looks better than a PC

Loads of good second hand ones on E-bay - touch wood I have never had any problems with the IBM servers I have bought to fill our rack with...

[Joedetic]

I bought a VA Linux 2U rackmount server from e-bay recently. £80 including post and packing (of which there was a lot!)

 

It's got dual P3 1GHz processors, 512Mb RAM and a hotplug raid (with only one 9.1gig disk in it) I've put a 120gig IDE drive in it and it is awesome. If not a little loud. It comes with 2NICs in it aswell and has serial for the UPS etc.

 

There are still some on there IIRC. Look for Snowdon Computers (or something liek that)

[t_guest]

thanks

all

[Guest kerrymoralee9280]

Buy VMWare Workstation (about £50 I think) and install 2003 to that. I've got a team running that is the same setup as the school network, so if I need to make changes I do it there first to try and eliminate anything that could go wrong.

 

I have 3 servers running at one time on VMWare - They only have 256mb RAM each but run fine. I also sometimes need a XP machine with 128mb RAM but like I said, they work fine and my machine only has 1.5Gb RAM.

[webman]

callum: If you go down the VM route - you can get VMWare Server for free (you still need to register to get the key, but you don't have to pay) and you can install any operting system you like on that.

[bishopsgarthstockton]

Buy a server... it looks good and makes you look even geeky... Its like having an extra stripe on your shoulder

[limbo]

The cheapest new server I have bought so far was a HP DL140 G2 Xeon DP 2800-2.0MB/800 NHP SATA 80GB, 2GB (2x1GB), DVD. It cost around £600 so probably too much for this scenario.

 

Fantastic as a test server - and got a nice flight case rack for it so we can move it around depending on what / where we are testing.

[t_guest]

thanks all

i have downloaded VMWare Server works fine i still wouldn't of minded a server tho any way got it up and running that's the main thing

[alexknight]

Hi

 

Where do you get the free VMware?

 

Alex

[Joedetic]

VMWare server from the VMWare website. You need to register for the license key but it's free.

[Guest kerrymoralee9280]

The menu's on VM's site are a bit fruity if you ask me.... Here's a link http://www.vmware.com/download/server/

[FN-GM]

i haven’t read all the posts so sorry if this has been mentioned. Get a small cheap base unit of eBay and install Server 2003 evaluation copy. It will work for 180 days. Infact i have a CD here if you want it.

[t_guest]

can i ask what cd the original server 2003 disk or the 180 day trail disk

[Guest kerrymoralee9280]

Obviously the evaluation disk!

[ICT_GUY]

Our second domain controller is a athlon xp1400 that I built for a friend in 2000 - 2001. It has 768mb ram, a raptor sata HD plus a adaptec sata pci card & a gigabit network card.

 

It happily runs, squid proxy, wsus, nod32 server, the intranet, cached websites, backup domain control & dns and it also serves as a nas server for backups. I'm sure theres other stuff it does, and it is quick too.

 

Costs were,

 

mobo, ram, case , cpu (free salvage)

sata card £50

Raptor HD £75 75 gig 5 year garantee, MTBF of 120 years (if you belive their website)

gigabit card £15

OS £35 2003 server

backup HD segate 300 gig Sata £30

 

UPS, changed the battery on one that had died (and been replaced) £30

 

As an aside, Dell are doing quad core servers (2gigs of ram) with SATA raid for £1300 ish inc 3 years on site.