Tip #5– What options do I need to consider when purchasing a new server?
This document guides you through the options and tradeoffs that should be made when purchasing a new server. An attempt is made to quantify the cost of options although these numbers should be used only for relative ideas rather than actual cost numbers as they change over time and depending on the size of your business needs.
Windows Server Operating System
There are two primary Windows Server operating systems available, each with a few flavors. Windows Small Business Server is a package that includes the Windows Server operating system packaged with some other products: Microsoft Exchange Server, Sharepoint services (internal company website), and Fax Server. The Premium package includes a software Firewall, SQL Server Workgroup edition and Microsoft Frontpage to develop websites.
Windows Server 2003 comes in several different packages, although for most small businesses, the “Standard” package will make sense as the primary business server. For example, there are WEB packages, and enterprise packages that support more symmetric processors, more RAM and some enterprise applications.
Licensing for these server operating systems requires that you purchase “user” or “device” CALs (client access licenses). You must purchase one CAL for each user or device that will be connecting to the server. That usually means you need to purchase one CAL license per employee or per computer. The operating system includes five CALs.
Pricing. Small Business Server Standard (referred to as SBS) is $499 and Premium is $1299. Microsoft Server 2003 (not SBS) is $799 for Standard Edition. It gets tricky with the CALs because the Windows Server CALs are only $169 for 5 additional CALs and SBS CALs are $449 for 5 additional CALs. Again, these are Dell's current OEM prices.
Server Chassis Configuration
Server hardware generally comes in two types, rack mount and tower. The rack mount option is thin but very deep and intended to be mounted in a rack system. The tower option is like a large (some are very large) desktop PC and can fit in a smaller space than a rack system.
A rack system typically is more expensive at the initial purchase due to the purchase of the actual rack hardware and a slightly higher price for rack-mounted equipment and rails. Rack systems are good for multi-server environments, when you have other equipment (like a power backup UPS system), for airflow and are generally neater than using tower servers.
Often times a company that does not invest in a rack system up front will get “server sprawl” where additional servers are added resulting in a less than ideal server environment. Racks should generally be in a well air conditioned area.
The other consideration in a chassis is the drive configurations supported and any additional hardware adapters that you may require. Some chassis will support hot-swapped hard drive configurations which allows you to replace a bad hard drive or add a hard drive without shutting down the server. For mission critical systems or 24x7 environments, this can be a big advantage. You should also make sure that the hardware supports the number of drives you need to install along with the disk controller configuration.
Processor Selection
Many times this is the least important consideration. Depending on the applications the server will be processing, there is not usually a huge CPU load on a server. We generally recommend the latest technology CPU with the slowest speed. Today that would mean perhaps a 1.6GHz quad core Xeon 3150 Intel processor ($150 upgrade from the dual core default processor).
If multiple applications will be run, there may be a need for multiple processors. Consult with your software applications vendors for their recommendation here.
Memory Selection
The more memory the merrier! Never purchase too little. I never recommend less than 2GB and usually 4GB especially if you are using Exchange, SQL or other applications. The speed is not as critical as having enough but can make a difference if properly matched with CPU speed and performance is critical.
Disk Selection
Disk is one of the more important selection criteria. Disk access for a server is a critical element as well as making sure that you have disk redundancy on your server to protect from a single disk failure. There are two different redundant disk configurations – RAID1 and RAID5 (there are actually other configurations but they are generally too expensive for the small business).
RAID1 (also called mirrored drives) requires two matching drives and each is an exact copy of the other (mirrors). Because they each have a copy of the same data, you only get one drive worth of usable space out of the two drives. The nice thing about RAID1 is that you can take either of the drives out and put it into another computer and get to the data. The downside to RAID1 is that you cannot increase your redundant drive space except by adding two additional drives.
RAID5 is a more complex configuration that requires at least 3 matching drives. You lose only one drive's worth of space for redundancy. This configuration allows you to lose one drive and continue operating normally (although not in a redundant fashion until the bad drive is replaced). There are two advantages of RAID5: 1) you only lose one drive's worth of disk space and still have redundancy and 2) you can add additional matching drives (up to six) to increase your disk space.
You should choose at least three to four times the disk capacity that you are currently using when deciding on your drive configuration.
Drive type and speed are another consideration. There are generally two drive types ATA and SCSI. SCSI is generally recommended for servers because SCSI drives have a built-in buffering system and are higher performance for multi-user environments such as a server (although the SATA is improving and this may change). The newer systems have serial attached connections giving the newer acronyms SAS (Serial attached SCSI) and SATA (Serial attached ATA). The speeds range for 7200 RPM to 15,000 RPM. I recommend the 15,000 if you can afford them. SCSI disks are more expensive and the faster drives are also more expensive, for instance here are three configurations and their current cost:
1. 500GB 7200 SATA $349
2. 300GB 1000RPM SAS $649
3. 300GB 15000RPM SAS $849
You also need to make sure that you purchase the appropriate RAID or drive controller for the configuration that you choose.
Tape Backup
When selecting a backup system, you need to consider how the backup process will operate. Most small businesses choose a tape backup system that runs overnight and only backs up the server data. This means that you need to have the users (or enforce them) to save all data on the server. The backup usually is setup to run at night after business is closed (if it does).
You normally want to have the ability to save changes each day and be able to go back perhaps a week or a month to retrieve an old copy of a file. This means you need to save the tapes from each backup on a rotation basis and not just overwrite the tape every night.
Tape drives usually have a rated native backup and a compressed backup (theoretical 2x compression). I would go by the rule of thumb that you can consistently get 10% compression. We recommend that you get a tape backup system that will backup all your data onto one tape. If this cannot be accomplished, you may want to consider a larger tape drive or a juke-box system. These can get very expensive.
Two common systems today are the DAT72 36/72GB tape drive system ($759) and the LT03 400/800GB tape drive system ($2699). The media for the DAT72 costs about $15 per tape and the LT03 media is $65 per tape. I would recommend purchasing at least 15 tapes and you should replace them once a year or so depending on how much they are used.
There are also removable media drives available where the drive is usually inexpensive but the media is more expensive such as the RD1000 ($200). The media for the RD100 is $109 for a 40GB or $149 for an 80GB media.
UPS – Battery Backup
We always recommend a SMART-UPS usually around 1500VA. These are more expensive than a standard UPS you would use for a desktop but provide additional protection and line conditioning. If you just can't afford it, then you should at least get a 750VA basic UPS with the auto-shutdown software.
Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor
For a standalone server, we recommend a small monitor (15 or 17”), a keyboard and a mouse. They are optional, but if there is a server problem and it won't boot up, you will have to hook one up to see what is going on. If you have a rack-mount system, there are rack-mount KVM's that allow you to switch between servers easily with one mouse, keyboard and monitor. The rack mount monitors are expensive so you can't skimp by purchasing a rack shelf panel and place a monitor on it.
DVD/CD
You should purchase at least a DVD-ROM (reader) for servers because the newer OS and applications are starting to be released on DVD as they are getting to large for a CD. You can also get a burner (DVD +/- ) if you think you will want to burn CD's (not recommended as a primary backup method).
Server Option Checklist
o Chassis (rack-mount/tower, hot-swap, number of drives supported).
o Server Operating system: SBS or Windows Server
o Number of user or device CALS
o Processor selection (quad core – not the fastest)
o Memory – Get 2GB minimum and 4GB or more if you run Exchange or other applications
o Disk – (SAS vs. SATA, how fast (15K RPM recommended). 3-5x current usage.
o Tape Backup – (DAT72, LT03) – don't forget media (20 recommended 10-tape rotation with 5 offsite and 5 for weekly, monthly or yearly)
o Tape Backup Software – Symantec Backup Exec recommended – choose config according to the OS you purchased and additional applications such as SQL server or additional servers.
o UPS – recommend 1500VA SMART-UPS for most servers
o DVD recommended for loading newer software packages
o Mouse, Keyboard and monitor (recommended on standalone or use a KVM)
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