Building/Maintaining a server

Superiodity

Superiodity

Superiodity

Associate
Joined
21 Oct 2011
Posts
4
Hello all.

I'm new to overclockers but know there's a lot of really intelligent people that know all there is to know about computers/networks/servers and all those things, so I thought i'd ask for advice here.

Basicly I need to know what sort of hardware/software i'd need for a business server that 2 large and 2 medium business will use, needs to be able to handle a call center, E-Mail, 4-5 domains, SQL databases and remote access.

Also needs to be secure, always backed up, easy to maintain and maybe a way to use windows 365 with it?

I know i've probably missed lots of information out so feel free to ask anything and i'll see if I can get an answer for it.
Thanks for reading and layman's terms would be appreciated ;)
 
My advice is if a business is reliant on this solution then get someone in who knows what they are doing and will take accountability for it as this sort of scenario isn't suitable for learning on the job or trial and error.
 
Yeah, I see your point I was basicly told to do the research for it but no idea where to start.

Would it probably be a lot better starting with a small server and building it up to the point of 2 large companies once the user is confident/experienced enough to maintain it, or would it require a lot of knowledge/high end specs from the get go if it's going to be built upto that?
 
axer said:
My advice is if a business is reliant on this solution then get someone in who knows what they are doing and will take accountability for it as this sort of scenario isn't suitable for learning on the job or trial and error.
Click to expand...

very much this!

i would look at vmware though. its very scalable depending on your needs. If one of your physical server fails it will automaticly start the server again on another host without any interuption to service. Also can have the vsphere host power on and off servers depending on load.

You will need multiple servers and sans and fail over vpn links.
 
Superiodity said:
Hello all.

I'm new to overclockers but know there's a lot of really intelligent people that know all there is to know about computers/networks/servers and all those things, so I thought i'd ask for advice here.

Basicly I need to know what sort of hardware/software i'd need for a business server that 2 large and 2 medium business will use, needs to be able to handle a call center, E-Mail, 4-5 domains, SQL databases and remote access.

Also needs to be secure, always backed up, easy to maintain and maybe a way to use windows 365 with it?

I know i've probably missed lots of information out so feel free to ask anything and i'll see if I can get an answer for it.
Thanks for reading and layman's terms would be appreciated ;)
Click to expand...
How long is a piece of string?

There are so many variables in here, depends what they will be doing exactly, is it running mission critical services? how many users, and many other things.

I assume at least you would be looking at using some kind of VDS or managed server? Unless you are going to keep it in a secure site with redundant networking, redundant server(s) in case you need to fail services over, offsite backups, proper security with a firewall and VPN access set up appropriately?
 
Might be worth going to a team who can provide you with a solution which you can get involved with while they take the brunt of it.
 
I considered giving an answer but there are two big problems with the request

First is risk - it sounds like you want this thing to host customer data for upto 4 companies AND have it connected to the net providing remote access/mail/web, so security sounds like an afterthought, then theres the idea that you will be throwing everything onto one server and having these 4 companies and a call center using it.. so its going to get hammered day in day out until something fails and you seem to have not given any consideration to the impact of WHEN it fails, because things do break its just a matter of how long until it happens, you can mitigate some things like a single drive failing with raid and a swift replacement (because if your battering this thing then you really dont want your other raid disk to be holding down the fort with all your important data for any length of time, kk). It doesnt seem like you understand the business cost of an outage or you might be considering a few servers, rather than just 1 big one hosting everything, and by business cost i mean running costs (staff, rent, power etc) + lost business + missed business + missed deadlines etc etc.

The second is your spec, or rather lack thereof... your request is just too vague, theres about a million possible answers with different possible combinations of configs, you want to go and have a proper meeting with an IT supplier and talk through your requirements properly and have them come up with a proposal. Already looking at clades response I'm scratching my head wondering where he has come up with the assumption that you want multiple vmware hosts with a san and the ability to use vmotion, sure its fantastic tech but what you've suggested is probably a couple of servers and doesnt really justify the costs of a vmware cluster/san

The thing is, i actually do work for an IT outsourcing company and frankly dealing with your request just sounds like a nightmare, you dont know what you want so its guaranteed if i were to spend time working through all your questions and then giving you an actual answer about costs, you'd probably get scared off by the costs and have wasted my time, goto someone else and get it done on the cheap anyway, I have a hard time believing this is for 2 large+2medium size companies, any 'large' company nowadays would already have some IT presence that could have investigated this properly
 
n3vrmind said:
I considered giving an answer but there are two big problems with the request

First is risk - it sounds like you want this thing to host customer data for upto 4 companies AND have it connected to the net providing remote access/mail/web, so security sounds like an afterthought, then theres the idea that you will be throwing everything onto one server and having these 4 companies and a call center using it.. so its going to get hammered day in day out until something fails and you seem to have not given any consideration to the impact of WHEN it fails, because things do break its just a matter of how long until it happens, you can mitigate some things like a single drive failing with raid and a swift replacement (because if your battering this thing then you really dont want your other raid disk to be holding down the fort with all your important data for any length of time, kk). It doesnt seem like you understand the business cost of an outage or you might be considering a few servers, rather than just 1 big one hosting everything, and by business cost i mean running costs (staff, rent, power etc) + lost business + missed business + missed deadlines etc etc.

The second is your spec, or rather lack thereof... your request is just too vague, theres about a million possible answers with different possible combinations of configs, you want to go and have a proper meeting with an IT supplier and talk through your requirements properly and have them come up with a proposal. Already looking at clades response I'm scratching my head wondering where he has come up with the assumption that you want multiple vmware hosts with a san and the ability to use vmotion, sure its fantastic tech but what you've suggested is probably a couple of servers and doesnt really justify the costs of a vmware cluster/san

The thing is, i actually do work for an IT outsourcing company and frankly dealing with your request just sounds like a nightmare, you dont know what you want so its guaranteed if i were to spend time working through all your questions and then giving you an actual answer about costs, you'd probably get scared off by the costs and have wasted my time, goto someone else and get it done on the cheap anyway, I have a hard time believing this is for 2 large+2medium size companies, any 'large' company nowadays would already have some IT presence that could have investigated this properly
Click to expand...
Fully agree.

IT Out sourcing in Warwick, IBM or Accenture?
 
You say you don't know where to start, start here: Get all the requirements, aims, goals (whatever you wish to call them) down in lots of detail before you even think of what possible solutions there are for achieving it all. That's where you start ;)

Once you've got all your requirements down in so much detail you couldn't fit an anorexic between the lines then you want to try asking the question again.
 
Exactly as MrBios states, if you're going to do this, do it properly. I'd say if it's not something you've done before, and you do actually intend on doing this, you're going to be looking at least a month of hard planning and research ahead of you.

For that kind of scale, you're going to be looking at multiple servers at a bare minimum. Putting that size of business onto a single server (No matter how big it is), is suicide.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom