Need a server spec

mikeh501 · 5 May 2009 at 20:12

not with 5tb of storage in them you dont.

iaind · 5 May 2009 at 20:19

mikeh501 said:
Well I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion and given the lack of info it makes no difference. I'm just saying every situation is different and your 3 servers servicing 100 users is at one end of the spectrum and our business with well over 60 servers with around 70 staff is probably somewhere at the other. I just wouldnt be speccing something so low-end when its very likely the needs will increase substantially during the lifetime of the hardware, especially for the sake of a few thousand pounds.

The info he gave was 10 users, there's no way 10 users could put a sufficient IO load to warrant SAS drives and I dont know what you think will start to occupy the 8gb RAM or push 2 quad core CPUs...

Those 3 servers are actually running 25ish VMware images, which is actually relatively high 4:1 users:servers, god only knows how you got to nearly 1:1 :confused:

All the OP wants is a storage device, trying to convince him that he needs to spend over 8k on a solution like that is pretty irresponsible IMO

iaind · 5 May 2009 at 20:22

mikeh501 said:
Exactly, its not exactly a great setup eh, and I bet its still 4-5k.

Just shy of 4k and there'll be significant room for negotiation on that, 3k easy.

It's just a file server, RAID5 with SATA wont cause a problem

mikeh501 · 5 May 2009 at 20:27

iaind said:
Those 3 servers are actually running 25ish VMware images, which is actually relatively high 4:1 users:servers, god only knows how you got to nearly 1:1

All the OP wants is a storage device, trying to convince him that he needs to spend over 8k on a solution like that is pretty irresponsible IMO

We're a software company which also does hosting of SaaS apps for customers. Software companies need lots of hardware for such things as development, quality assurance, customer replication etc. We're talking ERP apps here so large data volumes too. All of this is pretty normal in this industry.

Tbh I dont get the impression the OP even has the budget to sort this out, i'm just putting out there my thinking. If the OP is stupid enough to take the internetz word for his budget he shouldnt be speccing it in the first place lol. Based on this he could end up with anything from a Thecus NAS to a box with DAS.

Also, you lot keep banging on about 10 users like its always going to be 10. Given most hardware has a 3-5 year life cycle and we have no idea of what their business is/or does and their potential growth profile I think anybody giving a spec to the guy is just guessing

iaind · 5 May 2009 at 20:36

Given the way the current economy is, I doubt the company involved is going to want to spend 4x more than necessary just in case....If they take on 20 more staff in a year's time and decide they want an Exchange server, there's nothing stopping them spending 2k on a box for that (and getting more for it too)

I was going to suggest a Thecus NAS, they're nice little boxes and perfect for storing large amounts of data for a small number of users. An N7700 with 7 x 1Tb Drives plus an HP DL120 (for the DC) comes to under 2k. Or the DL180 with 12 x 500gb drives just over 3k

daz · 5 May 2009 at 21:49

mikeh501 said:
not with 5tb of storage in them you dont.

Yes, we do.

ace2109 · 5 May 2009 at 23:52

Guys there is some great info in here thanks a lot, hope they go for something like this so i can mess around setting it all up.

ace