Server for small office?

Ironic Namesake

Ironic Namesake

Ironic Namesake

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
We are looking at getting a server for our small office, we have 5 users and it will be for :

Automatic daily backups, Microsoft Exchange and file storage.

How much should we be looking to spend, and what sort of server would be best to go for?

Would it be better to have an ADSL card in the server and sharing via that rather than using the standard BT wireless gateway?

Thanks in advance :)
 
For those duties with that number of users any old machine with a sufficient number of hard drives will work. See if you can scratch up a PIII system or similar. A hardware RAID card and a RAID 1 array wouldn't be a bad idea if the data in use is critical. You'll also want to set up a backup schedule.

I'm not quite sure what you mean regarding the DSL card. Would you not attach it to the Ethernet network, just like the other clients?
 
OoOverclockaoO said:
We are looking at getting a server for our small office, we have 5 users and it will be for :

Automatic daily backups, Microsoft Exchange and file storage.

How much should we be looking to spend, and what sort of server would be best to go for?

Would it be better to have an ADSL card in the server and sharing via that rather than using the standard BT wireless gateway?

Thanks in advance :)
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Software: Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 comes with Exchange (up to 75 Users) and is probably cheap than getting Server 2003 and Exchange 2003/2007 + the required 5 CALs

For *automated* backups you can get an internal tape drive and just use Windows Backup with Shadow Copies enabled to backup open files.

3 x HDD in RAID5 for storage.

As much memory as you can afford (say 2-4GB)

A UPS so things don't go bad when the power fails or spikes.

A dedicated external router that supports xDSL if that is what you use.


Do not skimp on your server. Ideally you want a separate server for file storage but I understand money does not grow on trees.

Please don't, as suggested above, use a crappy old machine. A server is the lifeblood of a company.
 
For the price a server costs this day and age I would advise buying one with the business class sameday / nextday support.
 
Slinwagh said:
For the price a server costs this day and age I would advise buying one with the business class sameday / nextday support.
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You can get one from Dell with 3 year gold support for not a lot of money. I forgot to say in my post that homebuilt or el-cheapo company build isn't worth the risk.
 
I agree with LordSplodge, do not use an old machine for a server. A new and very capable server is not a lot of money these days. Using a old PC for a server will be more headaches than its worth if it goes down.
 
Thanks for the replies :)

Any idea what sort of spec to go for CPU wise?

Would something like a Dual 2.4Ghz Xeon be fine? Would also add a DVD writer to backup onto there.

Can you check your exchange mailbox using a blackberry/mobile?
 
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