Servers: What on which ones?!

Over Clocker

Over Clocker

Over Clocker

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Hi guys,

For our small but growing business, we currently have 1x little piddly machine running Server 2003 and Exchange 2003, and is also the domain server.

We're looking at investing in a proper server now, but was wondering which applications should go on which server, so any suggestions would be great!

We would have 1x low end Xeon/2GB ram server, no raid or anything like that.

And, 1x Xeon Quad core, 4GB ram, Raid 5 etc.

Things we want to run:

Active Directory
Exchange 2007 (will need to move over from 2003)
Sharepoint Services
Blackberry Enterprise server
Random apps

We are thinking:

Low end server: AD, Sharepoint, Random Apps
High end server: Exchange 2007, and maybe virtualise the BES?

WHat do you guys think? Would the virtual server be okay? Also, what software would be the best for this?

The AD is only really there to support Exchange, there are no real domain logins really.

Thanks guys.

Mal
 
Active Directory won't take much power. So I'd put Sharepoint on there and random apps/printers etc.

If it was me, I'd be wanting Exchange 2007 on its own dedicated box, with as much memory as you can throw at it. Split your database and logs onto separate spindles (RAID1 for logs).

As for BES, I don't know much about the product, but I've heard that it can put Exchange under a lot of strain.

Edit:

For the Exchange box i'd use something like:

HP ProLiant DL380 G5 (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF06b/521-525-358263-358263-12083449-12568322-81162461.html)
2x Quad-Core 3Ghz
4Gb Memory (Could/Would upgrade this to as much as can be afforded)
2x 72Gb 2.5" SAS 15k rpm Disks - Windows (RAID1)
4x 146Gb 2.5" SAS 10k rpm Disks - Exchange DB (RAID5)
2x 72Gb 2.5" SAS 15k rpm Disks - Exchange Logs (RAID1)

You'd probably have all the Ex2007 roles on a single server: CAS, HUB and MBOX.

And for the small apps/AD box:

HP ProLiant DL360 G5 (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/sm/WF06b/521-525-358263-358263-12083449-12569852-81144326.html)
1x Quad-Core 2.6Ghz
2Gb Memory
Disks as required (Can get 6 SAS 2.5" in there!)
 
Last edited:
I would put AD and sharepoint on the low end server

Then put Exchange and AD (redundancy) on the high end. BES would work in a vm but probably no need to do ths with a high end server.

One thing I have running on VM on my exchange server is Spam Titan and it rocks!! zero spam has come through since I installed it. Its not free but is good value.
 
For BES it is best not to have it on the same server as Exchange, and it won't work on a domain server so would need to be on a VM really.

Cheers guys!

Mal
 
Over Clocker said:
For BES it is best not to have it on the same server as Exchange, and it won't work on a domain server so would need to be on a VM really.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely true, i have installed BES on an SBS server in the past. Although I'd DEFINITELY not recommend it.

Even better. This was an SBS server with next to no backup, with a RAID 0 system partition (yes i did tell them again and again how bad an idea it was )
 
oddjob62 said:
That's not entirely true, i have installed BES on an SBS server in the past. Although I'd DEFINITELY not recommend it.

Even better. This was an SBS server with next to no backup, with a RAID 0 system partition (yes i did tell them again and again how bad an idea it was )
Click to expand...

But I've read it won't work without the BESAdmin account being a local admin account, so can't use a domain controller (easily anyway!)

Cheers :)
 
Over Clocker said:
WHat are the advantages of SBS? Also, should we look at 2003 or 2008?

We've got 5 users.

Mal :)
Click to expand...

Don't bother with SBS, you've got the licences for exchange etc already which is a major advantage of SBS.

If you can, get a server with a 2008 licence, but my advice would be to downgrade to 2003 for the moment, but at least then you have the option to upgrade at a later date.

Burnsy
 
Over Clocker said:
But I've read it won't work without the BESAdmin account being a local admin account, so can't use a domain controller (easily anyway!)
Click to expand...

Yeah like i said, not recommended, but totally doable if you need to. I've installed on an SBS server, an Exchange server, a VM, even on an XP box (shhh don't tell anyone ;)).
 
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