Small business server advice

Steveh_monkey · 31 Jul 2012 at 11:18

First of all let me apologise in advance, I'm a near complete novice when it comes to server issues so some of my questions may display a lack of elementary knowledge. Also this entire post may actually belong in the Windows software section so sorry for that as well

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Anyway, I'm currently lending a hand in building new servers for a small family business.

The current setup it pretty basic, It's just a single PC running windows XP Home with two hard drives in raid. All the others computers put the files they want to share or backup on there, and the printers are accessed through there as well (I think). It's not very sophisticated but It's important to note that there is no one who is very tech literate when it comes to PCs and servers in this business, and this simple setup has worked nicely for 6 years

Now the company is now opening another office in another city and the server system needs a bit of an upgrade to accommodate this, which includes building another similar server to put in the new office and also upgrading the current server. I have two basic queries.

1) Will Windows Server Edition do the trick? I've never worked with any server editions before but I like the look of WHS 2011 as a cheap alternative to getting a full license of Windows 7 Pro which is what would have happened. Will a copy of WHS 2011 put on a server machine allow easy connection and file sharing between the PCs in the office, kind of like a stripped down version of full Windows 7.

2) The second problem is sharing files between these two offices. A brief look into VPNs and we thought they were probably a bit to complex for us to setup and we can't afford someone to do it for us so we've bought some Cloud server space from Rackspace.

I think what we're planning is using a piece of software like Cloudberry to sync both servers in both offices with the online cloud server so both offices can have access the the files on each server.
Will this basic idea work? As I don't know an awful lot about the subject, I just want to make sure the basic plan is workable before new parts and software is bought.

Thanks a lot for any help or advice that you can give and sorry if my questions are a bit vague.

Steve

jake108 · 31 Jul 2012 at 13:10

Hello Steve,

Liking the idea there, best way to make use of a smallish setup is not to do anything large. Sounds stupid but it's fairly common to think small to begin with and then it balloons into something larger which requires maintainence.

What I would suggest is look at alternative ideas for the moment, you can create a Fileserver in the cloud but I would recommend looking at a smaller, cheaper, less maintenance solution.

If you are sharing files between offices then you may be hindered by upload speed if it is on one of the networks, so cloud or offsite web storage sounds ideal.

You may want to look at:
https://www.dropbox.com/teams/
https://www.sugarsync.com/

Both would solve both your problems with one solution. File Sync, no need for Point to Point VPN.

You may find these more suited to your needs. I would not personally waste time and maintenance on servers if there are products out there which already suit your needs.

KISS principle applies, I am not against the cloud but sometimes the cloud can be a massive drain of limited resources (Trust me on that

)

-Alternatively-

If you plan to learn and can guarantee some time to the business I would recommend using the cloud storage in your idea with a server OS in the cloud. It would mean any point of failure would have to be resolved by you, and you would have to maintain the server but you would get valuable experience from it. I would not recommend home server, Windows Server 2003 would do or 2008. Alternatively a free OS especially designed for storage - FREENAS.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-i-set-home-file-server-free-review-freenas.htm

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/set-freenas-server-access-files/ (You can apply this to a cloud server, with the correct permissions and settings - lock it down and make it secure) Scripts are already available to do this for you and setup a network share on each client machine via username and password.

FreeNAS also allows you to sync files between clients onto the web / cloud using a special program which sits on your desktop (like dropbox).

If you do use this method please remember BACKUP, BACKUP and err BACKUP!

FreeNAS has a built in method of backing up too which will make it easier for you.

Steveh_monkey · 5 Aug 2012 at 22:24

Thanks very much for the advice and information, a lot of that stuff came in a lot of use.

RimBlock · 7 Aug 2012 at 02:57

jake108 said:
I would not recommend home server, Windows Server 2003 would do or 2008. Alternatively a free OS especially designed for storage - FREENAS.

Would be interested to know why you would not recommend WHS 2011 but would recommend WS 2003, WS 2008(presumably r2) or FreeNAS.

WHS 2011 has the simple interface for people not used to managing a Windows server but still has server manager in the background to help enable a transition for those who wish to learn. It has remote desktop and sharing of files via a password protected web gui. It has standard Windows file sharing. It has a simplified set of roles installed and active but a lot of the roles more common in its bigger cousins are either just not active or can be installed from the WHS 2011 DVD (although they are unsupported on WHS2011). The only negative immediately apparent is the discontinuation in a few years.

Of course the other major advantage is price. Just doing a quick search on a well known site (all prices in GBP);
Windows Home Server 2011: 44
Windows Small Business Server Essentials 2011: 285
Windows Server 2003: 450
Windows Server 2008r2 (sp1): 521
Windows Small Business Server Standard 2011: 574

There are of course cheaper ways to get the server software with various Microsoft subscriptions but this should give a basic idea.

Interested to know why you would not recommend it as on the face of it there is a lot going for it.

OP, if you still wish to stay away from WHS 2011 then you might want to have a look at SBS Essentials (verions overview here). Tailored for small businesses, cheaper than the full versions and integrates with cloud services (presumably Microsoft based ones out of the box) and accepts plugins to add features like WHS 2011.

Of course another option is just setting up something like;
CentOS minimal install
Sftp in Chroot environment
Install GnuPG4Win for local file encoding and decoding.
Write a simple cron job to pgp encode files uploaded but not already encoded (user forgot).
Follow a CentOS hardening guide to secure your server (NSA guide for securing RHEL 5.5 here which is literally step by step. RHEL and CentOS are very similar).
Use a sFTP client to transfer files back and forth.
Use certificate only login for a more secure environment.

The setup should be fairly easy for someone with a bit of Linux exposure. It would also be a fairly good primer for this sort of thing.

RB

jake108 · 7 Aug 2012 at 11:27

I've experienced problems of support with WHS2011 business environments (especially to do with the cloud). It is not supported for business use being a home product et al. If the OP is fixing / maintaining the server himself he may need business support. WHS2011 is feature limited by design especially in the more advanced file sharing options which the OP might use for ACLs, FS logging, it may be great for simple use but its not really designed for the market the OP is wanting to use it on.

Microsoft subscriptions? Microsoft Technet and MSDN cannot be used in production environments. Never seen a production sub from Microsoft other than Office 365, MSSM through CTX for charities and their fully featured cloud setups (which run at a higher cost).

WHS2011 only supports up to 10 users (shares I/O open IIRC) whilst Server supports more out of the box.

Avathar77 · 7 Aug 2012 at 11:31

SBS 2011 Essentials has a 25 user/device limit!

RimBlock · 8 Aug 2012 at 05:23

jake108 said:
I've experienced problems of support with WHS2011 business environments (especially to do with the cloud). It is not supported for business use being a home product et al. If the OP is fixing / maintaining the server himself he may need business support. WHS2011 is feature limited by design especially in the more advanced file sharing options which the OP might use for ACLs, FS logging, it may be great for simple use but its not really designed for the market the OP is wanting to use it on.

Well you get what you pay for. If the OP is happy for community support and and has 10 users then WHS 2011 will most likely tick the boxes.

Remember they are using Win XP as a server at the moment and find VPN setup to be a bit advanced so I would suggest using advanced Win server features may not be the most likely scenario. SBS 2011 Essentials has the main parts and should the future requirements need more then a purchase up to Win Server 2008r2 or Windows Server 8 may be a reasonable move and more financially viable once the second location has established itself.

jake108 said:
Microsoft subscriptions? Microsoft Technet and MSDN cannot be used in production environments. Never seen a production sub from Microsoft other than Office 365, MSSM through CTX for charities and their fully featured cloud setups (which run at a higher cost).

Sure and OEM version are meant to be only available to system builders. Didn't say someone should only that I am aware that some other options for cheaper implementations which are utilized by some. There are also Student packs etc that some use for this purpose regardless of the licensing agreements.

jake108 said:
WHS2011 only supports up to 10 users (shares I/O open IIRC) whilst Server supports more out of the box.

Depends on the version bought.

Windows Server 2008r2 Version list - From Microsoft Partner network.
(estimated retail prices in USD);

Windows Server 2008r2 Foundation (OEM only) - 15 CAL: $N/A
Windows Server 2008r2 Standard - 5 CAL: $1,029
Windows Server 2008r2 Standard - 10 CAL: $1209
Windows Server 2008r2 Enterprise - 25 CAL: $3,919
Windows Server 2008r2 Datacenter - 0 CAL: $2,999
Windows Server 2008 CAL pack - 5 CAL: $199
Windows Server 2008 CAL pack - 20 CAL: $799

Windows Small Business Server 2011 Version list - From Microsoft Partner network.
(estimated retail prices in USD);

Windows SBS 2011 Essentials - 25 CAL (fixed max): $507
Windows SBS 2011 Standard - 5 SBS CAL: $1,096
Windows SBS 2011 Premium add-on - 5 SBS Premium CAL: $1209
Windows SBS 2011 CAL pack - 5 CAL: $361
Windows SBS 2011 CAL pack - 20 CAL: $1,447
Windows SBS 2011 Premium CAL pack - 5 CAL: $457
Windows SBS 2011 Premium CAL pack - 20 CAL: $1,831

Avathar77 said:
SBS 2011 Essentials has a 25 user/device limit!

Yep so I guess it would depend on the number of users / devices connecting in the OPs situation, currently unspecified, as to what may be the best fit. Most, if not all, versions have a trial version (excluding WHS 2011) so the OP can try before buying.

Remember the OP mentioned saving money and not having enough to pay for someone to setup a VPN so I would imagine WHS 2011 or maybe SBS 2011 Essentials at a push may be possible unless a reworking of the budget was viable.

RB