What server to buy for 60 computers in an accountancy firm.

The Big Fella

Ok guys Ive been handed 30000 euro to buy 25 computers and a server capable of storing all of the companies current and future data. We hope to grow to 60 computers by next year. What computer would suit the office workers which must run the microsoft windows operating system. thanks I just want your preferences really.

coylemj

You will be highly dependent on some local support since I see you're in Offaly so I suggest you search out IT suppliers in your part of the country. What you are asking for here is free IT consultancy, most of the users on this forum are end users, not IT managers.

dreamers75

Someone handed you this money to you and you have no clue what to get. This thread is a piss take yeah?


Seriously WTF?

Would suggest you contact datapac or other likeminded company and ask them professionaly what to do.

Wow etc!

The Big Fella

dreamers75 wrote: »

Someone handed you this money to you and you have no clue what to get. This thread is a piss take yeah?


Seriously WTF?

Would suggest you contact datapac or other likeminded company and ask them professionaly what to do.

Wow etc!

Dont get your knickers in a twist dreamers75. Its if I was handed €30000 what computers would I choose. Im just looking for advice as Im doing a business information manegment project! First year college student:eek::eek::eek:

AlmightyCushion

It's currently impossible to say. You need to know more about the usage pattern of the users, some could be for just basic office usage, some could be for high end video encoding. The computers used would be extremely different depending on the scenario. You also need to find out what the server would be for. Is it just for storage, if so what types of files? Once you discover this you'd need to find storage requirements for a similar company to the one you are "buying" for. Unless this company has a good IT department then they would need good support.

Depending on how necessary the computers are to the company (can they afford any down time at all) depends on the level of support you need.

These are just some of the questions I can think up of the top of my head. You need to know a lot more about this company then you currently do to get a better idea of what they need.

Cuddlesworth

The Big Fella wrote: »

Dont get your knickers in a twist dreamers75. Its if I was handed €30000 what computers would I choose. Im just looking for advice as Im doing a business information manegment project! First year college student:eek::eek::eek:

You know, when I was in college I did my own homework.

As said above though, how long is a piece of string? You can't buy without knowing your requirements.

hobochris

If your not sure, I would recommend look in Dell's direction.

They do a fairly good business support service.

I would budget:

- 6-8k for servers.

-3k for network infrastructure.

That leaves you 19k for the computers(760 per machine) which would be average Spec for an office(i3, win 7 pro,320gb,4gb ram).

You will likely get a discount for buying in bulk as well.

The Big Fella

The server most be capable of storing files from a specialised accountacy software that runs on microsoft windows operating system. The server will initially have to have to store data for 25 computers but must be capable of runing 60 computers in a years time. What spec and model would ye choose. I appreciate all your contributions.

Blowfish

The Big Fella wrote: »

The server most be capable of storing files from a specialised accountacy software that runs on microsoft windows operating system. The server will initially have to have to store data for 25 computers but must be capable of runing 60 computers in a years time. What spec and model would ye choose. I appreciate all your contributions.

That's still far too vague to give any sort of reasonable answer.

What type of files are they? How big are they? Is it client/server software with a database or just a file server they need? What's the failover requirement?

The Big Fella

Im not looking for precise answers, I Just want to know what spec and model server would be suitable for such a company. Thanks

Blowfish

The Big Fella wrote: »

Im not looking for precise answers, I Just want to know what spec and model server would be suitable for such a company. Thanks

Knowing your requirements precisely is one of, if not the most important parts of IT. Attempting to 'fluff' it will just end up in failure and/or exceeding costs.

If what you've given above is all the information you've been given, then the question is pretty much unanswerable.

slave1

As this is college stuff can I suggest you do the legwork, make some mistakes/tweaks and then take it back here for critique of what you propose rather than get us to do your work for you...

lmimmfn

Any old second hand pentium 4's form 8 years ago would do the above at about 100euro each, and throw a few TB drives in the server one. HOWEVER they wouldnt do it very well at all mind but as you have no information on requirements for usage, data flow, power, general user work flow, performance requirements, user expectations its completely impossible to answer your question.

Your original post to us is like asking, whats a good boat if i want to move stuff around the world?.

hobochris

The Big Fella wrote: »

The server most be capable of storing files from a specialised accountacy software that runs on microsoft windows operating system. The server will initially have to have to store data for 25 computers but must be capable of runing 60 computers in a years time. What spec and model would ye choose. I appreciate all your contributions.

When you say running are you talking Virtualisation? Ghoasting the OS Image of the end machines? network drives? shared drive? hosting database?

CptSternn

Call a managed services solution provider and have them lease you PCs and host your back-end.

Save lots of money.

Thats the norm these days sure - companies would much rather pay a set fee every year and get new hardware automatically every few years instead of having to pay a variable amount, and keep replacing hardware, upgrading, paying for maintenance, paying for maintenance contracts. etc.

One amount, you pay that, done.

AlmightyCushion

Blowfish wrote: »

Knowing your requirements precisely is one of, if not the most important parts of IT. Attempting to 'fluff' it will just end up in failure and/or exceeding costs.

If what you've given above is all the information you've been given, then the question is pretty much unanswerable.

Exactly. If this was a real world situation and you spent that €30,000 without knowing more there is a very good chance you'd have wasted a good proportion of that €30,000. You need to know the requirements a lot better.

Capt'n Midnight

What software are you using ?

What sort of server does it need ?

The need for windows doesn't mean you can't run a terminal server with very thin, diskless, clients connecting to it.

The clients will need client access licenses, but they could be running windows / linux / OSX , since the program runs on the server.


If the software can run on a low spec machine spend the extra on decent monitors.

npwinter

Here's a very simple answer which should probably suit a simple question with not enough info in it. Suggest a fully hosted environment:

Microsoft now charge end users €4.26 per month for a 2gb mailbox. Using a sharepoint site to store all your files (perfect in theory, not very practicle for various reasons in reality), roughly €4 per user. Buy a very low-end server (maybe an ML110 for about €400) to serve as your domain controller / print server. Buy entry-level PC's from Dell/HP/Lenovo (look at eBay) for roughly €400 each.

Hey presto you have a lovely setup which answers your lecturers questions. Just hope they don't start asking technical questions.

MichealKenny

I'd say 100GB of space for each computer connected to the server, so 3 2TB drives would be fine, but seriously, you should really consider doing your own homework.

Capt'n Midnight

MichealKenny wrote: »

I'd say 100GB of space for each computer connected to the server, so 3 2TB drives would be fine, but seriously, you should really consider doing your own homework.

It's an accountancy firm , unlikely to have any work related multimedia

something like backuppc should be able to backup the entire nework to less than 100GB

MSSQL has hard limits on database size unless you dig deep into your pockets so again you can't buy new drives too small

k123456

Consider RAID (5), gives you redundancy if you disk goes down.

You need to buy more phyical disks to achieve RAID, and you server will need slots to accomadate the disks

SouperComputer

Im with Capt Midnigh. Forget "PC's" unless you REALLY need them. Typically more maintenance as it gives you more to have to lock down and manage not to mention power usage. It will require more specialise knowledge however.

Server of some description with RAID 5.
ESX or other virtualization to make expansion a little easier.
Full backup and RESTORE plan, combination of onsite, off-site and online backups is ideal.
Series of winterm or citrix clients for the users
Roll out PCs on an as-needed basis.

Capt'n Midnight

k123456 wrote: »

Consider RAID (5), gives you redundancy if you disk goes down.

You need to buy more phyical disks to achieve RAID, and you server will need slots to accomadate the disks

[RANT]once a disk fails you are very vulnerable until it is replaced.

If a second disk fails before the array is rebuilt then :eek::eek::eek::eek:

And because there are N disks then it's actually N times more likely a second disk will fail then when you are relying on the one surviving disk in a mirror. [/RANT]



Like I said if you need the performance or LOTS of disk space and you have bods looking after and you can't have any downtime and you don't mind paying several times the price of storage then RAID 5 is fine.

swampgas

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

[RANT]once a disk fails you are very vulnerable until it is replaced.

If a second disk fails before the array is rebuilt then :eek::eek::eek::eek:

And because there are N disks then it's actually N times more likely a second disk will fail then when you are relying on the one surviving disk in a mirror. [/RANT]



Like I said if you need the performance or LOTS of disk space and you have bods looking after and you can't have any downtime and you don't mind paying several times the price of storage then RAID 5 is fine.

Disks have never been cheaper - RAID 1+0 is far better than RAID 5 for many applications these days (IMO).

http://www.aput.net/~jheiss/raid10/
http://www.miracleas.com/BAARF/BAARF2.html Battle Against Any RAID Five

yankinlk

Just write one word on the paper and hand it in.

Cloud.

You will most likely get an A.

rolion

yankinlk wrote: »

Just write one word on the paper and hand it in.

Cloud.

You will most likely get an A.

good one...it looks that everybody talks these days about it...you can't go right but you can't go wrong either !!

Capt'n Midnight

rolion wrote: »

good one...it looks that everybody talks these days about it...you can't go right but you can't go wrong either !!

How many dot coms failed back in the day ?

How many big computer and telecoms companies have failed over the years ?


If you go cloud or any outsourcing you must have your own backup and a way to operate if the cloud ain't there tomorrow or starts racking up the prices.

maccored

you'd really need to know what the company is going to be running on the desktops, what software the servers are going to need to control (databases etc etc) and if you want to pay licensing fees and go the Microsoft route, or (as I'd recommend), set up a linux server and run Ubuntu on the desktops. You would though need more than one server - maybe a cluster of three. That way at least you have redundancy should anything fail.