School Server Build

[OMGitsGhost]

I need a Parts list for a class room server in a normal PC case. Around $1000 with the programs to run it. 

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, OMGitsGhost said:

I need a Parts list for a class room server in a normal PC case. Around $1000 with the programs to run it. 

Any specific server version? 

like 2016, 2012 ect

[ShadyHost]

5 minutes ago, OMGitsGhost said:

I need a Parts list for a class room server in a normal PC case. Around $1000 with the programs to run it. 

Server is a bit vague. You could go with a Pentium G3258 and some rando board and build a cardboard box case like I did for a file PC, and that would handle most server tasks.

 

Would cost you like $300 and some change out the door. 

[OMGitsGhost]

1 minute ago, Ronnie76 said:

Any specific server version? 

like 2016, 2012 ect

2012 and a Redundant PSU

[OpticFusion]

You make me feel poor.

[OpticFusion]

What programs are you going to run?

[OMGitsGhost]

1 minute ago, OpticFusion said:

What programs are you going to run?

Windows server 2012

[Blucyrik]

Just now, OMGitsGhost said:

Windows server 2012

Doesn't a Windows Server license cost like $800 or something? So wouldn't most of your budget go towards that?

[OMGitsGhost]

3 minutes ago, Blucyrik said:

Doesn't a Windows Server license cost like $800 or something? So wouldn't most of your budget go towards that?

Pre-built cheaper? Since it comes with it.

[Tech N Gamer]

5 minutes ago, Blucyrik said:

Doesn't a Windows Server license cost like $800 or something? So wouldn't most of your budget go towards that?

Unless he gets it from here. Then he might be able to get more powerful hardware.

[OMGitsGhost]

1 minute ago, Tech N Gamer said:

Unless he gets it from here. Then he might be able to get more powerful hardware.

Good, but only some site we can order from 

[Aditya_V]

How much storage would you require?

Would you be running any sort if RAID?

[OMGitsGhost]

9 minutes ago, Aditya_V said:

How much storage would you require?

Would you be running any sort if RAID?

possible raid is okay and about 10TB

[Aditya_V]

4 minutes ago, OMGitsGhost said:

possible raid is okay and about 10TB

Which RAID?

Would there be many systems (more than 4) connected to the NAS?

 

[OMGitsGhost]

Just now, Aditya_V said:

Which RAID?

Would there be many systems (more than 4) connected to the NAS?

 

10 with about 30 PC constantly hitting it

[brwainer]

48 minutes ago, OMGitsGhost said:

10 with about 30 PC constantly hitting it

Just the drives alone are going to eat most of your budget - you probably want 8 drives at least so that you get good performance out of RAID 10. 3TB WD RED drives are about $110 each. 8 of those would be 24TB raw capacity, 12TB after RAID10, and since Windows uses Tib and GiB instead of TB and GB, that would give you ~10.9 TiB that you are looking for. Total cost for drives alone is $880 - and 3TB drives are currently the best cost per GB of the available capacities right now. For a system that students will rely on for schoolwork, you don't want to cheap out on a non- server motherboard, but you could go with a CPU that isn't Xeon - some of them even have ECC support, but you should look at Intel ARK for details. Since you aren't doing parity (RAID 5/6) ECC memory isn't required but still highly recommended. I imagine you are planning on using Storage Spaces for your storage, in which case you should know that a Mirror virtual drive is really like RAID 10 not RAID1, and it should usually configure itself to use all of the drives - but sometimes it has to be forced via creating the virtual disk in PowerShell. You'd be looking to create a Mirror drive with 4 columns. (The setting for Mirror, or the setting for "-numberofdatacopies 2" makes it RAID 1, the setting "-number of columns 4" makes it RAID0 across 4 drives, and a virtual disk created with both settings would be RAID10 across 8 drives). If you aren't going to use storage spaces, you need to account extra budget, at least $100, for buying a RAID controller, or get a motherboard that has one builtin - the Intel chipset builtin one only has 6 Sata ports of course - but there are boards with builtin LSI controllers.

 

I understand that you have a limited budget, but what you are asking just isn't feasible for $1000. If you can get the Server 2012R2 license elsewhere, like a donation from a business or a grant, then you can probably get all the hardware for $1500-$1800.

[leadeater]

12 hours ago, OMGitsGhost said:

Good, but only some site we can order from 

Surely the school has an existing Microsoft Agreement. Schools here in New Zealand basically get free use of almost every Microsoft product for an unlimited amount. If not typical prices for Server 2012 R2 Standard at education prices are around $95 USD. Get in contact with an IT service company with education experience in your country and get some clarification before purchasing any Microsoft product.

 

For the server hardware it is much safer and not that much more to purchase a base system with no disks from HP, Dell, IBM etc then buy your own WD reds etc. Realistically you wont be able to build something as well designed and robust yourself. A lot of work goes in to power distribution and airflow management in servers so they will properly operate when fully populated with disks, controller cards and network cards in sub optimal environments (no proper air con). There are plenty of tower/pedestal models available.

[Kadah]

Trying to figure out what the specs are... lets see

Windows Sever 2012

Redundant PSU

10TB raid10

30 clients

Around $1000

Correct?

 

The Win 2012 license with 30 CALs is going to be about 80-150% of that, and bundling discounts don't happen with servers. EDU discounts do, but they are not much ($650 with 5 CALs).

Raid10 is going to be difficult with this budget. Four 5TB drives at about $200 each.

Cheapest town case I could quickly source with dual PSUs was a Supermicro for $565, the cheapest with mobo was over $1100.

 

Either going to need a higher budget or look at referbed hardware. The software licencing is going to be the worst, sadly.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Kadah said:

EDU discounts do, but they are not much ($650 with 5 CALs).

Wow the EDU prices in the US suck something major compared to New Zealand based on that price you mentioned.

[cgtechuk]

Get a Microserver - HP make them and they would suit what you want to do with them, There is also buy an old HP / Dell Server like a ML350G6 tower, They are cheap as chips and keep up with what you want to do with it both solutions would just involve plugging in some disks and you are good to go. I wouldnt go custom here if you ware looking to save cash

[Kadah]

2 minutes ago, cgtechuk said:

Get a Microserver - HP make them and they would suit what you want to do with them

I've got a G7 Microserver at home. They do not have redundant PSUs, the drives are not hot-swapable (unless you add a Smart Array card which leads to...), have limited expandablity and are difficult to work on. The G8 looks like its easier to pull the board on and comes with iLO vs, the G7, but only has the single pci-e expansion instead of 2.

If I hadn't gotten my G7 at such a discount, the G8 might have been nicer, but if I had the space at the time, any of the full size servers would be preferred. The Microserver is rather noisy while the 7+ year old ML350 G5 still running at one of my offices is actually quieter.

[cgtechuk]

Just now, Kadah said:

I've got a G7 Microserver at home. They do not have redundant PSUs, the drives are not hot-swapable (unless you add a Smart Array card which leads to...), have limited expandablity and are difficult to work on. The G8 looks like its easier to pull the board on and comes with iLO vs, the G7, but only has the single pci-e expansion instead of 2.

If I hadn't gotten my G7 at such a discount, the G8 might have been nicer, but if I had the space at the time, any of the full size servers would be preferred. The Microserver is rather noisy while the 7+ year old ML350 G5 still running at one of my offices is actually quieter.

I use a ML350 G6 at home and its got the redundant PSUs in there and the built in smart array and the 6 drive support, Got it for less than $100 USD at a auction, Its very quietly but holy moly when it gets something really tough to work on in my case Transcoding and rendering you hear it firing up like a hovercraft lol.

 

I had a G7 and upgraded to the G8, The raid worked out the box from the HP 350 and plugged straight in and was detected in the G8 Microserver without me doing anything they are all compatible, I found the G7 just a tad on the slow side and the lack of ILO was annoying.

 

The G8 is a fair bit quieter but again the 1 PCiE is a negative.

[Kadah]

Just now, cgtechuk said:

I use a ML350 G6 at home and its got the redundant PSUs in there and the built in smart array and the 6 drive support, Got it for less than $100 USD at a auction, Its very quietly but holy moly when it gets something really tough to work on in my case Transcoding and rendering you hear it firing up like a hovercraft lol.

 

I had a G7 and upgraded to the G8, The raid worked out the box from the HP 350 and plugged straight in and was detected in the G8 Microserver without me doing anything they are all compatible, I found the G7 just a tad on the slow side and the lack of ILO was annoying.

 

The G8 is a fair bit quieter but again the 1 PCiE is a negative.

I picked up a stack of 5 or 6 DL380 G6's on ebay buy it now a couple years ago for less than $150 each shipped with procs and some ram. That's pretty much their normal price now, HP servers get retired after 3 years in large quantities, so they are a great option for non-mission critical applications since they'll easily do 7+ years with little maintenance.

 

Yeah, the lack of iLO and the slow proc on the G7 are my biggest complaints. The addon iLO card for it is too expensive. For what I'm using it for, MythTV backend and a NAS, it works fine. I used one of the PCI-E for a Smart-Array with cache and BBU, and the other for USB 3.0 (which originally was a GPU for HDMI that did not work out). When I have to redo it next time, it will be an ESXi host with larger HDDs, either on this hardware or something else.