server New Work Server

[Dave110986]

Firstly this is my first post so, Hi guys!

 

I work in a small office with about 6 computers hooked up to a server for file storage and email exchange. It's old and decrepit and is in need of renewal - it's running 2003!!

 

Our budget is limited and I need to account for Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard and Exchange 2013.

 

Just on hardware (excluding storage), my budget is hopefully £400 / $600 (US). I'm thinking chassis, mobo, cpu, ram, boot drive (maybe).

 

We only run on a 1gbps internal network which I upgraded to about 6 weeks ago.

 

If you think my estimate is too low, what would you suggest for a solution? Again, it doesn't need to be singing and dancing.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SUPERMICRO-1U-8-core-2-26Ghz-24GB-INTEL-XEON-L5520-6016T-MTHF-1HE-SERVER-/121952636324?hash=item1c64f18da4:g:PSIAAOSwG-1Wu-43

 

Is the above item the kind of thing I'd need?

 

Cheers

 

Dave

[Julian5]

looks good, cpu and ram are used though. Email and file storage server dont need to have amazing specs though. im guessing the internal ethernet card is not 1gps

[Julian5]

and it has no warrany

[Windows7ge]

You could build your own, if it only requires 6~ users then you could pick up a ASRock C2550D4I a very feature ridden board and with 6 or more clients you could even theoretically configure team link and reach a 2gbps link (no one client will be above 1gbps it'll just help when multiple clients are hitting the server all at once). It includes the CPU, and 16GB ECC memory would cost around $100-$150. The chassis doesn't have to be anything special so long as it has good airflow (Unless you're after ascetics). Excluding storage you'd be looking at approx $400-500 USD.

[Windows7ge]

I found these on Newegg.com, I'm willing to bet you can source some of these else where for cheaper but it's a good start to the parts list:

Fractal Design Node 304 £55.99 ($79.99)

CORSAIR CX series CX500M 500W £37.99 ($54.99)

ASRock C2550D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard £192.99 ($279.99)

Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered £64.99 ($93.99)

 

Total: £351.96 ($508.96)

If you need quick storage you could get a WD Red 1TB for £41.99 ($60.99) however with just one you'll be right up against your £400 limit with no data redundancy. You might have to save up for the drives but at least when taking this route everything has a 30 day warranty (except for the motherboard, you'll have to contact ASRock directly if something goes wrong with it).

[Lurick]

Search Ebay for some used Dell R610 servers. I skimmed through and saw several for around 250 to 300 with nice specs like this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R610-V2-2x-E5645-SIX-6-Core-XEO-48GB-Ram-2x-146GB-1U-Rack-Server-/401100418957?hash=item5d6372af8d:g:3G4AAMXQs8FSNc8F

[tt2468]

5 hours ago, Lurick said:

Search Ebay for some used Dell R610 servers. I skimmed through and saw several for around 250 to 300 with nice specs like this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R610-V2-2x-E5645-SIX-6-Core-XEO-48GB-Ram-2x-146GB-1U-Rack-Server-/401100418957?hash=item5d6372af8d:g:3G4AAMXQs8FSNc8F

I use r610s for even the most critical applications. The reliability is almost unbeatable for the price.

[Lurick]

12 hours ago, tt2468 said:

I use r610s for even the most critical applications. The reliability is almost unbeatable for the price.

On top of that they are crazy quiet at even high loads which just adds to their amazingness.

[Dave110986]

Cheers guys

 

Lots of useful info

[Mikensan]

I second the R610, amazing server for an amazing price. If you want 3.5" drives, the R710 is a 2u server that offers 3.5". Drives are usually cheaper. Do not spend money from the ebay r610/r710s with drives, not worth it.

 

Exchange, even in small environments is a memory HOG. Also I would aim for 2.5ghz+ instead of the 2.26 (although very capable) - worth the extra change. I assume you'll be installing ESXI / vmware? Make sure you get the image from dell (it is free, does not require an account) who has posted the 6.0 ESXI image for R610. If you go this route and need help, feel free to ask.

[Blake]

On 4/27/2016 at 3:14 AM, Dave110986 said:

Firstly this is my first post so, Hi guys!

 

I work in a small office with about 6 computers hooked up to a server for file storage and email exchange. It's old and decrepit and is in need of renewal - it's running 2003!!

 

Our budget is limited and I need to account for Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard and Exchange 2013.

 

Just on hardware (excluding storage), my budget is hopefully £400 / $600 (US). I'm thinking chassis, mobo, cpu, ram, boot drive (maybe).

 

We only run on a 1gbps internal network which I upgraded to about 6 weeks ago.

 

If you think my estimate is too low, what would you suggest for a solution? Again, it doesn't need to be singing and dancing.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SUPERMICRO-1U-8-core-2-26Ghz-24GB-INTEL-XEON-L5520-6016T-MTHF-1HE-SERVER-/121952636324?hash=item1c64f18da4:g:PSIAAOSwG-1Wu-43

 

Is the above item the kind of thing I'd need?

 

Cheers

 

Dave

Just use office 365 for your emails. it also means that should your office get flooded/catch on fire they wont be affected.

Then look at getting a azure data container for your offsite backup.

Heck, you at the size where you might want to consider throwing everything in azure and opex-ing your IT budget rather then capex-ing it, check with your accountant.

 

If you prefer google's/amazon's cloud substitute offers where needed.

[leadeater]

8 hours ago, Blake said:

Just use office 365 for your emails. it also means that should your office get flooded/catch on fire they wont be affected.

Then look at getting a azure data container for your offsite backup.

Heck, you at the size where you might want to consider throwing everything in azure and opex-ing your IT budget rather then capex-ing it, check with your accountant.

 

If you prefer google's/amazon's cloud substitute offers where needed.

Especially now that there is Azure Cool Blob Storage at $0.01/GB which is very nice for backups and doesn't come with some of the annoyances like AWS Glacier. It is also not a lower performance storage only lower SLA.

 

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-azure-cool-storage/

[Guest]

Coming from a sever and network presales position

 

• Why do you need those specific versions, especially Server Standard? Unless you need features not found in Essentials, for small environments like yours, Essentials is a better bet
• As suggested look at a 365 migration to reduce TCO
• If you do want on premise hardware, what services do you need besides Exchange and a file server? AD? 

[Dave110986]

To try and answer everything put back at me:

 

1. Exchange Server: My boss (Company Owner) doesn't like the idea of externally hosted mail - no amount of persuasion on my part seems to change his mind
2. Off Site Backup: His opinion is the same w/ Backup. He'd rather host it himself in another of his properties.
3. Server OS: We want to run Microsoft but the version isn't too much of an issue. We have had trouble with Exchange 2003 syncing with 2016 Office apps so I assumed 12 R2 and later would be my best bet.
4. On Premise HW / Server Function: Exchange / File Storage / Manage Firewall and Security for Office Network.

Again, these are requirements of my boss and I'm open to better / cost effective alternatives.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Dave110986 said:

To try and answer everything put back at me:

 

1. Exchange Server: My boss (Company Owner) doesn't like the idea of externally hosted mail - no amount of persuasion on my part seems to change his mind
2. Off Site Backup: His opinion is the same w/ Backup. He'd rather host it himself in another of his properties.
3. Server OS: We want to run Microsoft but the version isn't too much of an issue. We have had trouble with Exchange 2003 syncing with 2016 Office apps so I assumed 12 R2 and later would be my best bet.
4. On Premise HW / Server Function: Exchange / File Storage / Manage Firewall and Security for Office Network.

Again, these are requirements of my boss and I'm open to better / cost effective alternatives.

1. Exchange on premise is just going to be costly - here in Aus, Exchange Std 2013 is about $1300 while CAL's are about $150 ea (RRP's). Moving this to 365 is going to cost either about $85 (essentials) or $215 (premium) per user depending on what you go with.
   1. 9F5-00003 - Office 365 Business Essentials (Cloud), Annual, OPEN NL - Office online, 1TB OneDrive, 50GB business email, Skype for Business
   2. 9F4-00003 - Office 365 Business Premium (Combined), Annual, OPEN NL - Office for 5 devices/user (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher), Office mobile (tablets), Office Online, 1TB OneDrive, 50GB business email, Skype for Business
2. I won't touch on this now - it's a whole other issue relating to bandwith and availibility. Generally RSync to a NAS from QNAP/Seagate will be a good option
3. Essentials 2012 R2 is a better bet - it's designed for small business as a replacement for SBS 2011. The reason why you'll have issues with 03 and Office 2016 is Microsoft are forcing people to upgrade by dropping support in Outlook 2016 for anything older than Exchange 07.
4. Did you need a domain controller and active directroy? If so, you're going to need a decent server spec as you'll have to virtualise these services - they don't like all running on the same OS instance.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Windspeed36 said:

1. Exchange on premise is just going to be costly - here in Aus, Exchange Std 2013 is about $1300 while CAL's are about $150 ea (RRP's). Moving this to 365 is going to cost either about $85 (essentials) or $215 (premium) per user depending on what you go with.
   1. 9F5-00003 - Office 365 Business Essentials (Cloud), Annual, OPEN NL - Office online, 1TB OneDrive, 50GB business email, Skype for Business
   2. 9F4-00003 - Office 365 Business Premium (Combined), Annual, OPEN NL - Office for 5 devices/user (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher), Office mobile (tablets), Office Online, 1TB OneDrive, 50GB business email, Skype for Business
2. I won't touch on this now - it's a whole other issue relating to bandwith and availibility. Generally RSync to a NAS from QNAP/Seagate will be a good option
3. Essentials 2012 R2 is a better bet - it's designed for small business as a replacement for SBS 2011. The reason why you'll have issues with 03 and Office 2016 is Microsoft are forcing people to upgrade by dropping support in Outlook 2016 for anything older than Exchange 07.
4. Did you need a domain controller and active directroy? If so, you're going to need a decent server spec as you'll have to virtualise these services - they don't like all running on the same OS instance.

@Dave110986

 

I'd also like to add to this that Office 365 would be a more reliable and secure system than what you are going to be able to do hosting it yourselves, so it's also not simply a cost benefit either. Office 365 has inbuilt redundancy where what is being proposed for your on premise setup is a single server and in an actual event where you would need to use your Exchange backups it will prove to more difficult than your boss would seem to expect.

[Dave110986]

So, having spoken to my boss again today there are a few more items to consider that I've initially overlooked.

 

1. Our current server also acts as the DNS "host". He wants to keep it that way.
2. Still wants Active Directory to control login and permissions for client devices and files etc.
3. Would still want the server to provide network security (firewall etc.)
4. He still isn't convinced by O365. It would be £93.60 (excl. Tax) per user / per year
   • I see Microsoft offer Exchange Online at £30 / £60 per user / per year

https://products.office.com/en-gb/exchange/compare-microsoft-exchange-online-plans

 

From what you guys are saying it seems the right thing to do would be to take O365 and have a file server. Unfortunately I can't see that happening. So, can I run the following on a Dell R710?

 

1. Exchange
2. Active Directory
3. DNS "Host"
4. File Server

I note earlier Windspeed36 mentioned Virtulisation. Considering this I'm looking for a high core count and plenty of RAM? I'm going for a dual socket setup - thinking hex core Xeons.

 

Something like this:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/R710-PowerEdge-Dell-Rack-Server-Twin-Hex-Core-E5645-Xeon-2-40GHz-72GB-RAM-PERC6-/141912196984?hash=item210aa04778:g:B6gAAOSwQYZWzXOt

 

Is this better suited to my needs than the R610?

 

If I had my way I'd just have the email hosted externally and have a big NAS. We don't do anything fancy.

 

Cheers as always guys and thanks for holding my hand through this.

 

Dave

[leadeater]

The linked server on ebay you provided will do the job. Yes you will most definitely want to use virtualization, never all in one those types of services on a single OS.

 

The Active Directory server will also have DNS included, but is this just internal DNS or do you require external DNS for your domain as you host your public name records?

 

Based on the information you have given only 3 VMs are required. AD 4GB ram, Exchange 12GB-16GB, File Server 4GB-8GB so allowing for extra I would look for anything with 32GB ram or more that is a good price. Also be careful about the I/O requirements, don't run with too few or too low RPM disks else performance will be not great.

 

Unless you need all the extra features of O365 then Exchange Online is the one you actually want.

[Scheer]

It seems like every month there is one of the e3-1225v3 servers on sale around $300 USD. I've picked up a couple in the past year under $300 without rebate, not sure how often that happens though. Either the Dell T20 or Lenovo T140... not sure about availability where you are located, but it is worth checking into. The CPU in this is nearly as powerful as dual L5520's like the one in your first post, but this way it is new with a warranty and much more power efficient and quiet. The downside is that RAM is relatively expensive since it needs to be DDR3 ECC U-Dimms (U for unregistered), R-Dimms (the cheap ones you see on eBay) will NOT work.

 

http://slickdeals.net/f/8666098-dell-poweredge-t20-server-xeon-e3-1225-v3-4gb-ddr3-1tb-hdd-249-after-120-rebate-free-s-h?src=SiteSearch

 

 

 

In my opinion, used server hardware is great for playing around with, but I'd stay away from it for business use. I also think 6 users is really small for bothering to host your own Exchange... but looks like you don't have a choice there.

 

As Windspeed says, go for Server 2012 R2 Essentials, no CALs needed and is good for up to 25 users.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Scheer said:

It seems like every month there is one of the e3-1225v3 servers on sale around $300 USD. I've picked up a couple in the past year under $300 without rebate, not sure how often that happens though. Either the Dell T20 or Lenovo T140... not sure about availability where you are located, but it is worth checking into. The CPU in this is nearly as powerful as dual L5520's like the one in your first post, but this way it is new with a warranty and much more power efficient and quiet. The downside is that RAM is relatively expensive since it needs to be DDR3 ECC U-Dimms (U for unregistered), R-Dimms (the cheap ones you see on eBay) will NOT work.

 

http://slickdeals.net/f/8666098-dell-poweredge-t20-server-xeon-e3-1225-v3-4gb-ddr3-1tb-hdd-249-after-120-rebate-free-s-h?src=SiteSearch

 

 

 

In my opinion, used server hardware is great for playing around with, but I'd stay away from it for business use. I also think 6 users is really small for bothering to host your own Exchange... but looks like you don't have a choice there.

 

As Windspeed says, go for Server 2012 R2 Essentials, no CALs needed and is good for up to 25 users.

Alternatively to that server the ML10v2 from HP is also reguarly on sale with the same spec. +1 on the not buying used for business use.

 

You'll also need to factor into the cost if you're using HyperV vs VMWare to host your VM's.

[Electronics Wizardy]

On 4/27/2016 at 10:14 AM, Dave110986 said:

Firstly this is my first post so, Hi guys!

 

I work in a small office with about 6 computers hooked up to a server for file storage and email exchange. It's old and decrepit and is in need of renewal - it's running 2003!!

 

Our budget is limited and I need to account for Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard and Exchange 2013.

 

Just on hardware (excluding storage), my budget is hopefully £400 / $600 (US). I'm thinking chassis, mobo, cpu, ram, boot drive (maybe).

 

We only run on a 1gbps internal network which I upgraded to about 6 weeks ago.

 

If you think my estimate is too low, what would you suggest for a solution? Again, it doesn't need to be singing and dancing.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SUPERMICRO-1U-8-core-2-26Ghz-24GB-INTEL-XEON-L5520-6016T-MTHF-1HE-SERVER-/121952636324?hash=item1c64f18da4:g:PSIAAOSwG-1Wu-43

 

Is the above item the kind of thing I'd need?

 

Cheers

 

Dave

I highly suggest buying a dell or hp server as you get support, which is very usefull. With a dell or hp, if it fails you call dell. If you buy off ebay and it fails who do you call? The price is also about the same and you get winserver preinstalled. I suggest someting like a dell t130 and with windows server 2012, quad core skylake and 8gb ram is about 800.