Server 2012 R2 on i9 9900K

[kbattousaih]

Hello,

        I am not a tech guru like linus and I am currently trying to setup a new File Storage server for my office which will only running from 9 am to 5:30 pm (Mon-Sat). But I want to run AD on this one cos there are over 70 users accessing it only for file storage.
 

       Here is the specs: of hardwares that I am thinking to use for it.

i9 9900K
Z390 Aorus Master
GSkill 8GB x 2 @ 2400 mhz
Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 1000W 80+ Platinum ( 12 Year warranty )
Colorful CN600S 480GB M.2 NVME SSD
2TB HDD
Corsair 760T Case
Corsair H115i RGB Platinum

 

Please help me out. Thank you for your time.

[GoldenLag]

what sort of read/write workloads will you be doing. you probably want to sway away from 9900k and consumer CPUs for HEDT with the likes of threadripper for the extra IO. 

[Stefan Payne]

20 minutes ago, kbattousaih said:

I am not a tech guru like linus and I am currently trying to setup a new File Storage server for my office

Then maybe you should order an Off the shelves Fileserver from Dell, HP, Lenovo or whoever else.

 

Quote

       Here is the specs: of hardwares that I am thinking to use for it.

i9 9900K
Z390 Aorus Master
GSkill 8GB x 2 @ 2400 mhz
Seasonic Prime Ultra Platinum 1000W 80+ Platinum ( 12 Year warranty )
Colorful CN600S 480GB M.2 NVME SSD
2TB HDD
Corsair 760T Case
Corsair H115i RGB Platinum

 

Please help me out. Thank you for your time.

Please use ECC Memory - wich no "higher end" Intel don't support.

So either use real server hardware or something else...

 

The next thing: Server 2012 on a new server? RLY?! Especially since the Hardware you chose isn't officially compatible with the Desktop Version of your Windows!

If you have to stick with Windows, you should evaulate a more recent system.

 

A Consumer Water Cooler is not something you want in a server, get a decent "Air Cooler" as there is nothingt to go wrong with them.

 

And what about Storage? 
What about RAID?
What about Backup??

 

Since he seems like an Expert in Storage systems - wich I am not, I tag @leadeater He probably (certainly) knows more than I do about Servers.

[kbattousaih]

11 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

what sort of read/write workloads will you be doing. you probably want to sway away from 9900k and consumer CPUs for HEDT with the likes of threadripper for the extra IO. 

only for file storage.

[kbattousaih]

7 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Then maybe you should order an Off the shelves Fileserver from Dell, HP, Lenovo or whoever else.

 

Please use ECC Memory - wich no "higher end" Intel don't support.

So either use real server hardware or something else...

 

The next thing: Server 2012 on a new server? RLY?! Especially since the Hardware you chose isn't officially compatible with the Desktop Version of your Windows!

If you have to stick with Windows, you should evaulate a more recent system.

 

A Consumer Water Cooler is not something you want in a server, get a decent "Air Cooler" as there is nothingt to go wrong with them.

 

And what about Storage? 
What about RAID?
What about Backup??

 

Since he seems like an Expert in Storage systems - wich I am not, I tag @leadeater He probably (certainly) knows more than I do about Servers.

Only using this server as local file storage server. Nothing serious computing or processing complex server jobs. But I have two major concerns. There are no official distributors for Major Companies like HP, Intel, Dell, etc... and My users need security for their files. That's why I choose to run AD and created AD users in the first place.

[GoldenLag]

Just now, kbattousaih said:

only for file storage.

id go with what @Stefan Payne `s suggestion. 

 

but is it only for file storage?

what sort of files?

Raid, Backup and more?

Just now, kbattousaih said:

Only using this server as local file storage server. Nothing serious computing or processing complex server jobs.

and what sort of files will it be handling. you said there would be 70 people accesing it. how much will they pull off the server?

[Stefan Payne]

5 minutes ago, kbattousaih said:

Only using this server as local file storage server. Nothing serious computing or processing complex server jobs.

Then you should ask someone who knows what he's doing and call DELL or so.

The Setup you've listed so far doesn't make sense at all for your enviroment.

 

Especially if 70 people are accessing the storage, a simple HDD is craping out easily, so you need either Tiered Storage or move towards SSD - SERVER Grade SSDs, not the consumer stuff.

And you might want some kind of Redundancy as well, so if a Drive dies, your stuff isn't down in the toilette and the Server down for days...

 

So with that, you also might want to think about a backup server that mirrors everything you have on the main server, if something goes wrong.

 

 

And then there is the Operating system: You do not use 7 year old stuff when you replace it!

You evaluate every available option!

 

So that is the basics, the real infos you might (or might not) get, when leadeater finds this thread.

He seems like he knows a bit more about storage and servers than I do...

 

[LukeSavenije]

5 minutes ago, kbattousaih said:

only for file storage.

still... NO ECC MEMORY SUPPORT
 

I agree with @Stefan Payne. if something in the server dies, it's down for days because you have to look what part it is. if your motherboard breaks, it isn't intel's problem.

 

but if you do want something self-built, get either threadripper or xeon for the ecc memory support, even if it's just for storage

[kbattousaih]

3 minutes ago, GoldenLag said:

id go with what @Stefan Payne `s suggestion. 

 

but is it only for file storage?

what sort of files?

Raid, Backup and more?

and what sort of files will it be handling. you said there would be 70 people accesing it. how much will they pull off the server?

Mostly, they will be saving their back up office files on the sever and sharing each between each other. I only need raid-1.

[LukeSavenije]

1 minute ago, kbattousaih said:

Mostly, they will be saving their back up office files on the sever and sharing each between each other. I only need raid-1.

so just a simple mirror

 

you have no idea about server hardware it seems

 

I want the following info:

 

How much storage is needed?

how many people are going to access it simaltaniously?

how critical is the server?

what is your budget?

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, kbattousaih said:

Mostly, they will be saving their back up office files on the sever and sharing each between each other. I only need raid-1.

You still need to answer a lot more.

 

What sort of files?

How frequent?

How many will be accessing at one time?

 

Either how it starts to seem a model from HP or Dell like Stefan suggested is the way to go. 

[Stefan Payne]

Especially:
How big are the files? How many files?

[kbattousaih]

1 minute ago, LukeSavenije said:

so just a simple mirror

 

you have no idea about server hardware it seems

 

I want the following info:

 

How much storage is needed?

how many people are going to access it simaltaniously?

how critical is the server?

what is your budget?

Just merely 2 TB is enough.

Roughly around 30 people are going to access it simultaneously.

It will be the only server in the office but can bear the 1 day downtime.

My budget is around 1500 USD.

 

You wouldn't believe if I told u that my current running server is 2003 Enterprise edition on i5 cpu. It is running slow as hell but not giving me any major trouble at anytime at all. Good girl, she is.

[kbattousaih]

3 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Especially:
How big are the files? How many files?

Mostly MS Office files, pdf files, windows application installers, photos and music.

[zeibis]

Dell R230 would be a start but without ECC, but you have few good options with HDDs and PCIe SSD.

[leadeater]

38 minutes ago, kbattousaih said:

Only using this server as local file storage server. Nothing serious computing or processing complex server jobs. But I have two major concerns. There are no official distributors for Major Companies like HP, Intel, Dell, etc... and My users need security for their files. That's why I choose to run AD and created AD users in the first place.

Can you buy off say Amazon and pay the shipping? Something like an HPE Proliant MicroServer or ML110 will fit your needs.

 

Use a more resilient configuration of 2x 120GB or 2x 240GB SSD for the OS and 2x 2TB HDD for data.

 

1 hour ago, kbattousaih said:

But I want to run AD on this one cos there are over 70 users accessing it only for file storage.

Don't run the AD role on the same OS as the file server, installing the AD role changes how Windows Server functions and turn on extra network level encryption/signing which has a rather larger performance impact. Security wise you wouldn't serve file share out of an AD OS either.

 

Install something like ESXi, create two VMs (a single Windows Server Standard license allows 2 virtual OS instances), one for the AD server and the other for the file server.

[kbattousaih]

22 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Can you buy off say Amazon and pay the shipping? Something like an HPE Proliant MicroServer or ML110 will fit your needs.

 

Use a more resilient configuration of 2x 120GB or 2x 240GB SSD for the OS and 2x 2TB HDD for data.

 

Don't run the AD role on the same OS as the file server, installing the AD role changes how Windows Server functions and turn on extra network level encryption/signing which has a rather larger performance impact. Security wise you wouldn't serve file share out of an AD OS either.

 

Install something like ESXi, create two VMs (a single Windows Server Standard license allows 2 virtual OS instances), one for the AD server and the other for the file server.

Sorry, my country is not include in the Amazon shipping list. Thank you for the advice. Even buying licenses for windows is hard in our country. I am from Myanmar. Whenever I need something from online, I have to ask some friends who are working abroad.

[leadeater]

8 minutes ago, kbattousaih said:

Sorry, my country is not include in the Amazon shipping list. Thank you for the advice. Even buying licenses for windows is hard in our country. I am from Myanmar. Whenever I need something from online, I have to ask some friends who are working abroad.

Ok no problem, still need that Windows Server OS to run AD but that 2 instance virtualization entitlement also applies to Server 2012/2012 R2 btw. Since you won't be able to get validated server hardware my advice would be to run Windows Hyper-V Server (this is free) which means you get all the latest features then create 2 VMs like I suggested to run the AD role and file server role.

[kbattousaih]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

Ok no problem, still need that Windows Server OS to run AD but that 2 instance virtualization entitlement also applies to Server 2012/2012 R2 btw. Since you won't be able to get validated server hardware my advice would be to run Windows Hyper-V Server (this is free) which means you get all the latest features then create 2 VMs like I suggested to run the AD role and file server role.

Thank you. I will try it that way. Hey, I contacted to some hardware distributors in our country and they sent me some price list for server system they can deliver. I will put those in the attachment. Would u please check for me and advice me for which would be best for my system.

quo10(16.2.19).pdf

quo10A(16.2.19).pdf

quo10B(16.2.19).pdf

quo10C(16.2.19).pdf

[leadeater]

14 minutes ago, kbattousaih said:

Thank you. I will try it that way. Hey, I contacted to some hardware distributors in our country and they sent me some price list for server system they can deliver. I will put those in the attachment. Would u please check for me and advice me for which would be best for my system.

quo10(16.2.19).pdf

quo10A(16.2.19).pdf

quo10B(16.2.19).pdf

quo10C(16.2.19).pdf

Do you have a rack to put any of those rackmount options in to or decent clean and secure bench top?

 

The Dell T30 is the cheapest, obviously, and will do what you need. It does need a few extra upgrades, double the RAM, 2 2TB HDD instead of the 1TB, and a small OS SSD. The next best option is the Dell R230, also need double the RAM, 2x 2TB HDD and an OS SSD, this is rackmount server though so keep that in mind as to where you can actually put it.

 

Other options are quite well above your suggest price you wanted and don't offer anything that important to your needs so just extra expense for no gain.

 

For a nice compact system the T30 is actually really good, has 4 3.5" disk bays and 2 2.5" disk bays so can expand a fair amount storage wise.

[leadeater]

Also once you get a system let us know, I can guide you through setup/configuration. It's important to get the base Hyper-V system setup correct because once you have VMs running on it you can't really make any changes so it's a one shot deal. AD also isn't that hard to setup, just don't make the mistake of using a domain name that ends in .local as that is a really bad idea. Those domain suffixes are used by Apple/Macs for default internal stuff so if you ever have one of those on your network it can be a pain, just avoid it and use something else like .ad or .lan, anything but .local.

[kbattousaih]

31 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Also once you get a system let us know, I can guide you through setup/configuration. It's important to get the base Hyper-V system setup correct because once you have VMs running on it you can't really make any changes so it's a one shot deal. AD also isn't that hard to setup, just don't make the mistake of using a domain name that ends in .local as that is a really bad idea. Those domain suffixes are used by Apple/Macs for default internal stuff so if you ever have one of those on your network it can be a pain, just avoid it and use something else like .ad or .lan, anything but .local.

You are a great help, my friend. T30 doesn't have expandable option. It's stock version. I am also thinking of getting T140. I believe I can squeeze some more cash from my boss. How about the OS? I think virtual machine licenses are so expensive. And also, I have so many users in my office and wouldn't the licenses for them cost so much money? To be honest, I am currently using unofficial Server 2003 on my current Server.

Edited March 13, 2019 by kbattousaih

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, kbattousaih said:

You are a great help, my friend. I am also thinking of getting T140. I believe I can squeeze some more cash from my boss. How about the OS? I think virtual machine licenses are so expensive. And also, I have so many users in my office and wouldn't the licenses for them cost so much money? To be honest, I am currently using unofficial Server 2003 on my current Server.

If you can get a T140 then that sounds like a good option to me.

 

As for the OS licenses you only actually need 1 but you also need 70 user CALs, that gets rather expensive. You're looking at $1000 ish for Windows Server and 3400 ish for the CALs, a lot more than you're actually spending on hardware. There are other places to acquire Windows licenses, you may already know, but I'll leave that up to you as to where you want to go with that.

 

The other question I have is are you currently running AD? If not you have other options besides Windows, even if you are running AD they are an option. If you are using AD it would be good to know how much you rely on it for other things like Group Policy and central authentication to computers (are they all joined to the domain) and if that is a big requirement.

 

You could install FreeNAS on to the server, really easy to use with it's simple web interface and it's free. FreeNAS can also be configured as an AD Domain Controller and you can join all your computers to that domain and manage Group Policy using the same RSAT tools like you would if it were Windows (can only be managed remotely). I have not personally done this but it's possible and there are many FreeNAS users on this forum, doesn't look hard at all to setup to me though.

 

Basically FreeNAS can do everything you want for no licensing cost.

[kbattousaih]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

If you can get a T140 then that sounds like a good option to me.

 

As for the OS licenses you only actually need 1 but you also need 70 user CALs, that gets rather expensive. You're looking at $1000 ish for Windows Server and 3400 ish for the CALs, a lot more than you're actually spending on hardware. There are other places to acquire Windows licenses, you may already know, but I'll leave that up to you as to where you want to go with that.

 

The other question I have is are you currently running AD? If not you have other options besides Windows, even if you are running AD they are an option. If you are using AD it would be good to know how much you rely on it for other things like Group Policy and central authentication to computers (are they all joined to the domain) and if that is a big requirement.

 

You could install FreeNAS on to the server, really easy to use with it's simple web interface and it's free. FreeNAS can also be configured as an AD Domain Controller and you can join all your computers to that domain and manage Group Policy using the same RSAT tools like you would if it were Windows (can only be managed remotely). I have not personally done this but it's possible and there are many FreeNAS users on this forum, doesn't look hard at all to setup to me though.

 

Basically FreeNAS can do everything you want for no licensing cost.

AD is the first thing I learned to configure using Windows Server and it's up and running since the office started. In the early years, I set my user computers as domain clients but my office users are not really used to the Server system and there are a lot of things they wanted to do on their own on their desktop computers. They don't have time to learn and the boss is not interested in making them to learn, he only cares about sales improvement. So, I switched their pcs back into work-group level and only teach them to access directly to their own shared folders on Servers with limited permission for each user accounts. Even then, they were wrecking havocs, so I created network map-drives and shortcuts on their desktops and never again let them accessed to the Server. I was also considering using FreeNAS but it's been so long since I am in-touched with linux systems and the last time was around 2001. I already tested FreeNAS on VMware and installation was no problem. But Creating user accounts and setting securities is far out of my level.

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, kbattousaih said:

AD is the first thing I learned to configure using Windows Server and it's up and running since the office started. In the early years, I set my user computers as domain clients but my office users are not really used to the Server system and there are a lot of things they wanted to do on their own on their desktop computers. They don't have time to learn and the boss is not interested in making them to learn, he only cares about sales improvement. So, I switched their pcs back into work-group level and only teach them to access directly to their own shared folders on Servers with limited permission for each user accounts. Even then, they were wrecking havocs, so I created network map-drives and shortcuts on their desktops and never again let them accessed to the Server. I was also considering using FreeNAS but it's been so long since I am in-touched with linux systems and the last time was around 2001. I already tested FreeNAS on VMware and installation was no problem. But Creating user accounts and setting securities is far out of my level.

I'm sure we'll be able to help you out with FreeNAS, once you get a good kick start I think you'll be fine. Plus the current server is running so you have time to configure the new one before swap over, if you can't get FreeNAS setup for some reason you still have the option of putting Windows on it.