Server computer for Quickbooks

[caner_saka]

Hi I want to run a server for about 5 people all running Quickbooks and wondering if anyone had thoughts or advice on this list I have so far

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=38a5027c-a74f-45f1-9bb0-cfb4245b32be

[Radium_Angel]

2 minutes ago, caner_saka said:

Hi I want to run a server for about 5 people all running Quickbooks and wondering if anyone had thoughts or advice on this list I have so far

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/custom-pc-builder.aspx?load=38a5027c-a74f-45f1-9bb0-cfb4245b32be

I've run quickbooks servers on less hardware than that, so that part is fine, with a few warnings:

 

QB seems to like to corrupt its database more often than I feel is "normal" I'd ensure you have some real solid backups, so I'd add a spinner or two to the build, and have daily and weekly backups.

Also, ensure your network is robust, QB can eat a lot of bandwidth

[caner_saka]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

I've run quickbooks servers on less hardware than that, so that part is fine, with a few warnings:

 

QB seems to like to corrupt its database more often than I feel is "normal" I'd ensure you have some real solid backups, so I'd add a spinner or two to the build, and have daily and weekly backups.

Also, ensure your network is robust, QB can eat a lot of bandwidth

Thank you so much for the reply when you say spinner do you mean a hdd or is that something I haven't heard of?

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, caner_saka said:

Thank you so much for the reply when you say spinner do you mean a hdd or is that something I haven't heard of?

Sorry, slang for standard spinning HDD.

2, 2TB drives are cheap insurance for QB data

[TheGlenlivet]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

QB seems to like to corrupt its database more often than I feel is "normal"

 

100%

QB redefines normal when it comes to corruption.  

If you are entering data all day from multiple users you need to look at a way to ensure you have frequent back ups that can't be overwritten or deleted by accident.

Don't ask me how I know this....

[caner_saka]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

Sorry, slang for standard spinning HDD.

2, 2TB drives are cheap insurance for QB data

Ok thank you so much, so would you suggest I keep a ssd as my boot drive and hdd as storage? And what sort of hdd and rpm do you think would be best?

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, TheGlenlivet said:

 

100%

QB redefines normal when it comes to corruption.  

If you are entering data all day from multiple users you need to look at a way to ensure you have frequent back ups that can't be overwritten or deleted by accident.

Don't ask me how I know this....

I did find that QB's technical support team (which I used far too much) to be top notch, which was good because they charged top dollar prices for tech support.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, caner_saka said:

Ok thank you so much, so would you suggest I keep a ssd as my boot drive and hdd as storage? And what sort of hdd and rpm do you think would be best?

If you have a solid backup plan, the SSD is just fine for the data. But as you know, if the SSD dies, *everything* is gone. Hence the request to toss in a few HDDs. As to speed, if you are using them for backup, it matters not. If for prime storage, then 7200RPM.

 

When dealing with QB, I can't stress how important a solid backup plan is.

So having belaboured the point, what IS your backup plan?

[caner_saka]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

If you have a solid backup plan, the SSD is just fine for the data. But as you know, if the SSD dies, *everything* is gone. Hence the request to toss in a few HDDs. As to speed, if you are using them for backup, it matters not. If for prime storage, then 7200RPM.

 

When dealing with QB, I can't stress how important a solid backup plan is.

So having belaboured the point, what IS your backup plan?

tbh I have zero idea what I'm going to do I'm new to computers for stuff like this

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, caner_saka said:

tbh I have zero idea what I'm going to do I'm new to computers for stuff like this

oh boy.....

what's your budget here?

[caner_saka]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

oh boy.....

what's your budget here?

I'd say at the very most 1000 dollars in total which I guess means I have almost 300$ left unless I change some other stuff up

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, caner_saka said:

I'd say at the very most 1000 dollars in total which I guess means I have almost 300$ left unless I change some other stuff up

How mission-critical is the business/data?

In other words, if they lose, for example, a day's worth of data, how bad does that impact the business?

[caner_saka]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

How mission-critical is the business/data?

In other words, if they lose, for example, a day's worth of data, how bad does that impact the business?

It won't be the end of the world but it is very important otherwise a ton of data will have to be reentered, so it would be an annoying inconvenience

[Radium_Angel]

4 minutes ago, caner_saka said:

It won't be the end of the world but it is very important otherwise a ton of data will have to be reentered, so it would be an annoying inconvenience

Then you need to go back to them and get more money for a solid backup plan.

Personally, I'd take that 300$ you have left over, and add another 300$. This will give you some wiggle room. Explain to them how crash-happy QB is and how easy it corrupts data, and that 300$ won't give you near enough for a proper backup

[caner_saka]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Then you need to go back to them and get more money for a solid backup plan.

Personally, I'd take that 300$ you have left over, and add another 300$. This will give you some wiggle room. Explain to them how crash-happy QB is and how easy it corrupts data, and that 300$ won't give you near enough for a proper backup

Ok if I were able to increase my budget that much what would I use it for and how

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, caner_saka said:

Ok if I were able to increase my budget that much what would I use it for and how

Twin Hard Drives for normal backup (a nightly and a weekly), and a tape drive for an offsite backup (in case something happens to the building)  or if you can get the dough, a NAS 

(yes, NAS is not backup, it's redundancy but it's insurance)

[caner_saka]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Twin Hard Drives for normal backup (a nightly and a weekly), and a tape drive for an offsite backup (in case something happens to the building)  or if you can get the dough, a NAS 

(yes, NAS is not backup, it's redundancy but it's insurance)

Ok so would I have the two hard drives inside the build and manually copy the files for a back up, and where can I find a tape drive, and why a tape drive over something like a normal usb flash drive?

[G0dSpeed]

2 minutes ago, caner_saka said:

Ok so would I have the two hard drives inside the build and manually copy the files for a back up, and where can I find a tape drive, and why a tape drive over something like a normal usb flash drive?

 

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, caner_saka said:

Ok so would I have the two hard drives inside the build and manually copy the files for a back up, and where can I find a tape drive, and why a tape drive over something like a normal usb flash drive?

Tape is what we use for offsite backup and long term storage. You want to automate the backup process as much as possible. The moment you introduce the human element, is when things are going to fail.

 

A USB stick is fine, but they *can* break, get lost, lose data/go corrupt, things that are less so with tape backup.

A NAS provides data redundancy and can be automated.

 

If you have someone who can be reliable, USB sticks are super cheap and can certainly be used in place of the tape/NAS, but again, you'll want to keep the schedule as solid as possible

 

[caner_saka]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Tape is what we use for offsite backup and long term storage. You want to automate the backup process as much as possible. The moment you introduce the human element, is when things are going to fail.

 

A USB stick is fine, but they *can* break, get lost, lose data/go corrupt, things that are less so with tape backup.

A NAS provides data redundancy and can be automated.

 

If you have someone who can be reliable, USB sticks are super cheap and can certainly be used in place of the tape/NAS, but again, you'll want to keep the schedule as solid as possible

 

I see I think a nas would be the best option then but is that difficult to set up?

 

I looked up nas and this came up, would this work? https://www.newegg.com/lenovo-70a69000na/p/N82E16822502132?&quicklink=true

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, caner_saka said:

I see I think a nas would be the best option then but is that difficult to set up?

 

I looked up nas and this came up, would this work? https://www.newegg.com/lenovo-70a69000na/p/N82E16822502132?&quicklink=true

Ideally you want 4 bay for RAID 5.

I prefer ReadyNAS, but Synology and QNAP are excellent choices.

Remember, these do NOT come with hard drives so you'll need to factor those in as well.

 

See the fun you're getting into being the IT guy for a firm?

Fun fun fun

 

[caner_saka]

So I would buy something like this https://www.newegg.com/netgear-rn214/p/N82E16822122202?Description=ready nas&cm_re=ready_nas-_-22-122-202-_-Product&quicklink=true

 

and then I would buy 4 hdds, and then what, would I hook this up to my computer and auto back up? also would this eliminate the two hdds from the inside of the pc itself?

[Radium_Angel]

3 minutes ago, caner_saka said:

So I would buy something like this https://www.newegg.com/netgear-rn214/p/N82E16822122202?Description=ready nas&cm_re=ready_nas-_-22-122-202-_-Product&quicklink=true

 

and then I would buy 4 hdds, and then what, would I hook this up to my computer and auto back up? also would this eliminate the two hdds from the inside of the pc itself?

Ok, deep breath time here

 

If I were in your shoes, I'd do the following:

 

(1) Read up on RAID, the various levels and what function they serve, then decide which level of RAID is best for my needs.

(2) I'd analyze the company I'm being the IT guy for and decide how *much* data is being created on a daily basis, and what needs to be backed up, and the consequences of data loss.

(3) THEN I'd determine what size the data backups need to be, and when they could be done (for example, if the company was creating 1 GB of data a day, the backup could happen at midnight, when no one was around. BUT if the data created daily was 10 TB, then I'd have to adjust the backup schedule)

(4) I'd then study proper backup procedures, determine the schedule of backup, taking into account the criticality of the data.

(5) I'd then make nightly backups to one internal drive, weekly (or bi weekly, or whathaveyou based on (4) above) to the other drive, and copy the completed backup files to the NAS. This ensures maximum redundancy to the backups in the event of a disaster.

(6) Ideally I'd set the NAS up offsite, and have the backups copied to it through the LAN, but thats another can of worms.

(7) Finally, I'd had some cheap usb drives that would have copies of the QB database written to it nightly, in rotation (7 sticks, one for each day, labeled) when QB closes for the night.

 

Clear? Clear! 

 

[caner_saka]

1 minute ago, Radium_Angel said:

Ok, deep breath time here

 

If I were in your shoes, I'd do the following:

 

(1) Read up on RAID, the various levels and what function they serve, then decide which level of RAID is best for my needs.

(2) I'd analyze the company I'm being the IT guy for and decide how *much* data is being created on a daily basis, and what needs to be backed up, and the consequences of data loss.

(3) THEN I'd determine what size the data backups need to be, and when they could be done (for example, if the company was creating 1 GB of data a day, the backup could happen at midnight, when no one was around. BUT if the data created daily was 10 TB, then I'd have to adjust the backup schedule)

(4) I'd then study proper backup procedures, determine the schedule of backup, taking into account the criticality of the data.

(5) I'd then make nightly backups to one internal drive, weekly (or bi weekly, or whathaveyou based on (4) above) to the other drive, and copy the completed backup files to the NAS. This ensures maximum redundancy to the backups in the event of a disaster.

(6) Ideally I'd set the NAS up offsite, and have the backups copied to it through the LAN, but thats another can of worms.

(7) Finally, I'd had some cheap usb drives that would have copies of the QB database written to it nightly, in rotation (7 sticks, one for each day, labeled) when QB closes for the night.

 

Clear? Clear! 

 

Ok wow thank you so much for all your help, I'll keep researching about this stuff and figure it out. Thank you so muchh!

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, caner_saka said:

Ok wow thank you so much for all your help, I'll keep researching about this stuff and figure it out. Thank you so muchh!

You are more than welcome. Feel free to ask me anything either here, or via PM/DM, I'm more than happy to help (I did QB admin for a number of years, I know the horrors you are getting into)