Always check for compatibility... Server FAIL

[Thavion Hawk]

This post is part vent.

 

A Dental Office called the store a few weeks ago, or rather the technician that was on site working with their server did. He said they had a Server 2003 system that was out of space on the C drive and badly needed to be upgraded. My answer to the guy was okay then I'll knock up a quote.

 

The New Server:

- OS: Windows Server 2019 Essentials

- CPU: Ryzen 7-3700x (Over Powered to secure server longevity)

- Memory: 16GB (They okay-ed everything else from the original quote apart from the 32GB's of RAM)

- Mobo: ASUS Prime X570-P (We almost never use Server Motherboards and CPU's for small business')

- PSU: Seasonic 550w Gold (More than enough, good quality)

- Case: Corsair Carbide 200R (Airflow is not the best, but it's a do everything case)

- SSD's: Mirriored 1TB M.2 NVME SSD's (C:) (Old server used 2 120GB Intel SATA SSD's Striped!)

- HDD's: Mirriored 4TB 3.5" HDD's (D:) (Old server had Mirrored 1TB HDD's)

- GPU: GT710 (If you're going to use one for anything, a almost never touched Server is about the only logical option)

 

The Service:

Deploy new Server, Migrate Domain Controller and Data from Old Server to New. That was everything I was expecting to need done. In fact the process of building, configuring and deploying the above system went very well even down to updating the client PC's on the network to point to the new Server and verify they could talk to it correctly. Now I should have noticed a few Red Flags the moment I noticed that No-one was logging onto their computers using Domain Accounts. In fact the secretary and the boss both used a Microsoft Account on their PC's...

 

Closed over the weekend, it wasn't until Monday that we got the panicked calls saying "You didn't setup our Software, we can't setup our software, the techs from the companies that make our software can't get onto the new server to setup the software!" The Secretary was confused by the fact that Internet Explorer, the only included web browser in Server 2019, is locked down to the Max and she couldn't handle telling it to allow sites permission to connect as she navigated to the remote desktop downloads for the respective companies to let their techs on. One of the technicians tried to walk her through downloading and installing Chrome but failed hard... I had to go onsite ASAP to fix things/Finish the job they thought they had hired us to do.

 

I get to the office, install Chrome because really it was simpler that way, worked through the three different companies connecting to the server to setup the dental software, the scheduling system and the backup system. That went well actually, I even asked if there was anything else going wrong that I could look at while I was there to be nice. I was told no so I left. As it was lunch time I called to store to clock me out and stopped for subway. By the time I got back from lunch I turned around and headed back to the dentist's because they actually did have more problems. For what ever reason the printer that uses a static IP on the network where the DHCP is handled by the firewall and not the Server, was not working right and it was our fault because of all the trouble with the server. I fixed it and went home for the day.

 

Next day, Everything seemed okay until I got a call from the rep from the dental software developer asking me questions about the server we deployed.

Problems:

- The software supports Windows Server 2016. 2019 is not supported yet.

- The software has only ever been validated on Intel platforms. AMD has never been validated in the decades that this software has been in development.

- The software requires every client on the network to be running Windows 10 if it is installed on a Server 2016 system.

- The software should not be hosted on a Server acting as the Domain Controller.

- The software's Database should be accessed from client PC's using Local Accounts only, not Domain Managed Users.

End result of the above is without having any of this knowledge from the get go I quoted, built and deployed a server that missed Every Single Mark and for that reason the software company takes no responsibility for the problems that are going on following the server deployment.

-Virtual Machine based hosting is not supported so I can not bypass the need for more hardware by spinning up a Server 2016 VM a dedicated File/Database Server.

 

Does anyone hate visiting the dentist more than I do right now? I don't think so. I don't even get to be knocked out with laughing gas or anything fun like that.

 

The plan now:

- Build a New Intel based Server running Server 2016.

- Install Windows 10 onto the AMD Server to us it as a simple workstation(Makes me sick because I can't refund the cost of the Server 2019 licenses and even using it as the OS for a client PC isn't technically supported...)

- Forgo the Domain all together and setup the new Server as an overblown File/Database Server. I both refuse to try and migrate the domain from 2019 to 2016 and as said before the software shouldn't be run an active Domain Controller anyways.

- Upgrade the remaining two Windows 7 PC's to 10.

 

The New New Server:

- OS: Windows Server 2016 Standard.

- CPU: i5-9400 (It's Intel, it's still more than enough and given that I'm stuck building with parts on hand it's either that or an i5-9600k or i7-9700k)

- Memory: 32GB (I'm forcing 32GB's this time because it's a negligible cost increase)

- Mobo: ASUS Prime Z390-A (Like the X570 motherboard before we need one that supports NVME RAID.)

- PSU: Seasonic 550w Gold (Still more than enough)

- Case: Corsair Carbide 200R (Still not the best airflow, but again it's a do everything case)

- SSD's: Mirrored 1TB M.2 NVME SSD's (C:) (Same setup as the AMD Server.)

- HDD's: Mirrored 4TB 3.5" HDD's (D:) (The HDD's out of the AMD Server to save money. I said I felt sick making them eat the cost of the Server 2019 so where I can save I will)

- GPU: iGPU savines money on the otherwise worthless GT710.

 

Now if you've read this far thank you and I'm open to any reasonable suggestions and recommendations.

The single best part of my job is getting to build systems for people. Small systems, big systems, servers, gaming rigs it doesn't matter to me. Servers like these come with added work that I'm happy to do and in this case did by correctly migrating the domain and such. That should have been the end of it, instead I'm looking at another $2,000 in Server, Labor and Software to finish this job. It's incredibly draining to deal with this kind of shit. Build and deploy a server only to take a dentist office down for two weeks.

 

Oh and before anyone asks, the original Server 2003 system's PSU died while I was working to convert it into a Workstation(A duty that will now be taken by the AMD Server) The Intel PSU would cost $300+ to order a direct replacement. I could mod the case to take a normal ATX PSU(My number one use for a Dremel) However as I had already broken the RAID and installed Windows 10 on to the system with the understanding that the\ old server was no-longer needed for the job there really is no rolling things back.

[Electronics Wizardy]

I do IT for a small buiness. Running server 2016, ad, and a few other vms

 

 

Run stuff on vms, makes everything much easier to work with. Standard comes with some vm licensees aswell.

 

Get a premade server, get a cheap dell poweredge. They are supported, have warranties, and work well, no reason to go diy here

 

21 minutes ago, Thavion Hawk said:

Problems:

- The software supports Windows Server 2016. 2019 is not supported yet.

- The software has only ever been validated on Intel platforms. AMD has never been validated in the decades that this software has been in development.

- The software requires every client on the network to be running Windows 10 if it is installed on a Server 2016 system.

- The software should not be hosted on a Server acting as the Domain Controller.

- The software's Database should be accessed from client PC's using Local Accounts only, not Domain Managed Users.

End result of the above is without having any of this knowledge from the get go I quoted, built and deployed a server that missed Every Single Mark and for that reason the software company takes no responsibility for the problems that are going on following the server deployment.

-Virtual Machine based hosting is not supported so I can not bypass the need for more hardware by spinning up a Server 2016 VM a dedicated File/Database Server.

This software seems awful. Really try to switch. What do they mean by it won't run on a vm. 

 

Id also be darn tempted to get rid of the server, and just move to cloud stuff now, really removes a lot of hassle and is probably cheaper aswell.

[The_russian]

20 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What do they mean by it won't run on a vm. 

They said it is not supported, not that it woulnd't work. Honestly sounds like they are trying to avoid supporting their software as much as possible,  so I agree about it sounding like awful software. 

 

Edit: Basically that way if you have a problem with their software, instead of helping you they could just tell you to deal with it since it is not supported. 

[Thavion Hawk]

32 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I do IT for a small buiness. Running server 2016, ad, and a few other vms

 

 

Run stuff on vms, makes everything much easier to work with. Standard comes with some vm licensees aswell.

 

Get a premade server, get a cheap dell poweredge. They are supported, have warranties, and work well, no reason to go diy here

 

This software seems awful. Really try to switch. What do they mean by it won't run on a vm. 

 

Id also be darn tempted to get rid of the server, and just move to cloud stuff now, really removes a lot of hassle and is probably cheaper aswell.

This software they use is more shit prone than Quickbooks. They require all Power Saving features on every PC turned off. Any sort of connection problem with a client to the server will take the client down in the least. I shit you not they can't make their software withstand a client powering down it's NIC for a moment let alone going to sleep. I called a the companies support line and asked about he VM idea and the guy that answered said that they had multiple clients doing VM's but that they don't support it so they don't support it...

[Thavion Hawk]

22 minutes ago, The_russian said:

They said it is not supported, not that it woulnd't work. Honestly sounds like they are trying to avoid supporting their software as much as possible,  so I agree about it sounding like awful software. 

 

Edit: Basically that way if you have a problem with their software, instead of helping you they could just tell you to deal with it since it is not supported. 

I get what they are doing and it's shit hows service. Most aggravating to me is that Windows Server 2016 and 2019 are the same fucking OS just with updated Code base! It's just Windows 10 1607, 1709 and 1803 (AKA Server 2016)  With 10 1809 used for 2019! Does that mean that their software only works on Windows 10 1607-1803 systems so everyone with later builds of 10 are SOL?

[Thavion Hawk]

Update:

 

The system requirements for the server system include using a Xeon CPU. I contacted the support agent and the said no, even though the client pc can have an i5-4k or newer CPU, only a Xeon 6th gen or newer can be used for the Server. End result is ordering a Gigabyte Workstation Mobo and 6 core Xeon(A Z390 Mobo and i5-9400 in Workstation Drag) for the Server. Otherwise the specs about are the same. The good news for our customer is I got the go ahead to exchange the AMD server we built for the new Intel Server. We will simply resell it to a client that can use it.