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Nijholt
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Go to solution Solved by dalekphalm,
49 minutes ago, Nijholt said:

But what are my minimum needs for what i want?

  • Domain controller
  • Folder sharing
  • VPN

Really don't know the processor and RAM needs.

 

Also, is it important to have a backup domain controller?

A backup DC isn't NECESSARY, and in a small environment like yours, I'd say you shouldn't worry about it.

 

But it is "Industry Standard" practice to have a backup DC.

 

The backup DC needs to be installed as a separate OS, ideally on totally separate hardware (Eg: Running 2 VM's on the same machine- Primary DC and Backup DC - would be a waste of time and money).

 

For your needs, you could host all three services (DC, File/Print Sharing, VPN Server) all on the same physical machine, under a single Windows Server install.

 

You won't need especially high powered equipment, either.

For CPU: 4c/8t Xeon (Or 8c Xeon if you can afford it)

RAM: 32GB would likely be fine - more if you can afford it (this is a recurring theme, if you hadn't noticed lol)

The rest of the hardware specs, at this point, aren't too important for a server. Buy enough disks to fill your needs.

 

Your HDD setup will depend on how much storage you need.

 

Make sure the OS is on a separate drive, and any "shared folders" go on a RAID array of some sort.

 

For example, if you need 2TB of space on your Network Share (This is the folder everyone connects to), I'd recommend a simple 2x2TB RAID1 mirrored setup. So your Server might look like this:

1x 500GB HDD

2x 2TB HDD

All plugged directly into the motherboard. You could setup RAID1 using the built-in Motherboard RAID, or you could use Windows built-in software raid to Mirror the disks.

 

You could also get a RAID Card with the server - many servers come with a RAID Card by default.

 

Also, you should pick up a stand-alone NAS, or a USB HDD, or some extra HDD's, to create backups with (Remember, RAID IS NOT A BACKUP - RAID is about uptime and recovery time, and does not protect against file corruption, and many other ways you could lose files).

 

Your "backup" setup should have the same capacity as your primary storage device. So if your server has a 2TB network share, your backup drive should be 2TB as well (or larger, to provide for multiple backups on a rotating schedule).

 

If the Server has hot-swap HDD bays on the front, you could use those bays for the Backup Drive.

 

Ideally, you should be using the "3-2-1" backup method. This means at any given moment in time, you have three sets (or copies) of the data, two of which are stored locally, but on different mediums (meaning devices - eg: one copy on your main pool, one copy on a set of backup disks), and one off-site copy (This could simply mean backing up your data to two different HDD's - one which stays in the computer, and the other you take home with you every night - or you could get more sophisticated, and have an off-site NAS that auto-replicates w/ your working storage pool, etc).

 

Hope some of these insights help.

 

Remember, with 7-8 users, you REALLY don't need a lot of power. But I would still recommend buying new with warranty servers, if you can afford it. The business class support that both HP and Dell (and other Enterprise grade vendors) offers is fantastic.

 

EDIT: Link on 3-2-1 backup strategy:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/

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5 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Can you link some of the comments (Or just put them in a post)?

 

I'm not aware of any specific incompatibilities with that server and Samsung SSD's.

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/263575-consumer-ssd-s-in-a-hp-proliant-server?page=3

 

And another site, but i can't find it anymore. In the server is a  Smart Array B110i SATA RAID controller.

 

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26 minutes ago, Nijholt said:

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/263575-consumer-ssd-s-in-a-hp-proliant-server?page=3

 

And another site, but i can't find it anymore. In the server is a  Smart Array B110i SATA RAID controller.

 

Honestly it sounds like they are having issues with using a Samsung consumer SSD on the hardware RAID Controller.

 

Assuming you plug the SSD's into the Motherboard, and not the RAID Controller, you shouldn't really have any issues with a RAID 1 config.

 

You could always spring for a pair of Enterprise grade SSD's, but they're usually a fair bit pricier.

For Sale: Meraki Bundle

 

iPhone Xr 128 GB Product Red - HP Spectre x360 13" (i5 - 8 GB RAM - 256 GB SSD) - HP ZBook 15v G5 15" (i7-8850H - 16 GB RAM - 512 GB SSD - NVIDIA Quadro P600)

 

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1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

Honestly it sounds like they are having issues with using a Samsung consumer SSD on the hardware RAID Controller.

 

Assuming you plug the SSD's into the Motherboard, and not the RAID Controller, you shouldn't really have any issues with a RAID 1 config.

 

You could always spring for a pair of Enterprise grade SSD's, but they're usually a fair bit pricier.

@Nijholt

I can confirm I have had problems with Samsung consumer SSD's in RAID, specifically 840 Pros and 850 Pros, on multiple different RAID cards. However you should be fine with either RAID 1 using the dedicated RAID card in the server or better yet using RAID 1 of the onbaord SATA controller as for consumer SSD's this is actually better, keeps TRIM support when using the Intel SATA chipset.

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You may want to start looking at your budget and revisit what you want to do. Licensing for Windows is expensive, something like $500-$600 for Standard. I think it would be a waste of $500 to setup a dedicated VM for file sharing using windows. It is certainly easier to use windows, but you can also setup Ubuntu with CIFS/SMB and tie it to AD. Most of us have VLK / license agreements and have grown used to just deploying willy-nilly. At least I have lol.

 

I feel naked without a second DC by the way. Be it corruption or an update that kills the DC, at least you have a spare. (Not that Microsoft would ever push out a computer-killing patch, oh no never.). You could also just take snapshots of the DC using software that leadeater suggested (veeam). You will want some non-AD way of logging in to your NAS if you put your snapshots/backups of the DC on there.

 

Another thing is if you don't go a firewall route, then make sure you give least privileges to users. Ideally your "Domain Admin" account should only ever be logged in to when you need to make changes to the schema / group policy. Another group should be create E.G. Workstation Admins and added to the administrator group on every workstation (can be done manually and quickly, or via GPO which is recommended) The Workstation Admin users should only have admin rights to the workstations, and maybe the additional ability to reset AD passwords / add / delete / modify user accounts (you'll love how many calls you get for that). It sounds like a lot but it isn't difficult or time consuming to setup. Don't cave in to people crying they need admin rights either.

 

If you want to progress a career in IT, it is certainly a great opportunity to learn ^_^

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1 hour ago, Mikensan said:

You may want to start looking at your budget and revisit what you want to do. Licensing for Windows is expensive, something like $500-$600 for Standard. I think it would be a waste of $500 to setup a dedicated VM for file sharing using windows. It is certainly easier to use windows, but you can also setup Ubuntu with CIFS/SMB and tie it to AD. Most of us have VLK / license agreements and have grown used to just deploying willy-nilly. At least I have lol.

A single retail Standard Edition license actually gives you the right to run 2 virtual instances of it, rather nice of Microsoft actually.

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Just now, leadeater said:

A single retail Standard Edition license actually gives you the right to run 2 virtual instances of it, rather nice of Microsoft actually.

Indeed, we're taking advantage of that ourselves with our new VM cluster. We started off with 5 licenses, giving us 10 VM instances.

For Sale: Meraki Bundle

 

iPhone Xr 128 GB Product Red - HP Spectre x360 13" (i5 - 8 GB RAM - 256 GB SSD) - HP ZBook 15v G5 15" (i7-8850H - 16 GB RAM - 512 GB SSD - NVIDIA Quadro P600)

 

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