Boss wants 300+GB of RAM for a 15 user dedicated file server. Is that too much?

[Teary_Oberon]

Currently our business is at 15 users doing basic CAD design work. We don't do any rendering, we don't do any virtualization and don't have any plans to in the near future. Our current server is a shared file server for design projects and that is it. 

 

Big Boss comes in today and says that he is getting us a new dedicated server, and that it is going to have 300GB+ of RAM because the server sales people told him he needed that much for "future expansion."

 

Now to me, that seemed a little bit excessive and shocking at first hearing, but I wasn't really sure and I didn't want to speak up because I haven't messed around with servers very much. That is why I wanted to check in with you guys here at the Linus forums to make sure that my boss isn't getting scammed.

 

Is 300GB+ of RAM for a 15 user file server too much, too little, or what do you think a recommended number might be?

[Hunter259]

Dear shit how many ram slots does that thing have....

[Rohime]

10 minutes ago, Hunter259 said:

Dear shit how many ram slots does that thing have....

300GB RAM *IS* overkill for a 15 user file server.

Having said that I've used plenty of servers with more memory than that ... but almost always as VM Hosts, not file servers.

 

Are you sure he didnt just mean 300TB of Disk Capacity ?  Much more reasonable spec for a 15 user file server (yes, i know you emphasised the RAM server times, but did you check that the 'big boss' knew what he was talking about?)

[Teary_Oberon]

9 minutes ago, Rohime said:

300GB RAM *IS* overfill for a 15 user file server.

Having said that I've used plenty of servers with more memory than that ... but almost always as VM Hosts, not file servers.

 

Are you sure he didnt just mean 300GB of Disk Capacity ?  Much more reasonable spec for a 15 user file server (yes, i know you emphasised the RAM server times, but did you check that the 'big boss' knew what he was talking about?)

=edited to fix misunderstanding=

 

He pretty clearly said "300 and change GB of RAM" when I asked him. It makes me worry that he is serious because 300GB or 300TB of Disk Capacity doesn't make any sense for our use. Our current workstation server alone has 1TB of Disk Capacity and we are taking up 600GB of it. 

 

300GB of storage is too little and we couldn't fill 300TB in 50 years. 

[Rohime]

2 minutes ago, Teary_Oberon said:

 

He pretty clearly said "300 and change GB of RAM" when I asked him. It makes me worry that he is serious because 300GB of Disk Capacity doesn't make any sense for a new server. Our current workstation server alone has 1TB of Disk Capacity and we are already taking up 600GB of it. 

ok, so hes just overspending on RAM.   easy enough to get 300GB into a server these days.   Plenty of 1TB servers out there... and 2TB is doable with top end configs (in 4RU servers usually).

[YedZed]

3 minutes ago, Teary_Oberon said:

 

He pretty clearly said "300 and change GB of RAM" when I asked him. It makes me worry that he is serious because 300GB of Disk Capacity doesn't make any sense for a new server. Our current workstation server alone has 1TB of Disk Capacity and we are already taking up 600GB of it. 

Yeh 300gb is definitely way too much for that.

[flibberdipper]

Given the use case, it makes no sense. If you had a lot more users and used ZFS with a load of storage, then it'd be okay. Really you guys will not need more than 32GB (and even that is more than likely totally overkill).

[kurtstir]

16 minutes ago, tmcclelland455 said:

Given the use case, it makes no sense. If you had a lot more users and used ZFS with a load of storage, then it'd be okay. Really you guys will not need more than 32GB (and even that is more than likely totally overkill).

Only 32gb? for cad? Id say 64gb mininum for 15 users. Hell my gaming laptop has 32 gigs

[kurtstir]

38 minutes ago, Hunter259 said:

Dear shit how many ram slots does that thing have....

You can get server boards with up to 24 ram slots

[Dargenfire]

I would say to your boss:

 

Hey Boss! I've been doin some math, and my connections told me, to tell you that 300+ Gigabytes of RAM is way more than we'll ever need bro! 32 to 64 Gigabytes will do us just fine! You probs gettin scammed out of your cold hard dolla bills yo, and should go do some talkin to the server dudes about changing the specs on that order.

 

If you happened to mean storage and not RAM, then they still scammin you bro! If they mean 300 Gigabytes, that's not even close to what we use, hell that's smaller than my PC at home! But if they mean 300 Terabytes, that's a hella lot bro! That's way too much! We don't even use 1 Terabyte as it is. I suggest we go have a little chit chat with the server peeps, bro.

[twoSalty]

8 minutes ago, Dargenfire said:

I would say to your boss:

 

Hey Boss! I've been doin some math, and my connections told me, to tell you that 300+ Gigabytes of RAM is way more than we'll ever need bro! 32 to 64 Gigabytes will do us just fine! You probs gettin scammed out of your cold hard dolla bills yo, and should go do some talkin to the server dudes about changing the specs on that order.

 

If you happened to mean storage and not RAM, then they still scammin you bro! If they mean 300 Gigabytes, that's not even close to what we use, hell that's smaller than my PC at home! But if they mean 300 Terabytes, that's a hella lot bro! That's way too much! We don't even use 1 Terabyte as it is. I suggest we go have a little chit chat with the server peeps, bro.

^^

 

[tt2468]

1 hour ago, kurtstir said:

Only 32gb? for cad? Id say 64gb mininum for 15 users. Hell my gaming laptop has 32 gigs

32GB is fine. It's a storage server, not a render server.

[ssfdre38]

i use a 4 gb of ram on a laptop for a file server and AD DS as well as a plex server so 300GB of ram is very over kill

[Pixel5]

2 hours ago, kurtstir said:

Only 32gb? for cad? Id say 64gb mininum for 15 users. Hell my gaming laptop has 32 gigs

Its a file server not a rendering machine, 1GB Ram is plenty for their application of delivering files to other PC...

[MrKickkiller]

1 hour ago, Pixel5 said:

Its a file server not a rendering machine, 1GB Ram is plenty for their application of delivering files to other PC...

Technically yes, but some Filesystems also like to nom some RAM. Cough cough ZFS

[leadeater]

@Teary_Oberon

 

300GB of ram is for servers that are going to be virtual hosts, you'll never need 300GB in a single file server no matter how many users 1 or 1000000. File servers I have configured for schools in the past with 1400 students and 150 staff only have 8GB of ram assigned to them, these are also virtual machines. File server for staff and a file server for students so 16GB ram in total for that role.

 

Our multi-million dollar Netapp SANs at work don't have 300GB of ram. Each controller has 64GB of ram and there is 4 per cluster and they act in pairs, there are two of these plus a smaller 2 controller cluster (cluster per city, 3 in total). We also have smaller model Netapps that our backups go on to, 24GB ram per controller and there is 4 per cluster and again two of these. We have around 36,000 users. I only mention this just to show how ludicrous 300GB of ram in a file server for you would be.

 

Always give companies the benefit of doubt first, it may be as simple as they misunderstood your requirements or they were not clearly explained. Never burn any bridges, if you have to just thank them for their quote and go to another company.

[Mikensan]

There is tipping point for RAM vs SSD when being used for a file server. For certain operations you need a decent amount of RAM for a serious NAS, but after than you would start using SSDs for cache or whatever else functions that needed speed.

 

Really sounds like your boss is very confused or was taken to a lunch by some vendor and stuff full of information. Some sales engineers are as bad as car salesmen. Bet he smelled blood in the water as soon as they sat down.

[flibberdipper]

12 hours ago, kurtstir said:

Only 32gb? for cad? Id say 64gb mininum for 15 users. Hell my gaming laptop has 32 gigs

It's a file server... Like I said, unless you use copious amounts of storage and use ZFS, you don't need hardly any RAM.

[kurtstir]

17 hours ago, tt2468 said:

32GB is fine. It's a storage server, not a render server.

 

6 hours ago, tmcclelland455 said:

It's a file server... Like I said, unless you use copious amounts of storage and use ZFS, you don't need hardly any RAM.

Oops didn't notice that it said file server. Accidentally took it as needed a cad rendering server. As long as they dont plan on running a windows file server 2-4 gigabytes should be plenty

[kurtstir]

9 hours ago, Mikensan said:

There is tipping point for RAM vs SSD when being used for a file server. For certain operations you need a decent amount of RAM for a serious NAS, but after than you would start using SSDs for cache or whatever else functions that needed speed.

 

Really sounds like your boss is very confused or was taken to a lunch by some vendor and stuff full of information. Some sales engineers are as bad as car salesmen. Bet he smelled blood in the water as soon as they sat down.

Tape drives are wear its at man

[kurtstir]

15 hours ago, MrKickkiller said:

Technically yes, but some Filesystems also like to nom some RAM. Cough cough ZFS

He should be running a windows server so 1gb would atleast be enough for minimal graphics and completely enough for text only

[kurtstir]

16 hours ago, Pixel5 said:

Its a file server not a rendering machine, 1GB Ram is plenty for their application of delivering files to other PC...

Sorry didn't see the file server bit and was speaking of a cad render server. as long as its not windows server 1gb would be fine

[.:MARK:.]

8GB RAM, an inexpensive Xeon + server board and a nice raid controller. Couple that with a nice set of 4TB drives using a decent RAID config and get a couple of hot/cold spares.