File server recommendation for Business

[Leot]

Hey guys, I'm trying to upgrade a network for a medium sized business (1 main store and 2 branches) which is also looking to expand sometime in a few years and one of the upgrades are the servers. Each store will have their own server connected to the main store's server. The server from the main store will contain the database and other important files so the other 2 servers will update the main store constantly. What I want from the server is that it is able to upgrade its storage size later on as well as being reliable and has high bandwidth to handle all the traffic. Thanks

 

Also, my budget is less than or equal to 5k for each server

[leadeater]

Best to contact a pre-sales rep from Dell/HP/Lenovo etc.

 

Also are you able to give a bit more details on what application and database server software being used? SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL?

 

How are the branch servers going to update the main server? Are you going to use database replication to replicate the data from the branches to the main server or are you going to connect directly to the main database server?

 

What are the branch servers actually going to do, what roles do they play? File Server/DHCP/DNS/AD?

[Leot]

Just now, leadeater said:

Best to contact a pre-sales rep from Dell/HP/Lenovo etc.

 

Also are you able to give a bit more details on what application and database server software being used? SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL?

 

How are the branch servers going to update the main server? Are you going to use database replication to replicate the data from the branches to the main server or are you going to connect directly to the database server?

 

What are the branch servers actually going to do, what roles do they play? File Server/DHCP/DNS/AD?

 

The branch server is directly connected to the main server via WAN and the branch server will do all the task from the main server but at a smaller scale so having a cheaper server is fine for the branch. As for the software, they didn't give any specifics 

[leadeater]

Oh and how do you plan on linking the branches to the main store? Are you paying your ISP for a private link or hosted VPN or do you need to create your own site-to-site VPN?

[leadeater]

2 minutes ago, Leot said:

The branch server is directly connected to the main server via WAN and the branch server will do all the task from the main server but at a smaller scale so having a cheaper server is fine for the branch. As for the software, they didn't give any specifics 

Any idea on how much file storage you need at each location? Also are their racks to mount the servers or are tower servers required?

[Leot]

Just now, leadeater said:

Oh and how do you plan on linking the branches to the main store? Are you paying your ISP for a private link or hosted VPN or do you need to create your own site-to-site VPN?

 

Most likely site to site VPN because they're expanding in a couple of years

[Leot]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

Any idea on how much file storage you need at each location? Also are their racks to mount the servers or are tower servers required?

No specifications, but I want about 1-3TB and it should be upgradable later down the line. We can build with both if needed because they plan on a complete upgrade to their network

[JamieOlive]

Do you want ann of the self solution or a custom made one so you can have freedom for various VMs in the future such as surveilance or back up or many other things, depending what you do as a business.

 

Now I don't know today's prices and I need specifics on the workload to give you specific models and pricing but Synology's solutions on that budget seems quite good.

 

I would assume we are talking about 15-35 people in total and I also assume 4-8 people per branch and about 8-12 people in the main store. Also I thing the files you are talking about shouldn't be above 100Mb/file and that you are using windows but even if you use Mac those products should work fine with minor tweaks. Feel free to correct me on those with an answear.

 

• For the Main Office:

RackStation RS18016xs+

 

It gives you 12 Bays for lots of terabytes and in case you run out of room you can buy additional expansion bays.

This specific model has upgradable Ram and is equiped with really good general use proccesor and good connectivity.

 

Another reason I would go with synology is their extrodinary software, and additional features such as Mail Server and a Slack based chat feature to improve connectivity between coworkers and their file sunc system especially for your use case, and excellent customer support from time to time, "I had a few qeird cases but even then they apologised and helped me solve the problem" .

 

• For the Branches:

RackStation RS815+/RS815RP+

 

 

This is much smaller and also can be expanded with more units although I could be wrong in this matter.

 

Now conserning the drives you would need depends on your workload but anything from either WD or Seagate should be fine. Also VPMing the sever is an already build option in Synology case, and they have an additional encryption software.

 

Ok huge disclaimer here. Although I use synolgy for my work and have been very happy with their solution I suggest you do your own market research on similar solution.

Lastly if you really need high usage VMs which I don't, don't buy them. I run a few VMs but I needed customer support in order to set them up, cause sometimes the damn thing sonfuses itself, and truith be told they aren't that demanding in the first place, and also my units are way more powerful than what I suggested here and support more than 50 users daily.

 

Cost wise they should run you about 5-6 grand, storage included.

[Leot]

1 minute ago, JamieOlive said:

Do you want ann of the self solution or a custom made one so you can have freedom for various VMs in the future such as surveilance or back up or many other things, depending what you do as a business.

 

Now I don't know today's prices and I need specifics on the workload to give you specific models and pricing but Synology's solutions on that budget seems quite good.

 

I would assume we are talking about 15-35 people in total and I also assume 4-8 people per branch and about 8-12 people in the main store. Also I thing the files you are talking about shouldn't be above 100Mb/file and that you are using windows but even if you use Mac those products should work fine with minor tweaks. Feel free to correct me on those with an answear.

 

• For the Main Office:

RackStation RS18016xs+

 

It gives you 12 Bays for lots of terabytes and in case you run out of room you can buy additional expansion bays.

This specific model has upgradable Ram and is equiped with really good general use proccesor and good connectivity.

 

Another reason I would go with synology is their extrodinary software, and additional features such as Mail Server and a Slack based chat feature to improve connectivity between coworkers and their file sunc system especially for your use case, and excellent customer support from time to time, "I had a few qeird cases but even then they apologised and helped me solve the problem" .

 

• For the Branches:

RackStation RS815+/RS815RP+

 

 

This is much smaller and also can be expanded with more units although I could be wrong in this matter.

 

Now conserning the drives you would need depends on your workload but anything from either WD or Seagate should be fine. Also VPMing the sever is an already build option in Synology case, and they have an additional encryption software.

 

Ok huge disclaimer here. Although I use synolgy for my work and have been very happy with their solution I suggest you do your own market research on similar solution.

Lastly if you really need high usage VMs which I don't, don't buy them. I run a few VMs but I needed customer support in order to set them up, cause sometimes the damn thing sonfuses itself, and truith be told they aren't that demanding in the first place, and also my units are way more powerful than what I suggested here and support more than 50 users daily.

 

Cost wise they should run you about 5-6 grand, storage included.

 

Thanks for the great reply, really helpful!

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, JamieOlive said:

Do you want ann of the self solution or a custom made one so you can have freedom for various VMs

You can do this with any server from HPE/Dell/Lenovo, it's actually more common to virtualize than to not.

[Leot]

20 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Oh and how do you plan on linking the branches to the main store? Are you paying your ISP for a private link or hosted VPN or do you need to create your own site-to-site VPN?

 

Speaking of site to site VPN, recommend any router which enables this? My clients wants to allow the customer to surf the web while the staff can gain access from the server's resource. 

[JamieOlive]

Just now, leadeater said:

You can do this with any server from HPE/Dell/Lenovo, it's actually more common to virtualize than to not.

Yeah I know you can do it but many people including myself, either don't want to pay huge amounts for installing or changing them if it doesn't effect the workload as much or don't have the technical knowledge to do so in a cost effective way.

 

Me personally needed chat like services and used Viber/Hangouts/Slack in a span of a few years, but Synology's built in service is really cool and cost effective for me, especially if we don't have a dedicated IT department.

 

Having the ability to expand whenever we want with much effort, especially if more than 4/5 of our workfoce work remotetly on a day to day basis and need to add or remove a person without hassles is really appreciated by me always.

 

And truth be told we needed to run a few VMs to make our life a lot easier in day to day operations but most likely that will be it. Also we investigated other options first but something hassle free and cost effective didn't appear in any of our meeting with Dell and HP which had offices in Greece at that time.

 

Lastly I agree with you, that VMs are cool, they keep the cost down, and makes your workflow very streamlined. But while I have programmers in my team, I would need to occupy them and pay overtime, and continue to pay for services like slack and some others, and managing and paying individual to set it up and service it from time to time is still cost prohibiting.

 

There isn't a single solution for everyone believe it or not, and for me and a lot of other people it works.

[leadeater]

29 minutes ago, Leot said:

No specifications, but I want about 1-3TB and it should be upgradable later down the line. We can build with both if needed because they plan on a complete upgrade to their network

Seems the Dell website is having issues atm, would have liked to give you a more detailed server configuration list.

 

For the main office you could go with something like this:

 

Tower Configurations:

• HPE ML110, base price around $1200. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.
• HPE ML150, base price around $1400. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.

Rack Configurations:

• HPE DL360 Gen9. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.
• HPE DL380 Gen9. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.

Branch locations can use something a little cheaper

 

Tower Configurations:

• HPE ML10, base price around $400. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.
• HPE ML30, base price around$800. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.

Rack Configurations:

• HPE DL160 Gen9. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.
• HPE DL180 Gen9. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.

 

Also when buying the servers make sure you get Windows Server licenses and enough CALs to cover the number of users you have.

 

For the networking side a FortiGate 60E should do the trick for firewall services and creating the site-to-site links. These are around $400. For the branches you could consider dropping down to FortiGate 30E at around $250 but I really wouldn't advise it.

[Leot]

4 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Seems the Dell website is having issues atm, would have liked to give you a more detailed server configuration list.

 

For the main office you could go with something like this:

 

Tower Configurations:

• HPE ML110, base price around $1200. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.
• HPE ML150, base price around $1400. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.

Rack Configurations:

• HPE DL360 Gen9. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.
• HPE DL380 Gen9. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.

Branch locations can use something a little cheaper

 

Tower Configurations:

• HPE ML10, base price around $400. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.
• HPE ML30, base price around$800. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.

Rack Configurations:

• HPE DL160 Gen9. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.
• HPE DL180 Gen9. Upgrade the RAID card and add extra storage disks to meet requirement.

 

Also when buying the servers make sure you get Windows Server licenses and enough CALs to cover the number of users you have.

 

For the networking side a FortiGate 60E should do the trick for firewall services and creating the site-to-site links. These around around $400. For the branches you could consider dropping down to FortiGate 30E at around $250 but I really wouldn't advise it.

 

Awesome, Thank you!

[leadeater]

9 minutes ago, JamieOlive said:

-snip-

Yea those are all the nice software extras that come with Synology/QNAP. Was more addressing the bit that made it sound like you couldn't virtualize using a pre-configured offering from HPE etc, sorta sounded like that.

 

NAS's like those typically don't run VMs that well as you found out but they are getting much better, I personally prefer QNAP over Synology as you get significantly better hardware specs for the same price which really helps if you do want to run the odd VM. Software wise both are great.

[JamieOlive]

3 minutes ago, leadeater said:

NAS's like those typically don't run VMs that well as you found out but they are getting much better, I personally prefer QNAP over Synology as you get significantly better hardware specs for the same price which really helps if you do want to run the odd VM. Software wise both are great.

At the time Synology was a little cheaper and their suite was miles ahead of what other firms offered( I was a lot less expereinced at the time so it made sense to me, only 20 years old) and since we ended up with them we continued scaling them from there.Typically you would be correct, but if you get a upgradable tier model from Synology at least which I have and can talk about, you can upgrade it with after market parts and you are off to the races.

 

I wasn't sure what to use at first but when I contacted Synology they gave me a complete list of parts they have validated their servers with and it turns out they work fine, and give the server much more lifespan than what was originally meant for and let it run more demanding VMs according to some folks although mine don't need it that much.

6 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Yea those are all the nice software extras that come with Synology/QNAP. Was more addressing the bit that made it sound like you couldn't virtualize using a pre-configured offering from HPE etc, sorta sounded like that.

No I never said that, sorry if it came out wrong.

[Erkel]

Is this a real project or a school project?   You need to know what you need and want rather than someone magically looking in to a crystal ball for you.  If you do not have a concept of what sort of specs you want you have a lot bigger problem or maybe this explains why I gave up on IT 20 years, and an only here as a cooping mechanism during a midlife crisis 

 

 

[Mikensan]

Depending on how critical this infrastructure will be, centralizing your databases without read-only copies at the branches may be problematic in the future. Not sure if already discussed, but you would want the data to be mirrored at all sites. Be it the ISP takes a nose dive, loss of power, roadwork that cuts a line, rain that shorts out your T1 line (sigh), or whatever unexpected event that the central site goes offline - don't want it to impact business.

 

That said I'd also go with a vendor, you'll want the support. (Buy support). Getting a part next day and not dealing with foreign tech support is godsend.

 

I usually see the average of a starter server costing around $5k-$6k. SAS drives are expensive, so one way to save money is use your own SATA drives and have backups. Not much need for support from the vendor on disks when you can run down to a store and get some if it's really an emergency. (Plus disk warranty is usually pretty good in my experience).

 

I'm going to assume each office is using something similar to a cable provider (comcast). Some ISPs will provide you a VPN service so it's seamless for you, but it costs. Unfortunately companies like Comcast don't usually offer this. Otherwise OpenVPN works great for site>site connections. Secure, fast, easy to deploy.