Offline (company computers only) file server?

[Solusun]

I am wondering if its possible to create a file server that is disconnected from the "internet". And only accessible through select computers on a company network. 

In which all permitted computers connected to said server can read a retrieved file but only one computer may actually save new files to the server. 

This sole computer that can save files should also be allowed to modify documents but only save those edited documents as new documents rather than overwriting previous versions of said document.

 

This computer needs to be completely removed from the internet for extreme privacy purposes.

All updates to software and OS and the bios must be done by a removable device plugged directly into the server/pc.

 

Any advice on how to set this kind of server system up? Or instructions?

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can do this all with permissions, and your router will make it so nothing outside you network can connect to the server. Having a internet connection is a good idea for administration and updates.

 

You probably want to setup active directory here.

[Solusun]

What is an active directory?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Solusun said:

What is an active directory?

What os are you using.

 

Google it, but it lets you easily manage permissions and administor computers. It makes a business network work much better and almost every business uses them for the computers.

[Solusun]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

What os are you using.

 

Google it, but it lets you easily manage permissions and administor computers. It makes a business network work much better and almost every business uses them for the computers.

I have not decided on an operating system yet. I had hoped the community might be able to recommend something very user friendly, secure and functional for a storage system like this. Mainly it would be archival.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Solusun said:

I have not decided on an operating system yet. I had hoped the community might be able to recommend something very user friendly, secure and functional for a storage system like this. Mainly it would be archival.

What are the client systems doing?

 

The normall setup is windows server and windows 10 for the desktops. Its the most supported for desktop workstations and works well.

[Solusun]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

What are the client systems doing?

 

The normall setup is windows server and windows 10 for the desktops. Its the most supported for desktop workstations and works well.

The client systems are for sales consultants and will only be allowed to read the archived files. If any updates are to be made to an archived file they will need to be updated, saved, and revised solely by the archive registrar.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Solusun said:

The client systems are for sales consultants and will only be allowed to read the archived files. If any updates are to be made to an archived file they will need to be updated, saved, and revised solely by the archive registrar.

Then setup windows 10 clients. Setup windows 2016 as a domain controller and a file server and set permissions and groups.

[Solusun]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Then setup windows 10 clients. Setup windows 2016 as a domain controller and a file server and set permissions and groups.

Wonderful. Thank you for your expertise, advice, time, and quick replies!!!!

[Solusun]

4 minutes ago, Solusun said:

Wonderful. Thank you for your expertise, advice, time, and quick replies!!!!

Also quick question could I use an ssd for a cache device for most commonly read files? Then have that cache cleared after a file is not used for a determined amount of time.

Is this a built in feature of windows server 2016?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Solusun said:

Also quick question could I use an ssd for a cache device for most commonly read files? Then have that cache cleared after a file is not used for a determined amount of time.

Is this a built in feature of windows server 2016?

you can use a cache, but for the use you listed its very unlikely a cache will help at all.

 

How big are the files? Whats the network speed.

[Solusun]

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Then setup windows 10 clients. Setup windows 2016 as a domain controller and a file server and set permissions and groups.

Also quick question could I use an ssd for a cache device for most commonly read files? Then have that cache cleared after a file is not used for a determined amount of time.

Is this a built in feature of windows server 2016?

[Solusun]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

you can use a cache, but for the use you listed its very unlikely a cache will help at all.

 

How big are the files? Whats the network speed.

Most of the files wont be over 20 Megs but likely 1000 or so of them will be pulled and looked at daily. Our network speed is steady between 3 and 5 Gbps

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Solusun said:

Most of the files wont be over 20 Megs but likely 1000 or so of them will be pulled and looked at daily. Our network speed is steady between 3 and 5 Gbps

you sure about that network speed? Is that local? What cables are you running to clients?

 

A cache really won't help you here. SSDS are best for random io, and files like this will work on a hd array.

[Solusun]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

you sure about that network speed? Is that local? What cables are you running to clients?

 

A cache really won't help you here. SSDS are best for random io, and files like this will work on a hd array.

Those speeds are our incoming network speeds. The ISP is 3 blocks down the road. They offer higher speeds but we didnt think we'd need a faster package. We are running Cat6 to the router right now on a few desktops. We have to finish our move in but we were wanting to figure out the server aspect before we got everyone in here.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Solusun said:

Those speeds are our incoming network speeds. The ISP is 3 blocks down the road. They offer higher speeds but we didnt think we'd need a faster package. We are running Cat6 to the router right now on a few desktops. We have to finish our move in but we were wanting to figure out the server aspect before we got everyone in here.

do you have a budget for this server? How much storage space do you need?

 

Id look into a IT service provider. Have someone around that knows this well is a good idea and well worth the money to have a good network.

[Solusun]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

do you have a budget for this server? How much storage space do you need?

 

Id look into a IT service provider. Have someone around that knows this well is a good idea and well worth the money to have a good network.

Honestly my manager asked me since I'm the most technically inclined in the office to brainstorm the hardware and systems so they didn't have to bring a professional in. I'll admit I'm at a loss and have nothing in my brain storage about servers or motherboards chipsets or anything to use for them I do know by my estimates that we will need 20 Tb of archival space to store what documents we have and plenty of room for growth for the next 6 years. He said to keep it under 6 thousand.

[Snipergod87]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

do you have a budget for this server? How much storage space do you need?

 

Id look into a IT service provider. Have someone around that knows this well is a good idea and well worth the money to have a good network.

I would agree, it sounds like you don't know exactly what you are doing, and fixing a mistake is more expensive than having someone set it up right in the first place.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Solusun said:

Honestly my manager asked me since I'm the most technically inclined in the office to brainstorm the hardware and systems so they didn't have to bring a professional in. I'll admit I'm at a loss and have nothing in my brain storage about servers or motherboards chipsets or anything to use for them I do know by my estimates that we will need 20 Tb of archival space to store what documents we have and plenty of room for growth for the next 6 years. He said to keep it under 6 thousand.

really, find someone that knows what there doing. I have worked with a few companys where the tech guy runs IT, and it just turns into a mess and is run wrong.

[Snipergod87]

Also 20TB of archival spare under 6k is possible just for the server alone, not sure what your networking is, if you want a UPS and redundant power

If you need to more space to grow costs add up quickly, a 12TB drive is ~500 for a SAS or SATA one, and you would want to be running RAID 6 or RAID 10 unless you want to dabble into Storage Spaces and ReFS (but would still be a software version of RAID 10 or 6).

However ReFS doesn't have the same level of NTFS permissions, but prevents against bitrot.

[Solusun]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

really, find someone that knows what there doing. I have worked with a few companys where the tech guy runs IT, and it just turns into a mess and is run wrong.

The higher ups are still looking into an IT guy to come in and install and build everything but all of them have placed bids in the 20k for a setup they think is going to be best. We were hoping to save a lot of money by learning and doing it ourselves.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Solusun said:

The higher ups are still looking into an IT guy to come in and install and build everything but all of them have placed bids in the 20k for a setup they think is going to be best. We were hoping to save a lot of money by learning and doing it ourselves.

question is how much is uptime worth to you. You can get it to work for cheap, but how much is it gonna cost you in a year or two when something happens and there is no server for a few days.

 

If you want to go diy, id get something like a r540 from dell, get server 2016 on it, get like 8x6tbhdds, a ssd boot. That should be around 6-10k. and have support from dell.

[Solusun]

3 minutes ago, Snipergod87 said:

Also 20TB of archival spare under 6k is possible just for the server alone, not sure what your networking is, if you want a UPS and redundant power

If you need to more space to grow costs add up quickly, a 12TB drive is ~500 for a SAS or SATA one, and you would want to be running RAID 6 or RAID 10 unless you want to dabble into Storage Spaces and ReFS (but would still be a software version of RAID 10 or 6).

However ReFS doesn't have the same level of NTFS permissions, but prevents against bitrot.

How long would it take to learn raid and ReFS?

[Solusun]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

question is how much is uptime worth to you. You can get it to work for cheap, but how much is it gonna cost you in a year or two when something happens and there is no server for a few days.

 

If you want to go diy, id get something like a r540 from dell, get server 2016 on it, get like 8x6tbhdds, a ssd boot. That should be around 6-10k. and have support from dell.

Actually that's a great idea. I hadn't realized Dell made servers

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, Solusun said:

How long would it take to learn raid and ReFS?

 

how much do you know? How are you planning to learn. Id say you can use it in a day or two if you know basics around it, but from the amount of knowledge you seem to have something will go wrong.