[vishy01234]

This is a long post but I REALLY need your help so please take the time to read! I am looking to purchase a server for my small business and the appropriate software (OS, backup software, etc). I have a very limited budget (I would like to get something below £500, preferably less, but also will spend a bit more if necessary). It must have a Microsoft server OS on it as I am looking to run a database intensive CRM server application on it in the future.

These are the core tasks the server needs to perform:
- Support 3 client pcs
- Printing
- Storage of common company documents and files
- Central backup location for all the client pcs
- Remote access of company documents
- Run a database intensive server application / CRM
- Not sure of what is involved in running my own exchange server system for emails, but I am paying out £20 per month for 3 X 2Gb exchange email boxes from fasthosts. Would be nice to get rid of this expense

From my research and considering my limited budget, I was thinking of going for the following setup:
- HP Proliant server
- Windows Small Business Server 2003
- 1 X 500Gb HDD (space for 3 extra drives) - hot swappable
- Dual core CPU
- 1Gb RAM
- Use an external 1Tb USB hard drive (Lacie) for server backup

I have spoken to a few people that have given me differing recommendations, so I wanted to come on to here to get some expert opinion. As well as your advice, answers to some of these questions would be appreciated:
- Tape drives seem to the most common server backup solution, but the drives are so expensive? Why are tape drives the the most common solution? Is it a bad idea to do backups to a 1Tb USB Lacie external HDD? (I chose this to limit costs for now)
- Secondly, should I be thinking of getting more than one hard drive?
- I don't know what a RAID controller is, but people are telling me I should consider getting one?
- Should I be getting more RAM or bigger HDD, or is this sufficient for now?
- Windows Small Business Server 2003 sounds like it would be a bit easier to administer than Windows Server. Am I right in choosing this server OS?

I don't want to go into overkill mode as I need every penny I can get my hands on right now, but I also don't want false economies. PLEASE can you folks help me out here. What kind of server would you recommend I go for? Please can you provide me a link to any good preconfigured systems out there (e.g. from stores like www.ebuyer.com ). Lastly, please try to explain technical terms in your responses as I am not an expert at all!! Thanks

[Carbon]

Oh no! I lost my entire post! Eek. Well I'll retype it.

USB is going to be a lot slower than you think, even if you run a cron job to do nightly backups. It also has a failure rate that's the same as a regular hard disk, so the better solution is two or three disks in RAID 5, which means if one or multiple HDD fails you can replace it/them and have your data still.

Tape is only worth it if..well..it's worth it. The advantages are capacity, cost (especially those two, you can just keep buying more tape), and reliability, if those are better served by more HDDs then that's the way to go.

I would seriously consider building the server yourself or paying someone to build it to lose the overhead HP's gonna throw at you. At the very least, use something like Ibuypower that won't overcharge you in this respect. Server buyers have it worse than desktop buyers as it's assumed that anyone who buys a server is going to be able to pay out the nose. A good server case should allow modularity, so you shouldn't lose anything going from prebuilt.

A Xeon E3110 system with multiple hard drives (perhaps 3) in RAID 5, a good amount of RAM (2GB is really a minimum for desktop systems and if you're going to be doing intensive stuff you want to have as much as possible), a case that allows you to swap those HDDs in and out without opening up the whole thing should fit your budget. If that's not an option, I would consider buying the HP as base and ordering at least another GB of RAM (if not more) and at least one extra hard drive. The capacity issue is going to be subjective: I don't know how much data you're going to be crunching and whether two 500s or three 350s or three 250s or so forth is going to be sufficient, but do keep in mind that it's good to spread it out across multiple drives as much as possible.

[vishy01234]

Hi Carbon, Thanks for your response. The only reason why I am considering a removable HDD is that I need to be able to take my backup off-site just in case of a burglary, fire, etc. Also, tape drives are so expensive! I do appreciate, however, that tape media is cheap, so am I right in thinking that you believe I should invest in a tape drive and a bunch of tapes?

I was also wondering what you think about backup software for server backups onto tape media or removable HDD. Will the windows small business server 2003 backup utility be sufficient (couple of people working at IT reseller companies think it's no good for serious use) or should i be paying out for symantec backup exec (which is sooo expensive!)? Are there any cheaper alternatives out there to backup exec?

Also, is windows small business server 2003 the way to go?

If I do go for multiple hard drives, do I have to get a RAID controller? Also, what is RAID exactly, and the purpose of a RAID controller?

Lastly, do you really think I can save more than £100 if I get the server built? The thing that attracted me to getting an HP Proliant is the 3 year warranties they give with them (Dell charge through the nose for this) and someone told me that that ILO (integrated light out) feature in HP Proliants is really good.

Sorry for all the questions, but I really appreciate your help.

[Carbon]

It may be worth it to do the tape drive if weighed against a HDD solution it's cheaper/more efficient in the long run - you could also use a external SATA connection which should give you the portability (and speed!) you need.

As for the RAID controller - RAID is basically a redundancy system that "stripes" your data across multiple HDDs, allowing redundancy in the event of failure. Sometimes it's worth it to buy a RAID controller, sometimes the onboard RAID (on the motherboard) is enough. Here's an article. I would not suggest setting up a server without some sort of RAID!

As for the software, I really can't say. I don't have experience with the Windows server backup stuff.

The cost question is variable - what ProLiant system were you going to purchase? Warranties shouldn't be a issue, server parts usually have extremely long warranties, on top of the often lifetime warranty put on computer parts in general. The only downside is having to send a part back instead of the whole box if something fails, and not having the same kind of "walk-you-through" support HP has. If there's a significant cost difference, it's something I would recommend, especially if you have someone experienced to administrate.

ILO is really only going to be a significant benefit if you're sticking your server in a datacenter. It doesn't seem as if that's the case, you'll have physical access almost all the time so remote administration shouldn't be that big of a deal. I can't believe they'd make this a feature on Windows boxes when a simple SSH can do much of the same tasks on a Unix box.