Charity wants to install

[happyhacker]

We are a charity an I help them with IT. We have the opportunity to get a charity license for SBS 2008 standard or premium from MS. Currently I have cobbled(!) together a mix of XP Home/Pro and Vista business (all on a workgroup), wired/wireless and a Linux Ubuntu server for backups. The ISP will allow a fixed IP.

We want to configure some of the more useful Outlook features like calendar and email sharing and have the option of buying MS Exchange from our ISP or as said installing SBS 2008 which will also give us extra (it will replace the Linux to do backups).

My question is,:

1. not being an expert on MS server technologies, if I get a good book and use this forum, will it be fairly easy to get a system running.

2. Our budget will allow us to buy a 64bit HP PC and an extra drive (but not an expensive raid configured server). Will SBS install and allow us to use it's features on such a platform and will all of it's features (file sharing, backup, exchange, and other servers if we need them) run on this single platform?

I am sure I will have other Qs but thought I'd try to determine some basic feasibility first.

Many thanks.

 

[ShackDaddy]

If you can put enough memory in it (8gb or more), it should serve you just fine. If you don't have RAID, please be religious about the backups. For backups you will just need a couple of external drives, one of which you'll keep offsite.

SBS should be a great solution for you and is easier to manage than installing Exchange 2007 on a "server" separately. There are books out there that should point you the right direction, whatever it is you are trying to accomplish. I can recommend the "SBS 2008 Unleashed" book, for example. And yes, forums are great when the book and Google aren't coming through for you.

If you are simply looking for collaboration, another option you might want to think about is whether your budget would allow you to use a hosted Exchange solution, like 1and1.com or the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, particular the one for "deskless workers". It's all cloud, they take care of backups, and all you need for each employee to access it is a web browser. I may be mistaken but I think that would run around $10\user\month.

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net

 

[happyhacker]

Yes, thanks. I have found an HP server that should do and am thinking of a software RAID 1 so will configure 2 x 500Gb drives. I shall buy a NAS server and use that to take home (as I can use it to backup both locations).

I costed hosted exchange and that came out at £1200/yr for our 15 users and that was only for Exchange server. SBS2008 locally gives us much more for about the same cost and is not ongoing.

Thanks for your time.

 

[PaulGillespie]

Don't use a NAS. The built in backup software is designed to work with USB drives only. You can backup to a NAS but you can't schedule it. Use USB drives!

If you are installing it and doing the maintenance - keep it simple. I have seen to many bad SBS installs done by people who try to make it too complex. Stick to the wizards and only touch what you know you can fix.

SBS2008 is a great app and charity pricing is dirt cheap. Don't expect lightning performance on a cheap server with 15 users, it will run though.

 

[happyhacker]

PaulGillespie, thanks good advice. I will look into USB portables (suggestions welcome) and I need to back up potentially 750Gbyte business but also use it for my home network probably another 250Gbyte.

Thanks for your time.

 

[PaulGillespie]

HH, I'm using Iomega USB drives from Misco - you'll wat to get the 1.5TB ones. The backup is very inteligent in that it only takes a full backup to each USB drive once and then it only backs up changed sectors on the hard disk. Through this strategy, you get long retention times and quick backup times. It's a great solution.
Once you have added the USB hard disk to your server for backup purposes you cannot use it on other machines, so you'll need to get a seperate one for home.

 

[biglebowski]

We use a 1.5 TB usb drive to do the backups and I've installed openfiler to use as a NAS. Once a week I use the "one off backup" feature and backup to the NAS and then copy the backup to a portable USB drive I keep at home.

Once you've setup the server backup you can no longer view the contents or copy the contents off the USB hard drive (it also disappears from explorer) The drive is dedicated to the backup but you can only see how many backup sets there are through the backup administrator.

"Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary, and you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things."

 

[happyhacker]

biglebowski, why do you have a 2-stage backup?

Are you saying you don't use the 2008 backup utility but openfiler?

Thanks for your time.

 

[biglebowski]

I have 2 backups so I can have an off site copy

Backup 1 is via the 2008 backup utility to a USB attached 1.5 TB drive

Backup 2 is to a NAS so I can then copy this to a 300 GB portable drive that I take home.

"Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary, and you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things."

 

[happyhacker]

Let me understand this then. Backup 1 is permanently attached (so potentially gets lost with the server when physically compromised). Backup 2 is also permanently present and could presumably be in another room or remote (from the server room/building). Backup (3) is copied from the NAS device via it's USB port. 300Gbyte may take some or all of the backup depending on space (but I suppose should be a complete "image").

What is your restore procedure?

How do you ensure against the possibility of all backups containing malware?

What about just a data restore if the server OS is only reinstalled?

I am trying to determine the best cost effective approach. Some just backup to the portable device and leave it at that. But in my opinion (and certain experience) 1 backup is not a secure against human error. So I like the fact that you seem to have 2 backups. Hopefully someone can find the time to comment.

Thanks for your time.

 

[biglebowski]

I Just restore using the sbs install disk

I don't we have symantec endpoint & exchange AV installed and I have to hope that is enough. We don't even have a firewall I have a netgear adsl modem as the gateway. My boss won't cough up the money to buy one, not even a second hand pc to use as opensource firewall.

I plan for a full restore only.

"Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary, and you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things."

 

[happyhacker]

I used Sym Endpoint last year for our charity clients and it caused them (mostly XP Home) to slow down by 30%. When I changed to Norton 2008 they picked up considerable speed. So I am wary of Endpoint. Does the Endpoint also go on the server or does one need special AV for that?

I've been reading ISBN 978-0-07-158118-8 to try and understand how to optimally avoid malware. Recommend it.

Thanks for your time.

 

[PaulGillespie]

for most of my sites, I use 4 usb hard disks that are changed daily or weekly (depending on the client). They take the unused ones offsite. If you want something else in addition to this then that's up to you.

why don't you get a free trial of SBS and have a play? You'll have wanted to have a few test installs first before your first production install.

 

[biglebowski]

The endpoint manager goes on the SBS and also it's own client. I've got all the users set up as managed clients.

We got the exchange av and premium antispam included for free and haven't had any issues with it. So far it's blocked all spam emails and blocked lots of viruses so I'm very impressed with it.

I installed a trial version of shadow protect for SBS and was really impressed with the backup speed and the ability to restore to vmware. I tried the p2v restore when I had to make some serious and risky changes to the server and tested the changes on the virtul machine first. My boss refused to cough up the £350 for it though

"Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary, and you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things."

 

[PaulGillespie]

Shadow protect is really really really handy to have lying around!

I'm using sophos at about 30 sites and it's pretty good, good enough that i'm going to use it for the foreseeable future. They do charity pricing too which may help. IME all modern AV slows the PCs down.

If budget is very very tight then you could always install Microsoft security essentials on the work stations (i've been impressed with its malware detection and performance on older machines) - this would be unmonitored and I would never recommend it to my clients but it's better than nothing. You could then but a 5 license pack of your chosen AV product for the server and the most important machines.

You would be cutting corners and taking a security risk but as I said, If you have no money, it's better than nothing.