Good server for small business?

[MrKovacic]

I am IT director for a very small business and I was given the go to start researching getting our own server and a new OS to replace our current hosting company. I wanted to know if anyone could recommend a good system to me. I understand that Dell has great prices and Compaq is something I would like to avoid. I have dealt with 3 compaqs, a laptop, a Presario 5000 and 5125. All 3 compaqs have problems. The laptop and the 5000 have serious hardware issues right off the bat. The best Compaq I have worked with is the 5185. The server will be our WebServer, and not used for the office LAN. Also, if someone could direct me to a good OS. I ran Win98 and ran our server for a few weeks with a dial-up out of necessity, but our FrontPage server extensions would not work. I am new to this, but was able to set up the server and bring it online. I am currently using Microsoft personal web server. I am hoping that win2K has something better, or a better version of what they have. Thank you for even reading this far, if you reply with some good info, I will be very grateful. Thank you.

Mike

 

[johnny99]

There is not one answer to "A good operating system".
It depends a lot on what you need and what you know.

From the little what you write I would go for Win2K server.
You already know something about IIS and so you also must know a little about the rest of Windows.

Depending on your needs look at the small Dell servers, but if you have the money go for SCSI and the built-in raid cntl.
Don't buy Celeron processors.
If the server will have SQL buy a lot of ram (1-2 GB)

You can even pay Dell to configure the server for you (never tried that myself)

/johnny

 

[bfralia]

Dell is great. If you've dealt with Compaq service then one call to Dell will make it all worth while. In four years with 18 servers, there have only been four calls that resulted in service technicians coming out.

Dell can fit about any budget with size of machine. The have referb machines you can get service contracts on. They also lease.

You didn't say what your budget is but get something with SCSI drives for fast response. For about five Grand you can get something pretty spiffy with raid.

 

[MrKovacic]

Right now we are on the down side of the market. So with our new business plans, I am trying to outflank my way to a good system at a reasonable price. Once things pick up, I will be able to go into rack systems and T1s. Our main business has taken a dive because we are competitors with Anderson. Then again, with the long time span of a crummy market, we are still riding on our knuckles while Anderson is history. I am basically running a "scotch tape" server. I took a work station, blanked the OS, and reloaded with bare bones. Then made it a server. We are also dealing with a hosting company that has technicians with as much training as I had (none). So I would also like to know if anyone knows of any good reading resources online I could find to do some studying. Thank you both for the info, it will help a lot. I did notice Dell has excellent prices, that was the prime reason I was going to go with them.

Thanks a lot!

 

[cdjmh]

Look at a Dell PowerEdge 1400 SC. Use the Dell web site to configure it as you wish to get an idea of price. Then call one of Dell's server consultants. It has been my experience that I saved money and ended up with a more powerful machine when the consultant speced it out.
DDJMH

 

[NickFerrar]

Whilst I'm a big fan of Dell's (we have about 50 Dell servers) I wouldn't rate their support too highly, certainly no better than Compaq's - although I guess a lot depends on who answers the call...

Windows 2000 should fit your needs, with IIS to host a web-site. Dell do specific 1U rack servers for such things but we've never used those. A good low-end server is the new PowerEdge 1650 (1U rackmount), very cheap as a base system but can be expanded (dual CPU, 3 internal disks, RAID capable etc). The only problem with it is you can't fit a local backup device.