How much RAM

[rogerpatel]

Hi,

Can i please get some adive. I need to spec a small LAN and have some basic questions.

The LAN is very simple, 35 users, mail and file/print
DC1,
dc, file & print
HP ML350 G4
Dual p4
Raid 5
2gb ram

Mail1
exhange 2003
HP ML350 G4
Dual p4
Raid 5
3gb ram

My question is regarding dc1 and memory, we are suggesting 2gb ram, is there anyone here how suggest we have 3gb or more, as this server is only a file print and dc box will it benifit with more RAM.

How does one decide how much ram a dc/fileprint server should need.

Thanks



Thanks

 

[JoshuaBuche]

I can't really point you to any technical docs but I have a similar set up and 2GB should be enough. (Actually I have 1GB and have NEVER had any issues)

 

[ncotton]

you shouldn't even need 2GB....as long as you don't plan on running extremely extensive (durring hours) virus scanners on the printer server.....File/Print services take nothing, and AD is virtually RAM redundant (as far as spiking is concerned) I think you'd need about 5000 users logging on completely simultaneously to even cause a bump.

Hope this Helps.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant

 

[rogerpatel]

just as i thought, thanks for confirming this.

cheers all

roger

 

[LWComputingMVP]

Wow... talk about overkill for a network of 35 users.

Are they expecting to grow?

If growth is slow - say 10 users per year - then Small Business Server is a MUCH better solution economically.

 

[skialta]

I agree with Neil. You could drop the RAM to 1GB if you wanted although it's not much money. Howerver you could certainly save a few bucks by dropping the dual processor on the DC...not really needed. I'd also recomend spending that money on a second DC for redundancy.

 

[JoshuaBuche]

Agreed, I'm using a P4 2.4 (OC'd to 3.0) with 1GB of PC3200 and my 2003 server has never had any issues and I have about 30+ users.

 

[rogerpatel]

Great responses from everyone.

lwcomputing

you mention it being an over kill, you are suggesting a single sbs box, our network will be growing to around 80 users by the end of the year, and more next year(100max), this is the reason we are going to a dc and exchange server, in the next few month we wil be buying another server as a backup dc.

do you still think sbs is good for us.

 

[LWComputingMVP]

No, if your user growth is expected to be that great, SBS is no good as it provides for a maximum of 75 users. Instead, I would suggest Microsoft Medium Business Server. Here are some links:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2005/7/7/648

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/smbiz/default.mspx

As for overkill, I used to manage the Windows side of a network of 1000+ users, 1100+ clients (Macs, PCs, Linux, Unix) and 35+ Windows servers. We had 800 users at one site running off two servers for file and printer sharing - these servers had 512MB to 1GB of RAM and ran Windows 2000 server with Gigabit NICs. The server processor load was never significant. While your overall storage requirements may be different from what mine were, for most environments, you can (for file services) EASILY handle the load on a low end Pentium 4 with 512-1024 MB of RAM. And domain controller services are generally minimal as well, so there should be little impact. There.

My biggest concern would be for Volume Shadow Copy - if you plan on using it (I do recommend it). In that case, I would store the shadow copies on a separate non-RAID single drive - but at the least not on the same set of drives that the RAID is on - this is purely for performance reasons.

As for exchange, we used a single 800 MHz CPU system with 1 GB of RAM for 400 users. Albeit with Exchange 2000. This system as well saw little significant processor usage. On this system, I'd suggest 1 GB of RAM, SINGLE CPU (in a box that can handle BOTH Dual core and dual CPU, so you could POTENTIALLY upgrade to what would be seen as 4 cores). But to start, I don't see the need for such a beefy system. Oh, and you need to modify the RAID config - ideally, the Exchange information store would be stored on a RAID 5 and the logs on a RAID 1 - minimum 5 disks. If that's not an option, then probably dual RAID 1s so you can keep the logs and the database separate.