SBS 2003 on a Celeron 2.4 GHz box?

[ITforSchool]

I am in the process of trying to determine the best solution for a small school. Before I saw Windows Small Business Server, I was going to pursue Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition.

I know what the minimum requirements are for both as well as the "recommended" configurations. But, in practice the hardware requirements are grossly understated.

1) Will Windows Small Business Server run on a Celeron 2.4 GHz box with 2GB RAM and two mirrored hard drives? This is a network that has (on average) 25-30 users working at the same time. Currently, Windows Server 2000 is in use.

2) Considering the price differences, and the fact that only 50 device client licenses are required, what would be the advantage of Server 2003 Standard when it will all run off the same box anyway?

3) The features of Exchange Server will be disabled in either case, because
the school uses web-based email.

Given these circumstances, and the fact that the school will not have a "regular IT person" after October of this year, I would be interested to know what you all recommend.

Mary

 

[ShackDaddy]

I think your hardware will be fine for SBS 2003. The benefit of using SBS over Standard, assuming that cost isn't an issue in the academic environment, is that there are nice monitoring and remote control functionality in SBS. The wizards make user creation and backups relatively simple, and the server is generally easier to manage in an environment in which there isn't a full-time IT person.

The only good reason to use Standard instead of SBS is if your school already has a Windows Active Directory domain set up. If it does, and if this new server will integrate into that pre-existing domain, you may not want to use SBS, since it builds its own domain and has to be in charge of it.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[ITforSchool]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, we currently have Windows 2000 Server with Active Directory, but we are planning to do a fresh install of the new OS and AD. There are lots of reasons for this, not the least of which is that we're going to upgrade to a larger hard drive.

I wonder if anyone has had any first-hand experience with SBS 2003 on a Celeron. Just curious. At this point, I am definitely leaning toward SBS, but after reading some of the posts around here, the folks who are certified for Server 2003 Standard might not be the best choice to configure an SBS box. They're not used to working with the "Wizard".

Mary

 

[LWComputingMVP]

Let me ask you... When was SBS 2003 Released? About 4 years ago, right? Give or take six months...

So what was the best CPU at that time?

Keep in mind, that being intended for a maximum of 75 users, the BEST processor at the time HAD to support 75 users with a reasonably load.

The point being, a 2.4 is fine depending on what you are doing. I had a 2.4 Celeron in a Dell 400 SC server for 15 users. We upgraded this recently because we use volume shadow copy and periodically, the CPU would spike when the copies ran. Don't use VSS (why wouldn't you want to?) then you'll be fine. Otherwise, get yourself a faster chip - they aren't that expensive. Either that, or get yourself a GOOD hardware RAID setup, that might help things significantly.

I would also suggest you read up on SBS. It's not Just Windows and Exchange bundled. It's an integrated package. You could end up having problems if you manage things like it was any old server, it's not. I have a page of links, some of which you might want to review:

http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/sbs.asp