Small Business Infrastructure

[djtech2k]

I am going to do some work on the side for a small business that I have worked with for years. I know their setup now because I did it. I also know the core requirements to meet. I will list the important stuff and some options I thought of. I would like to get some other points of views about the options I list or anything I missed. I need to build a proposal and a price for them ASAP. Ok, here goes....

Environment:

- Small Business, small office of about 12-15 users or so.
- Users also access remotely
- Netgear Business Firewall/Router/VPN
- (1) Dell Server (Out of Warranty Currently...since July)
- Dell Switch
- Business Cable Internet Access
- All Apps run from 2003 Server via Terminal Server
- Windows 2003 Standard
- All users logon with local accounts as Users/Power Users
- 1 User has Administrator Access for certain Apps
- Run some logon scripts for printers, mapped drives, etc
- All users computer illiterate...LOL
- All XP Clients
- Around 15-20 computers access server/intranet via local or remote access


Requirements:

- AD Domain
- SharePoint
- Maintain Terminal Server
- Maintain fault Tolerance and redundancy
- Everything must have a backup/recovery plan.
- Keep it CHEAP


Ok, so thats the major stuff. Their current server is NOT taxed much at all. It would need some disk space to do anything more, but I do not know if it can be covered under warranty anymore. Here are some ideas I had that would give me flexibility, very low hw/sw price, and meet requirements as well as my requirements to do it.

Option A.

Option A will be physical servers. I would rather keep the DC separate from anything else other than something small. So to do this, I thought I would maybe price out 2 servers, quite small. The thing is though, I will only do HP or Dell because I want the 3 year service plan onsite for them and I need something they can do a business lease/purchase on like the last server. So, if I quote the servers with a RAID 1 array of drives, a single cpu, and at least 2 GB of RAM, its still a few thousand. Then to add a RAID controller, and a tape drive to backup, its several thousand just for 1 simple server. Backup is another issue. I am thinking os maybe some sort of small NAS or something that would be much cheaper and have plenty of storage for 2 servers. Backup data size should not need to be more than 100GB for basic data plus whatever more I need for the new servers.

OK, so this option will cost a lot because I will need 2 servers and 2 backup solutions.

OPTION B.

Virtualization is my idea for Option B. My thought was to buy a larger single server and load it with Microsoft Virtual Server. My concerns there are how well the VM's will perform. My original thought was that the HOST OS would be Windows 2003 Std and would be the DC. Then, the VM's would be an app server and a Terminal Server. My concern is the performance and how big the server hw will need to be for the VM's to get enough resources. I also thought about buying VMWare ESX Server for it and NOT run a Windows HOST OS. In this config, even the DC would be virtual. That makes me a little uneasy, but it would be easier to backup....at least I think. ESX will also cost a couple thousand I believe. So virtualization has a few question marks on how well it will work and how much it will cost.



So, that is a brief description. They do plan to grow, so the systems will need to be designed with growth in mind, but they are still VERY small.

Any ideas/suggestions? I am open to anything some of you other experienced guys have to offer. My job is to work in a large enterprise and manage tens of thousands of users/systems. I am doing this job as a favor on the side. I am not used to designing a "mini" enterprise for little money. So the major thing I need to do is to figure out what hw, sw, and config I am going to need to price out for them. I also need to keep the price in mind while designing.

Thanks

 

[djtech2k]

I guess I should have changed my post title.....I am not using Small Business Edition of 2003, I am using standard,

 

[mofusjtf]

I think your client wants an enterprise intsallation on a small business budget. This is typical of small business. They loose thousands of dollars an hour when they are down but won't spend the money they need too in order to minimize downtime. No matter how you look at it, small business server will come out cheaper.

So you already have the server software? How many copies of W2k3 Standard server do you have already? Do you have the appropriate server CAL's already (for both Terminal SErver and Windows Server)?

What type of SharePoint? SharePoint Services is free but SharePoint server is not and requries CAL's. SharePoint also requires a lot of resources on the server.

Can you integrate the current server into any one of your scenarios? If they already have a terminal server you might want to keep it as a terminal server and just add an additional server.

Is the current network an AD domain? Are you just looking to upgrade their hardware? Do they have Exchange in the environment? Do they plan on using Exchange?

What type of backup do they currently use? I would explore hot swappable d2d backup. CRU-Data port has some excellent options for a reasonble price.

What about antivirus, spyware and spam protection?

 

[djtech2k]

Sounds about correct...LOL

They have 1 copy of 2003 std with some CALs, but honestly I do not know how many offhand. I thing the CAL's for TS are covered with XP licenses they have, so theres nothing additional needed as far as I know. I do not purchase any of this stuff for them. I tell them what to buy and point them to the vendor. I am not a reseller, I just do the work.

I am planning to use the free sharepoint v3. I know it is resource hungry, but unless there was a bad point, I was gonna start with the MSDE/SQL Express database. With SP, it seems that SQL Server is the biggest pig.

The server they have is low on disk space and I would love to incorporate, but it is out of warranty. I am checking if Dell will extend it or not. If so, I would use it, if not then we probably cannot. I am too far away form them to handle hardware calls. Thats why a service contract is so important. A call to them gets them onsite within 1 business day. Its worth the piece of mind.

Currently, there is NO domain. Everything is local accounts, so its a MESS! They all share credentials and what not and I have to "band-aid" things together with local logon scripts and custom code to make it work. Hence me wanting to get to a domain ASAP. They do NOT have exchange. I host their email on my hosted Linux Server. It is ok for now, but in the "down the road" maybe a small Exchange deployment could be possible, but its not part of this scope.

For backup, I have an internal tape drive in their server. It is a DAT 20/40, so it doesn't hold much. Since the drives are so expensive, with the new servers I was planning another style backup. I was thinking something like a small NAS or something like that. Some of the LACIE ethernet disks are big and cheap. 1TB = $230. It is not RAID, but I think I can get a TB RAID for around $500. I use the native Windows Backup to tape now, but would then use the same util to do a d2d backup. Thats another pro for virtual machines, because backing up the VHD is a snap on a Widnows host OS, BUT I am not sure how I could do it if I used VMWare ESX since its a Linux kernel.

So you say CRU-Data? I am not familiar with them.

They use Symantec AV small business edition for AV/SW. There is no management server, all clients run independently.


Overall, I just need to determine a route and get together my plan, hw list, and software list so I can get a quote for them.

 

[mofusjtf]

Do they absolutely need a terminal server? Can the apps they run not work in a client/server setup like a standard network application? If so, you don't need a TS and can save the cost of a server.

How many remote users do they have? Do the remote users also work in the office? If so, you could just allow those users to RDP into their desktop instead of a TS. Additionally, you can use sharepoint to allow access to network files and create sort of an extranet.

I still think SBS might be your best bet from a cost perspective. You don't have to isntall exchange, you can just setup an SBS domain. Then down the road you already have Exchange and the CAL's. I would install Exchange though and if anything use the exchange server to POP the mail from a central location from you Linux server. Your client will love the benefits of Exchange with shared calendaring, public folerd, OWA, etc.

IF SBS is out of the question, I would personally explore option A in more detail.

Yeah, CRU-Data Port has a removeable SATA hard drive that works great as a backup solution. You use it just like you would a tape, except it is a hard drive. The cost is a lot less than a tape drive and the storage capacity is never an issue since SATA drives can get 1TB (native) on a single drive.

Good luck.