What Server?

[furious5]

I've recently been asked by my MD to begin looking in to buying a new server.

Although I do have experience in networking, I haven't really been involved in the buying of hardware before.

Basically I am looking for some ideas of where to start, or some decent articles to get me started.

Our organisation is currently made up of around 10 people, which may increase in the next 2 years to around 100 at a maximum due to forthcoming acquistions etc.

The server will be used for all our organisations requirements from e-mail, accounts through to product information.

As an opening shot, I was considering something like the Dell PowerEdge 6600.

 

[johnics]

how much does your org use email? you might be better off buying two smaller servers and having one as email and the other a stand alone file server.

 

[furious5]

This is something I have already considered i.e getting two smaller servers one for e-mail, internet and web server which is an up and coming requirement and a second server for serving files and printing.

I guess if I were to do this I would need the firewall on the first server, and then connect this to the second server using a router?

 

[NickFerrar]

The Dell 6600 is probably overkill - Dell's description of their servers isn't really accurate anyhow (as in the 4600 is described as a workgroup server whereas the 2600 is perfectly suited to this to).

I would definetly recommend multiple servers - the more you put on one server the more things one bad app causing a server crash will cause.

Typically we use one server per major application and then have separate file and print servers as required. At the least you should have Exchange on a different server to the rest.

As for firewalling - you shouldn't do that on a server used for anything else. It should either be done on a hardware router/firewall or done on a dedicated server. Anything Internet-facing should be on a DMZ (a separate subnet from your main internal network) hanging off the firewall.

 

[MitchCumstein]

I agree with the above. For the price of a 6600, you could get a couple of 2650s or 1650s. Also, I just received a mailing for a "Buy 3 Dell servers get 1 free" promo. Call 'em and see if you could get that too

 

[sauce21]

Definetely overkill on the 6600. I agree with buying two smaller servers to diversify your processes. You don't want all of you eggs in one basket do you? About the firewalling, do not use a software firewall. Buy a pix 501 if you have a network of under 25 users, 515E-DMZ-BUN for a larger network. Just setup NAT or PAT, a few conduits for emial, web, ftp, etc.... Now if you do go with the 515E, you will want to setup the DMZ like Nick was saying. Hang the mail and web servers outside the regular network and setup your access lists on the PIX. If you do keep the mail and web internal and are using Exchange you will need to use external DNS. Here are the IP's I recommend:

Sprint Caching Name Servers:

nameserver 206.228.179.10
nameserver 144.228.254.10
nameserver 144.228.255.10

Sauce