Post By Martin 0 Comments
October 2009 02

Welcome to servering part 1

So we’ve decided on a server, maybe for SharePoint, to host our files rather than Janet’s old desktop, or to host our Exchange. We could simply re-install Windows server on one of the desktops, that will work fine, but let us this time, look at buying a new server, and see what we need to think about.

Let us begin on form factor, like the desktop, servers come in many shapes and sizes. We’re going to stay in the x86 world simply for simplicty, but the other processors follow similar concepts.

  • Rack server – typically designed and purchased with installing a computer rack in mind, they will have rails which the server sits on, range in u size, 1u being about 2 inches or so.
  • Tower server – ranging in size from something a little bit bigger than your desktop to the larger ones with space for more disks and components. Can be placed in any location or under the team desks.
  • Blade server – these are smaller servers which fit inside an enclosure and let you have a large number of servers in a smaller footprint, usually installed in a rack, but there are now small business versions which can sit in a space in your office.

So for our first server, we’ll typically look at a tower server, something we can sit in the office, that isn’t too noisy and doesn’t mean we need to buy a cabinet/rack. Going forward though, if you’re going to need more servers soon, you might find it better to be looking at a rack server or blade server – but note blade servers are cheaper when bought in bulk as you have to buy the enclosure (chassis) to connect the blades up.

In terms of processors, there are many to choose from you’ll need to think about how fast you need the server to be, consider the memory and storage you need, and remember that unless your server is running calculations or database work, the processor might not be the most important part, think about the storage, the memory and the network.

On to memory, how much memory do you need now? How many slots for memory does the server have? The more the slots, the more upgradeable it is, it all though depends what you’re doing with the server. If it’s a file/SharePoint server, your first server 4 slots should do fine, just leave a few slots spare, in case you need to add more memory later.

On storage there are a few things to be thinking about:

  • RAID
  • Type of hard drives – SAS / SATA

RAID is a technology which allows you to have a degree of redundancy so that if one of your hard drives were to fail, the server might continue as normal without loosing any data. Most servers these days come with some RAID functionality, or the option to include RAID. Whether you need this depends on the importance of your data and your backup solution. We’re going to cover this in detail in part 2 – standards/best practice.

  • Types of drive – there are two main types, SAS and SATA. SAS is the industrial strength SCSI based disk technology, SATA is the next generation IDE, typically server guys would always go for SCSI drives given the choice, though your choice will probably depend on your budget and requirements. Do check if the drives are hot swap/hot pluggable, this means if the drive fails, you can remove the faulty drive and plug in a new one without switching off the server. Check the capacity/performance of the drives against your requirements. Remember if you ask a server guy they will always say SCSI because that’s what they’ve been raised with, so do look around and price up the difference, make a judgement based on your needs not what Gary says based on preference.

Network card, let’s not get too emotional here, as long as there is one network card, as long as that card can do up to 1GB, it’ll be fine. Unless you’re doing virtualization, unless you need to have a ‘load balanced’ network card, one port will do, most servers have that on board.

Operating systems – this just in terms of think about now and the future, think about licensing, if you’re moving towards your first server, is it Windows server you need, a copy of Linux or Windows XP? Consider what it is the server is doing, what the application software you’re going to install will need, and check out the different options. As a file server, linux as a file server might be ideal, but if you’ve got XP/Vista already deployed, moving towards Windows server need not be that much of a jump in terms of knowledge or complexity, covering the Windows server maintenance basics will be in article 3.

Do remember to check out the warranty/support pack to check it meets your needs, like next day response parts and labour etc.

Of the top of my head, some tower servers to look at:




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