Initially I was considering the HP gen 8 micro server but the DS5100 seems like a great turn-key solution with hot-swappable drives, small form factor and internal boot drives with Windows 2012. The two Gbps links will be bonded for max throughput. The use case for it will be a typical small business server (replacing the existing windows 2003 SBS running on an old Dell) i.e. file server, backup server for PCs and Macs, VPN/Access Anywhere and central domain server.
The plan is to set it up with a new domain name and with Storage Spaces with one drive as a hot spare. Then log into the older PDC and copy the data over. Then rejoin the PCs (windows 7) to the DS5100 as the new domain name. I’m not sure about what GPOs exist on the old server but I would think it’ll be minimal or not needed since the server hasn’t been looked after by anyone for the last 4 years. However, the owner of the business wants to clean up and upgrade the IT env, wants performance/throughput, backups, VPN access and email (will be going to office365 for that).
As part of this refresh I’ll also be getting them the HP 1810 switch to replace a very old 10/100 Cisco. The only thing I haven’t figured out yet is where and how I’ll back up the server itself. I’m thinking of buying an extra disk drive for it so they can replace themselves and/or buy the additional 3 yr warranty plan.
Anyone have any feedback on the server or these plans etc?
All sounds good. FWIW, you don’t “join” the pc’s to the server, but run the connector setup. This joins to the domain as well as configures the client backup and installs the launchpad.
Serverbackup is built in. You just need to figure out how much data is going to be on the server. As in you cant backup 4tb of data to a 2tb USB drive :) If you have a ton of data you may want to look at backing up to an ISCI target.
May be a good idea to get a proper extra drive now as you never know how available they may be in 2 years.
And just to piont out it is Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials, not Windows 2012
Gramps, thanks for the clarification and the additional info. Anyone have recommendations for a small form factor UPS? Also some sort of a small cabinet/wall-shelving etc for the server/switch/router/ups? Their current server and switch are just sitting on the carpet in one corner of their office.
You should also be able to join it to the existing domain, move the FSMO roles over, then remove the old server from the domain once you have everything you need copied over, then you should be able to upgrade the domain functional level to 2012R2.
This would save a lot of headache switching over all the clients, etc.
Do you have a link to a document or article on how to do this? I tried reading through a 90+ page document I found on MS’s website that talked about moving a SBS2003/8 to SBS 2011 but it was dizzying to read.
