Help with new system config

Dear All
Can someone help point me in direction of a new Server configurtion for 25 users that needs to be semi-resilient (down for 1 day max) !
The system just now is a very slow HP box running sbs2003, the user's have large mailboxes, need about 1Tb of fast storage and SQL database.
I have a couple idea's but before i go into details i'll see if anyones
good enough to help/discuss?
Cheers
D.S.
ps. not keen to use SBS2008 with Exchange 2007.

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docspawn

Aye ok, i was in a hurry and could of made better sense..

Anyway i'm basically looking for help designing a small biz network, with some resilience.?
Will give more details if anyone is willing to offer advice or point me to another
place where i can ask such questions.
Ta
D.S.

earweed

I was gonna recommend using SBS 2008 as I used it recently and it works great. I've never worked with SBS 2003 so I wouldn't be any help there.

docspawn

Thanks Earweed, I would look at SBS2008 if there was any way
you could build some redundancy into it. Especially for exchange. !
There is only 25 user's for SBS should be ideal.

I have spoken to one other that uses SBS2008 and he says its very
slow, especially with large (CAD) files. Have you experienced speed
an issues ?

D.S.

Hyper-Me

Exactly how is there "Redundancy" in 2003 that isnt in 2008?

Infact, the built in backup will back up EVERYthing in SBS2008 (even exchange). Try doing that effectively with NTbackup.

2008 isnt slow, it performs very well as long as you build the machine with proper specs. To run SBS2008 and use exchange and sharepoint, you best have at least 8 GB of RAM on the server.

EDIT: slow with CAD files? In what context? Are you opening CAD on a workstation and loading files from a network share or copying them? The USB and network file copy was vastly improved in Vista/7 and 2008/R2. It's even faster when you use those OS' on both sides of the equation. Why you would try loading massive CAD files over the network is beyond me, its obvious that any file with that much girth is likely going to bring a file server to its knees.

earweed

docspawn wrote: »

Thanks Earweed, I would look at SBS2008 if there was any way
you could build some redundancy into it. Especially for exchange. !
There is only 25 user's for SBS should be ideal.

I have spoken to one other that uses SBS2008 and he says its very
slow, especially with large (CAD) files. Have you experienced speed
an issues ?

D.S.

No speed issues but where I installed it they don't usually have huge files either. A lot of large doc files and stuff. The server also has 8GB (as Hyper-me suggested) so that's not an issue.

tomahawkeer

I don't have a large amount of experience with 2008, however I do have some, and from everything that ive done on our only 08 server, I would absolutely recommend it over 2003 even just for how well it runs, as well as the backup that is built into it.

As far as redundancy goes, the more redunant you go, the more expensive the box is going to be (hardware wise). Harddrives / Controllers / PSU / Tape Drive / Removeable HDD etc. It depends on how redundant you want or need it to be.

docspawn

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Exactly how is there "Redundancy" in 2003 that isnt in 2008?
Infact, the built in backup will back up EVERYthing in SBS2008 (even exchange). Try doing that effectively with NTbackup.

The problem is i do NOT have redundancy in a single server running SBS2003 and guess the same would apply to SBS2008. By this i mean if the server blows up then clients will have to wait till i order new hardware, reinstall and recover backed up files. I cant afford to have any services down more than 1 day max, expecially exchange.
If there is any way to cover this using SBS2008 i'd love to be know ?

I was thinking i would have to buy 2x Server's, 2x Server 2008 Standard, 2x Sans, Exchange 2010, and SQL then set up one physical and one virtual on each with DAG and main files sync'n on
the SAN's.
If one server goes down then other works away DHCP, DNS and file server on physical and a quick re-jig would get exchange and SQL going on virtual till i got 2nd Server built.

I am here to ask for help, i dont claim to know it all so dont having having a go me !
D.S.

RTmarc

If you can, virtualize it. 2-3 host servers plus some sort of NAS or SAN. You didn't specify as to whether or not your were working under budget constraints.

docspawn

Not really fixed with a budget, just need a working solution...with out going
mad that is.
If you could give rough idea about how is best to do this with exchange ?

As i said i dont need fail over, as long as i can get things working within 24hrs.

Cheers
D.S.

Hyper-Me

Get next day service on your warranty and keep good backups, and youll be ok.