Budget 41-50k Server for 20 clients

[gcbeldar]

Whoa guys, we've touched the skies from his initial budget of 39,500
Just keep it simple. Tally and file transfer, the HP Server is enough. One switch with 24-ports and whatever software packages you want. If you feel there is a bottleneck just use NIC Teaming and connect both Ethernet ports of the server to the switch, should ensure maximum performance . If you and only if you wish to future proof yourself, max out the RAM(test and 1 stick at a time over a month and see if you actually gain benefits at the client end). That's about it.

Correct my logic;
1. Server is used as File storage then
a. No Application is running on the server, so RAM is required only client application sends (Tally/SQL) a query, Hence related with RAM & HARD DISK Speed
b. Speed of the Lan and Hard Disk/s is directly related.
c. for Other file activities by the client not much of ram is required (buffer), speed lan access and harddisk speed (may ssd helpful)

 

[gcbeldar]

Whoa guys, we've touched the skies from his initial budget of 39,500
Just keep it simple. Tally and file transfer, the HP Server is enough. One switch with 24-ports and whatever software packages you want. If you feel there is a bottleneck just use NIC Teaming and connect both Ethernet ports of the server to the switch, should ensure maximum performance . If you and only if you wish to future proof yourself, max out the RAM(test and 1 stick at a time over a month and see if you actually gain benefits at the client end). That's about it.

NIC Teaming feature is available in Win 2008 R2 ?

 

[Clutchtime]

NIC Teaming feature is available in Win 2008 R2 ?

This should help based on your hardware, and NIC driver:
http://serverfault.com/questions/561459/nic-teaming-windows-2008-r2

 

[Clutchtime]

Correct my logic;
1. Server is used as File storage then
a. No Application is running on the server, so RAM is required only client application sends (Tally/SQL) a query, Hence related with RAM & HARD DISK Speed
b. Speed of the Lan and Hard Disk/s is directly related.
c. for Other file activities by the client not much of ram is required (buffer), speed lan access and harddisk speed (may ssd helpful)

okay so:
Correct, no application is running on the server, RAM & hard disk speed are not even closely related. RAM operates at ultra fast speeds that the fastest SSD's today can't cope with, Hard drive speed matters only in file transfers. It is irrelevant when running Tally or SQL (The data is miniscule in comparison ). For uber speeds while running tally and similar applications just make sure that your network load isn't too high because large tally files will take forever to be processed and loaded.
LAN and hard disk speeds are miles apart buddy. LAN operates at close to 10/100/1000 Mbps while hard drives are limited to around 100-200 Mbps. They cannot be compared since hard drives are inherently too slow.
SSD helps a little, not much, just a little. You don't really need a lot of RAM if you're not using the server to host VM's , thin clients , etc. You should get by easily with 8 GB for a file server

 

[gcbeldar]

Hard drive speed matters only in file transfers. It is irrelevant when running Tally or SQL (The data is miniscule in comparison ).

If three to five clients send a query to tally server "One year Sales of a particular item of a particular customer" Will this query related with hdd speed ?

 

[vivek.krishnan]

Correct my logic;
1. Server is used as File storage then
a. No Application is running on the server, so RAM is required only client application sends (Tally/SQL) a query, Hence related with RAM & HARD DISK Speed
b. Speed of the Lan and Hard Disk/s is directly related.
c. for Other file activities by the client not much of ram is required (buffer), speed lan access and harddisk speed (may ssd helpful)

If you use the server only as file storage, then the RAM required for up to 20 clients needs not exceed 8GB, you can even get away with 4. RAM is also used for caching purposes by the OS.

LAN, HDD, RAM, CPU are all links in the chain. If one is weak, the others will be bottlenecked.

SSD is extremely useful as a cache/accelerator as well as for regular file storage.[DOUBLEPOST=1487312517][/DOUBLEPOST]

NIC Teaming feature is available in Win 2008 R2 ?

Not really. Prior to WS2012, NIC teaming was dependent on the drivers of the NIC vendor. With 2012 it has become a first party feature, directly inbuilt.

But I would advise against using it.

 

[vivek.krishnan]

Whoa guys, we've touched the skies from his initial budget of 39,500
Just keep it simple. Tally and file transfer, the HP Server is enough. One switch with 24-ports and whatever software packages you want. If you feel there is a bottleneck just use NIC Teaming and connect both Ethernet ports of the server to the switch, should ensure maximum performance . If you and only if you wish to future proof yourself, max out the RAM(test and 1 stick at a time over a month and see if you actually gain benefits at the client end). That's about it.

The initial budget of 40K is practically useless in production. What about BCP? If his HDD fails, which is usually the thing that craps out first, what does he do?

 

[vivek.krishnan]

@GANESH KACHAM Go for a used one... I know someone who deals in enterprise grade systems all over india.
http://www.zacocomputer.com/
Company: Zaco Computers
Contact: Zameer Kazi
Email: Zameer@zacocomputer.com
He is owner of the firm, one of the largest in India that deals in Second hand Server hardware.

The server you've listed will work well for a Domain Controller (DC) & File Server nothing more, but still at this point you need to think about data backups & redundancy. not having a plan here will kill your business.

If you are planning on doing Remote desktops etc. you need more CPU & RAM, a Dual Socket CPU with atleast 16Gb Memory.
from what i am estimating you need about 300+ mb per user on idle use add about a few more for browser,Tally & Office etc. it should be around 500mb per user/ session so thats 10gb + 2gb for windows.
Also its not recommend to have a Domain controller & a remote desktop server on the same system so you'll need to create a vm on the DC so 16 gb should be your bare minimum.
Use a regular 24 port Switch, you don't need anything fancy like a managed switch. with what you've listed out in the OT your files ain't going to be that big to cause any sort of network bottleneck. It will help though if your server has dual LAN's then you can do NIC Teaming.
As for what brand, you can take your pick, you will have people siding one brand than the other always. its a matter of preference, I've used Dell in my entire rack.

@vivek.krishnan Thats the problem with IT guys in India (me being one)... my previous employer where i used to work at an non-IT position, their IT team used to come to me to ask for my assistance in troubleshooting issue & talking advice...& back then though i wasn't even a certified guy, just knowledgeable. although in all honesty, this is a field where everyone will not always know everything.

P.S. on a separate note, If you do need some help getting things setup & working in, send me a message. I am an freelancer, I do these things daily.

I will contact this chap, does he sell parts as well? Need some stuff.

+1 to not running the RDS and DC roles together on the same server.[DOUBLEPOST=1487313394][/DOUBLEPOST]

If three to five clients send a query to tally server "One year Sales of a particular item of a particular customer" Will this query related with hdd speed ?

Yes - it depends on HDD. But if you data is miniscule, then it won't matter much.

 

[Clutchtime]

If three to five clients send a query to tally server "One year Sales of a particular item of a particular customer" Will this query related with hdd speed ?

Not unless you're tally files have entries in excess on 10k each under sales. But a regular HDD should do the trick in real world scenarios. But the real bottleneck is usually at the client end. Generally speaking all PC's used in accounting, from my knowledge, have nothing greater than i3 and 45 GB RAM, which according to me is more than enough, but the moment you try to load 10k entries on tally on that PC with a few chrome tabs and explorer tabe open, the client becomes the bottleneck and not the HDD per se.
Easiest way out would be to use a SAS HDD(Nearly the same cost as the SATA equivalent but highly inflated in India), does work wonders, or an SSD which will make you look no further.

 

[aasimenator]

I will contact this chap, does he sell parts as well? Need some stuff.

Yes everything related to enterprise, those which he doesn't have in stock he can back order... He is costly though, having exclusivity has driven his prices up. so if you need something urgent you can contact him else you can take the import route it will be cheaper. He is a known family friend. I've had the pleasure of seeing his office & the inner working... didn't want that day to end.. from importing the product to testing to dispatching everything.

I remember i needed an Dell Equallogic HDD for a client in Pune, he quoted me a price of i believe 45k and i imported it from amazon.com for 37k, if you remember our conversation regarding the Xeon 2670's those were from him he was selling it for 8k i believe whereas online it was less than that. So his pricing is not always good but he does provide excellent service.

Has the OP even responded after his initial post?
I think the OP has either given up on his quest for a server & have settled for a mid-range workstation (like most people i've seen do) i've seen i3's running as servers so this is not new.. people do not have that kind of money to invest in the hardware for the start.

 

[vivek.krishnan]

Yes everything related to enterprise, those which he doesn't have in stock he can back order... He is costly though, having exclusivity has driven his prices up. so if you need something urgent you can contact him else you can take the import route it will be cheaper. He is a known family friend. I've had the pleasure of seeing his office & the inner working... didn't want that day to end.. from importing the product to testing to dispatching everything.

I remember i needed an Dell Equallogic HDD for a client in Pune, he quoted me a price of i believe 45k and i imported it from amazon.com for 37k, if you remember our conversation regarding the Xeon 2670's those were from him he was selling it for 8k i believe whereas online it was less than that. So his pricing is not always good but he does provide excellent service.

Yes, so did you end up getting those Xeons or not? 8k/pc makes the pricing about 60% more, as it was coming to 5K imported.

Has the OP even responded after his initial post?
I think the OP has either given up on his quest for a server & have settled for a mid-range workstation (like most people i've seen do) i've seen i3's running as servers so this is not new.. people do not have that kind of money to invest in the hardware for the start.

Well, I would say contribute and add. Someone may end up searching for the same stuff, and this could be useful.