Reasons Against a Refurbished Server for This?
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Nice little project.
I see no reason a used server wouldn't work here.
Will you make it an AD box as well?
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I would go refurb. You may look at dfs-r and replicate files back to HQ for backup.
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@Dashrender said:
Nice little project.
I see no reason a used server wouldn't work here.
Will you make it an AD box as well?
I think that makes sense due to the fact that machines at all sites are on one domain. One of the VMs could just be AD, DNS, DHCP for that site. All sites are connected via site-to-site VPN. The site in question here will have 35/5 coax with our HQ being on 50/50 fiber. One would think this would not need to be a read-only DC.
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If you get a server, I would only do refurb.
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Have you considered just getting a NAS? If the only role is as a file server, why get a server at all?
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@scottalanmiller said:
Have you considered just getting a NAS? If the only role is as a file server, why get a server at all?
to host the offline programming software.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Have you considered just getting a NAS? If the only role is as a file server, why get a server at all?
to host the offline programming software.
Oh thanks, missed that detail.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Have you considered just getting a NAS? If the only role is as a file server, why get a server at all?
to host the offline programming software.
Oh thanks, missed that detail.
If not for that, I could see how a NAS would be a good fit. Here's a silly question...how do people who just have a NAS back up the data? I feel like Netgear has some kind of cloud backup option baked into theirs. And I think the Drobo 5Ns allow you to do a headless install of Crashplan or other backup services. Maybe other vendors are much the same? I don't have experience with many NAS devices.
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You mean backup TO a NAS or backup the NAS itself?
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@scottalanmiller said:
You mean backup TO a NAS or backup the NAS itself?
Backup the NAS itself and the data on it is what I meant.
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Heavily depends on the NAS. Most of the time you back up using whatever normal backup software that you have. Backing up a NAS is like backing up nearly any normal file server.
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Refurb will work a treat, no need for new. I'd go 7200rpm rust in a larger size (1tb+) because.... well they're cheap, why not! Doubt you'd save more than $10/drive between 300gb & 1tb.
Personally I'd consider upping the ram to 64gb, it should be a super cheap option too (under $100) and then you can give the vm's ALL the ram they'll ever want. Slightly wasteful, sure, but for a remote location it's ok IMHO to splurge a bit on stuff that'll help prevent silly problems.
Dual PSU is a good call, cheap upgrade & cheap insurance, again especially for a remote location you won't touch and clean often.
For CPU, see if they have a cheap upgrade to a low wattage energy efficient model. Keeps heat down, which keeps fan RPM down, which keeps dust down, which keeps your server running better longer. Also electricity savings, huzzah!
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Also consider a 2U unit - my personal favourite is the R510 because old, cheap, powerful & 3.5" drives.
2x L5630 2.13ghz 4core 40w
64gb ram
h700 512mb (no batt, but you have a good UPS right? riiiiiight? :))
raid10
6x1tb (2tb $20 more/drive)
iDRAC6 enterprise
redundant 750w
ready rails (because you're worth it!)
3yr XByte NBD
$3015USDEdit: BIOS fan settings should be set to silent/quiet if they exist followed by temp monitoring under load to ensure it's safe. This will do wonders for it's long term life, especially if in a dusty environment like a closet or $diety knows where else. If you see temps over 50c to 60c on CPU under load, turn up the fans until you don't. Anything over 60c for long periods will just BBQ all the capacitors in your power supplies.
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The R510 is great. We have three.
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@scottalanmiller what's the HP equiv I can look up? dell seems to command a premium on ebay and I want an R510 for my own junk
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller what's the HP equiv I can look up? dell seems to command a premium on ebay and I want an R510 for my own junk
xbyte is your ticket there. Nothing will compete in price.
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The closest HP is the DL380 e series. E = economy.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller what's the HP equiv I can look up? dell seems to command a premium on ebay and I want an R510 for my own junk
xbyte is your ticket there. Nothing will compete in price.
Yep - through XByte the R610 with 6 300 GB 10K SAS, PERC6i, redundant PSUs, dual Intel Xeon E5520 @ 2.26 GHz, Broadcom NetXtreme II 5709c Dual Port Gigabit Ethernet cards (2 of these) is about $1500. AMAZING.
But I agree the R510 is worth a look. We have one that is an ESXi host at another site with 7200 RPM SATA drives, and it is running like a champ.
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You want a reason against buying refurbished servers from xbyte? i've got one....
Because you hate having all that money, and you want to spend it on something!
that being said i have about 7 or 8 xbyte servers in the wild and LOVE THEM. service is much better than dell, @BradfromxByte is just a swell dude to work with.
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That's Josh from Pertino.
