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Defining what you need in your server

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by mecit

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I have been asked to research and eventually purchase a new server for our property. I have looked at Dell, Micron and Gateway and find that there are components that I am not sure I need. I don't understand what some of them even do! For instance, most have an option for a tape backup system which I think I need, but then they say that they are sold without software. What does that mean? Some are based on RAID technology but since it does not provide redundancy or fault tolerance, do I need it? As for hard drives - SCSI or not? Swappable or not??
Any discussion or suggestions welcome at mecpc@mohaveaz.com
thank you.

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by madroxxx

How big is your network? What apps/duties will your server perform? Hard to say what to get without knowing at least that.

Some basic guidelines.
Get the tape drive, provided without software means you will need to purchase backup software(I use novanet, have used Arcserve and Backup exec before as well). Do not believe that you can rely on NT's built in backup software.

I would look for one that has RAID 5 which does provide data redundancy and a boost in speed. Make sure this is a hardware RAID, i.e. it has a raid card in the server. This leads to your next question SCSI or not, yes get the raid built with hot swapable scsi drives. If you do this and one of your hard drives fails you can replace it without ever powering the server down.
You can mail me if you have other questions. mabel@landmarkorg.com

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