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Single server vs. Multiple servers?

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by Former member

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Our current situation is:

-50 users (LAN) medium to light users.
-1 single server used for apps, print sharing, and mail exchange.
-All filtering and monitoring is at the firewall rather than the server.
-Web-hosting is done by the ISP.

I'mconsidering having 10-15 users run in terminal server mode. (For admin purposes) I would think it would be wise to have a seperate server for my TS apps. A friend feels it can all be run on one single server. Any opinions or thoughts? Other thanthe obvious issue of overload, why else would it be good to have 2 servers?

Thanks

1 reply

by lordinfidel

While most beefy servers out there can handle the load of alot of things. The question you have to ask yourself is, what happens if one part crashes and takes out the rest.

Best practice usually says to seperate your services logically.

From a security standpoint, you should not have your mail server as part of your file server.

Your mail server is generally a internet facing host, you don't want private files anywhere near a public facing machine.

Which brings us to term services. Putting that on the same machine as your mail server/file server/print server, is just begging for trouble.

If it was me, I would have 1 term server, dedicated only to those requests, 1 file server that does nothing but feed file requests, 1 print/backup/general purpose server, and 1 mail server.

In total 4 servers. That does not include your pdc and bdc (assuming your are using a MS domain model). (IDS should really be seperate from your firewall)

those are just my thoughts, take them for what it's worth.

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