Topic: Hardware advice

[HenryH]

What's an appropriate level of server hardware to have for SME?

I saw a post discussing X86_64 CPU support and other discussion on RAID which seem to be included (possibly) in SME 7 but I have not found any specifics about this.

More to the point, I only wish to support anout a dozen (or so) workstations.  Is considering X86_64 & Hardware RAID5 overkill for this size of task?

Also, what are the thoughts on RAM for this size of task/duty?

Thanks...

[pfloor]

X86_64 is not supported in SME.  It will load OK put will not run in 64 bit so it would be a waste of money buying a 64 bit processor and board.  Software RAID5 is supported.

As for the size of your network, I have a network that had 5 workstations doing fairly heavy file sharing, 3 website and mail server in server/gateway mode that hummed along very nicely on an Athlon XP1600, 512 Meg of ram and IDE drives running in SW raid1.

It started to get a bit slow when I added 5 more workstations so I decided to kick the processor up to an XP2000 but that hardly did much.  I read around and found out that Linux uses memory very efficiently so I decided to add 512 Meg more.  That really did the trick.  I put the XP1600 back in and it works as well as the XP2000 which shows me that memory plays a large role.

I now have several servers up that all have XP1600-2600.  You can buy these very cheap and they make great servers.  I always put a Gig of ram in, it just seems to really speed the server up under heavy file serving.

I have not tried the raid5 yet but plan on it soon.

All-in-all it really depends on what the workstations will be doing.  If they will be using SME as just a gateway then you won't need much.  If SME will be serving up a lot of files, running a few web sites and serving up email and printers, then I suggest stepping it up.  What exactly will the server be doing?

Paul

PS. I have SME7pre1 running on an AMD K6-200 (that's right 200mhz) with 256 Meg.  It will load and run but is slow.  It is my home gateway and only has 1 very low traffic website on it and is just for testing.  Just wanted to see if it would load and have been using it for a few weeks now as a test server.  It actually surprised me and does very well under this small load.

[HenryH]

Thanks for the post.  That's the kind of heads-up info I am after.

Is there anyone else who would like to offer their thoughts &/or experiences?

[nmtrier]

I installed e-smith around 6 years ago for my wife's 3 workstation lawfirm.  3 years ago I upgraded them to a Dell server with hardware RAID.  It currently runs SME 6.0 and they use file services & email mainly.  The onsite h/w maintenance expires in July, and I probably need to get them to buy a new server, if only to continue to have next day on-site maintenance.
The comments about RAM and 64bit CPUs are useful.  
I hope that by July there will be a v7 production release.
In the context of V7, Are there any views on:
H/W vs S/W RAID
SATA vs IDE
Intel vs AMD
Dell vs other UK available vendors offering 3 year onsite support and tolerant of Linux installations

[azche24]

Hi,
i am running law-firm office here with 5 - 10 WS (varying on workers on duty).
Server/Gateway with static IP, lots of mail and complete filesharing and printing.
Server is SME7pre1 running very nicely on a Athlon XP1700 Asus MoBo A7N8X-E (1 GB RAM, 1 onboard GB-NIC for LAN and 1 more for Internet).
HD is two WD Caviar 36GB in Raid1.
Memory is more important as stated before. With PIII800/512 MB Ram we were slow before. CPU does not matter so much.
I hava a 3ware SATA Raid5 controller lying around here from our old win2k Server. I will give that a try. But i will use hw-raid5 then (3*80 GB disks), because that to my experience it is easier to backup/image and easier to restore even on other hardware than software-raid.
Do not forget backups. I am running a HP tapestore 36 GB tapedrive in the server. Bought that one cheap at ebay. Modified backup-script to do weekly full backups to tape. Backup2ws daily for ibays with data and weekly 1 full backup 911 without ibays.

[mxkz]

At home, i've got a sme server running very nicely on the following:
-AMD Duron 900Mhz
-Gigabyte Ga-7IXEH
-512MB Ram
-Seagate 80GB ATA-100 HDD
-52x CDROM
-2x 3com 10/100 Lan Cards.
-32MB TNT2 Riva Graphics

It just works brilliantly.
It is hosting two internet domains (email, web etc)
It is also a proxy and content filter for my local network.

Really, anything from 500Mhz upwards with 128MB RAM should let you test SME in a development enviroment nicely. But when you want to use it for an office etc, then you want more reliability, so maybe 1+Ghz with 512+MB RAM. But it really depends on your budget, and how many workstations your server is going to serve.

[nmtrier]

I can and have built a succession of servers using motherboards, processors etc for home use running SME Server.  However for my wife's business, I want them to be able to call out someone else if their hardware goes wrong.  I has to be a PC manufacturer that doesn't disappear one day, as has happened so often in the UK to local companies.  So I guess I am stuck with the likes of Dell who sell direct with on site service.  Hence my questions above, which would affect my choice of model - So if anyone has anything to say about the current range of choices for CPU, RAID etc, please contribute!

[mxkz]

I played around with the Dell (UK) website, and came out with a reasonable server for £986.

-3.2Ghz Intel Xeon (2MB Cache/800Mhz FSB)
-1GB RAM (2x512MB DDR2-400)
-2x160GB (SATA/7200rpm)
-48x IDE CD-ROM Drive
-Integrated 1000MBit LAN (First Card for LAN)
-Intel Pro 100MBit Network Card (Second Card for WAN)
-56K Lurch Modem (Maybe for Hylafax)
-Dell USB Keyboard
-Silver 3 Yr (24x7) Premier Enterprise Support

Now just to wait for SME7 final

[pfloor]

I played around with the Dell (UK) website, and came out with a reasonable server for £986.

-3.2Ghz Intel Xeon (2MB Cache/800Mhz FSB)
-1GB RAM (2x512MB DDR2-400)
-2x160GB (SATA/7200rpm)
-48x IDE CD-ROM Drive
-Integrated 1000MBit LAN (First Card for LAN)
-Intel Pro 100MBit Network Card (Second Card for WAN)
-56K Lurch Modem (Maybe for Hylafax)
-Dell USB Keyboard
-Silver 3 Yr (24x7) Premier Enterprise Support

Now just to wait for SME7 final

That setup will for sure do the trick and very nicely at that!!!

[nmtrier]

I had already saved a spec for the following:
Dell PowerEdge SC430 SATA

Base    Intel® Celeron® Processor 331 at 2.66GHz, 256KB cache, 533Mhz FSB
Memory    1G DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz Memory (2X512MB Single Ranked DIMMs), ECC
Keyboard    No Keyboard Required
Monitor    No Monitor Required
Hard Drive    80GB SATA (7,200rpm) 1in Hard Drive, 1st Drive only
2nd Hard Drive    80GB SATA (7,200rpm) 1in Hard Drive, 2nd Drive only
Floppy Drives    No Floppy Disk Drive required
Mouse    SC - No Mouse
Network Cards    Broadcom NetXtreme 10/100/1000 PCI Express Single Port Copper Gigabit Ethernet NIC with 7.8 drivers
Tape Backup Units    PowerVault 100T, IDE, Travan 40, 20/40GB Internal TBU
CD/DVD Drives    48X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive, IDE, Half Height
Standard Warranty    Base warranty
Cover It with Dell Support Services    Upgrade to 3 Years Next Business Day On-site service
Raid Connectivity    C2 Onboard SATA, Two Drives connected to Onboard SATA Controller
Operating Systems    SC - No Operating System.
TOTAL Excl. VAT:£749.00

From previous posts, the CPU is not the most critical item, and so I thought a 2.66GHz Celeroin would be adequate.
The current system has a pair of 80GB drives, with h/w RAID controller.  The "backup & restore" panel says only 8GB of the dirve is in use, so there seems litte need to increase the capacity.
I presume that the SATA presents no problems for SME v7.  However I  am unclear what Dell mean by "Raid Connectivity C2 Onboard SATA, Two Drives connected to Onboard SATA Controller".  Is this a hardware RAID capability, or merely an invitation to use software RAID?  One of the posts said that H/W RAID is preferable.
I also want tape backup, and the Travan is what is already installed, and works with the existing system.  Would a backup tape from SME Server V6 restore onto a clean install V7 without problems?

[raymondw]

I presume that the SATA presents no problems for SME v7.  However I  am unclear what Dell mean by "Raid Connectivity C2 Onboard SATA, Two Drives connected to Onboard SATA Controller".  Is this a hardware RAID capability, or merely an invitation to use software RAID?  One of the posts said that H/W RAID is preferable.

C2 raid is software raid, the SC430 does not support onboard HW raid.
The prev SC420 had onboard HW raid.
I got a Dell CERC for the raid part

[smeghead]

.. for thise budget conscious people try an older Compaq DL380 (G1).

If you can live with the noise you get dual PIII, to 4GB SDRAM ECC, 3 Hotswap SCSI drives, caching SCSI RAID, hot swap PSU's, rackmount.

Here in Oz these can be had in a variety of configs for very little money (buy a 2nd as a spare!) and run fantastic; want a bit more grunt for that overloaded mail/web server then try an ML530 PIII Xeon.

Can't beat these enterprise servers for robustness and reliablility when combined with the $$$ figure attached.

Cheers