New Server to play with :)

Keydogg · Mar 4, 2015

Hey all,

I've just bought a new server for work as we've never had a proper server, just shared folders which is crap for security etc. It's only a pretty basic one, here are the specs:

Lenovo Thinkserver TS140
- Intel Xeon e3-1225v3 Quad Core 3.2 (3.6 turbo)
- 8GB ECC Unbuffered 1600mhz RAM
- 500GB 7200rpm HDD
- RAID 0/1/5/10

I'm in the process of installing VMware ESXi 5.5 with the idea of having 2 or 3 VMs on there for file server, ftp, email server, CS:GO and plex server (for me lol), daily backups.

My mate is going to help me with the Active directory and shiz as I've never properly played with a server before. Do you guys have any tips or ideas what else can be done with the server? It's there to be used after all!

Cookie · Mar 4, 2015

Awww it's so cute

Some Unix stuff for dicking around with if you have an interest in it?

sn00p · Mar 4, 2015

Don't forget to optimise disk space after installing everything by using:

sudo rm -rf /

Keydogg · Mar 4, 2015

Cookie said:
Awww it's so cute :tongueout:
Some Unix stuff for dicking around with if you have an interest in it?

Haha I know it's only a baby, but we only have 3 or four users on the network really so nothing more is needed

sn00p said:
Don't forget to optimise disk space after installing everything by using:

sudo rm -rf /

I'll look into this thanks!

Cookie · Mar 4, 2015

sn00p said:
Don't forget to optimise disk space after installing everything by using:

sudo rm -rf /

Agreed

KDF · Mar 4, 2015

Oh dear... lol

Keydogg · Mar 4, 2015

Nice joke btw lol :tongueout: At first I though oh yeah he's being really helpful, then realised what it meant after I posted! (I'm no command line expert!)

rctempire · Mar 4, 2015

Yeah, i want pictures of said box.

sn00p · Mar 4, 2015

Keydogg said:
Nice joke btw lol :tongueout: At first I though oh yeah he's being really helpful, then realised what it meant after I posted! (I'm no command line expert!)

Soz. Its just too hard to resist! Lol

Gareth · Mar 4, 2015

lol.

These were on really good deals not too recently, but I personally don't like Lenovo / IBM servers and much prefer HP (hence why I have 2 HPs at home).

Keydogg · Mar 4, 2015

Gareth said:
lol.

These were on really good deals not too recently, but I personally don't like Lenovo / IBM servers and much prefer HP (hence why I have 2 HPs at home).

Yeah, I've been umming and ahhing for ages about setting up a proper server for work and at the price of these things (£190+VAT after the Lenovo cashback, the CPU itself is nearly worth that!) plus an extra £30 to double the RAM, it was a no brainer tbh!

Keydogg · Mar 6, 2015

Progress so far:

Sorted out the trunks for each VLAN and a VPN from home into network.

VM1 - CentOS 7 CS:GO server up and running (lol, priorities!)
VM2 - Windows server 2012 R2 Essentials (only installed the OS so far)
VM3 - CentOS 7 installation ready for Packetfence (for wifi captive portal)

Loving vSphere, find it all really interesting, makes me want to do this for a living!

rctempire · Mar 10, 2015

PICTURES!!

ivegota16v · Mar 10, 2015

why didn't you install server 2012 and then just use hyperv for the vms? you officially have to pay for that MS licence anyhow

Keydogg · Mar 10, 2015

I put esxi on after being recommended it by a friend, didn't know anything about either tbh so took his word for it! Plus I'm on Windows 2012 essentials (the cheap one) so not sure if that applies?

Tapatalk won't let me upload a pic :-( here's a generic one:

AzNdevil · Mar 11, 2015

- 8GB ECC Unbuffered 1600mhz RAM
- 500GB 7200rpm HDD
this is going to be a big problem. not enough resources to do anything remotely useful..esx itself is going to eat a part of the ram to start with
then.....
a - windows 2012 imo needs at least 4gb to run properly by itself...better off going back to 2003 imo... its happy with 1gb ram for minimum load
b - installing other stuff with an AD in the same OS is just asking for trouble when it starts shitting itself after a while
c - no raid? come on...

hyper v is another can of worms...

Keydogg · Mar 11, 2015

AzNdevil said:
- 8GB ECC Unbuffered 1600mhz RAM
- 500GB 7200rpm HDD
this is going to be a big problem. not enough resources to do anything remotely useful..esx itself is going to eat a part of the ram to start with
then.....
a - windows 2012 imo needs at least 4gb to run properly by itself...better off going back to 2003 imo... its happy with 1gb ram for minimum load
b - installing other stuff with an AD in the same OS is just asking for trouble when it starts shitting itself after a while
c - no raid? come on...

hyper v is another can of worms...

Thanks for your opinion.

A) I don't believe the amount of memory I'd going to be a problem at all, I have now set up the AD and file server on 2012 essentials and it is plenty fast. Let's not forget that there's only ever going to be two or three users at a time accessing file, and nothing of much size or complexity. Also Server Essentials is a cut down version so doesn't hog as many resources.

B) I'm not installing anything on that VM other than the AD and files.

C) Yes RAID would have been perfect in an ideal world, for now I'll be taking a daily clone backup instead.

So far I'm very happy with it!

AzNdevil · Mar 11, 2015

if/when you start to add stuff it will be a problem as i saw email server mentioned

for ad and files and the load....then it should be enough i guess
out of curiosity, why AD for only 3-4 users?

a built computer might be more suited for the use in your case imo

Keydogg · Mar 11, 2015

AzNdevil said:
if/when you start to add stuff it will be a problem as i saw email server mentioned
for ad and files and the load....then it should be enough i guess
out of curiosity, why AD for only 3-4 users?

a built computer might be more suited for the use in your case imo

The reason for the AD is for different access rights for users. There are certain folders with sensitive information which only need to be accessed by management, but there are other folders that need to be accessed by everyone. Staff have access to computers when management aren't at on premises, so before (in theory) a member of staff with the right knowledge and mindset "could" have been able to access shared folders even though were hidden (with $) previously. An AD makes it much more secure and easier to change access rights, add new users as the company grows, etc.

For now I won't be setting up an email server. If I do decide to set one up then another £60 to bump the RAM up to 16GB is not going to break the bank, but right now it's not needed so 8GB will do just fine.

AzNdevil · Mar 11, 2015

depends what you need down the road...local accounts wouldve worked anyways

tbh i really hate these small servers...unless... theres on site support

Keydogg · Mar 11, 2015

AzNdevil said:
depends what you need down the road...local accounts wouldve worked anyways

tbh i really hate these small servers...unless... theres on site support

Really? You can't tell! ;-)

Greeny. · Mar 11, 2015

Cool! Gunna need some more memory though tbh, 16Gb minimum imo.

rctempire · Mar 11, 2015

16GB min i would agree..

Im not wanting pictures of the outside.
I want internals.

Keydogg · Mar 11, 2015

Sorry @rctempire , here you go:

It's pretty minging by normal PC standards, never mind a proper server, but hey I don't care about the internals if it works like I want it to!

With regards to RAM as I said 8GB is performing perfectly for now, if it starts to chug and need more I'll toss a couple more 4GB sticks in!

AzNdevil · Mar 12, 2015

you can never have too much cpu or memory...lol

Keydogg · Mar 12, 2015

AzNdevil said:
you can never have too much cpu or memory...lol

That's a proper server that! Who do you work for?

Gareth · Mar 12, 2015

I run multiple VMs 24x7 at home on my HP Gen 8, in my experience if you really start to run several VMs its disk performance that really comes into play, thats why i have mine on an SSD. Granted 8GB isn't a lot, I have 16GB and unfortunately thats the Gen 8's maximum, although dynamic memory in Hyper-V spreads this quite well.

Keydogg · Mar 12, 2015

Gareth said:
I run multiple VMs 24x7 at home on my HP Gen 8, in my experience if you really start to run several VMs its disk performance that really comes into play, thats why i have mine on an SSD. Granted 8GB isn't a lot, I have 16GB and unfortunately thats the Gen 8's maximum, although dynamic memory in Hyper-V spreads this quite well.

Thanks Gareth, totally agree from my experience so far.

ChrisR · Mar 12, 2015

Keydogg said:
That's a proper server that! Who do you work for?

Humphrey and Partners Medical Services in Hong Kong possibly, or maybe something to do with the university?

Am just guessing there though based on the HPMS reference in the screenshots!

Gareth · Mar 12, 2015

Yeah, always a good idea posting work screenshots on the internet.

@Spoonie · Mar 12, 2015

Don't forget to back it up

Gareth · Mar 12, 2015

These Lenovos were on offer again last week, i always find it tempting but i'm holding out for a Gen 9 HP and have just sold an N40L & N54L to clear space.

Gareth · Mar 12, 2015

Actually they are still on offer (eBuyer)

AzNdevil · Mar 13, 2015

ChrisR said:
Humphrey and Partners Medical Services in Hong Kong possibly, or maybe something to do with the university?

Am just guessing there though based on the HPMS reference in the screenshots!

I wish lol...i was analyzing other server's performance monitor captures...

Gareth said:
Yeah, always a good idea posting work screenshots on the internet.

its just one of the blade servers at my office i use for testing...of course im not going to post screenshots of customer's production environments

@Spoonie · Mar 13, 2015

Out of interest, what's you total cost of offering '3-4' users this solution?

Office 365 would cost ~£400 a year. Giving you most (if not more) of what you have described above.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/products/office-365/

Keydogg · Mar 13, 2015

@Spoonie said:
Out of interest, what's you total cost of offering '3-4' users this solution?

Office 365 would cost ~£400 a year. Giving you most (if not more) of what you have described above.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/products/office-365/

This has cost roughly 470 if you include the windows licence, but it's a one off cost which I liked the thought of. We did look at office 365 and it was a strong consideration but due to the use of non-microsoft software shared across PCs and users I didn't know how easily it would integrate.

Plus I like the fact that if our Internet goes down it doesn't effect productivity (except for emails), which once happened for 48 hours, albeit a freak situation.

iain187 · Mar 16, 2015

If you're boss is paranoid about losing broadband buy a Vodafone MiFi - it's basically a 3G to wifi hotspot and it costs about £30 I think - you'll get brownie points if nothing else

Keydogg · Mar 16, 2015

I am the boss! Haha