brandonkick
Well-Known Member
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So at my part time job, I feel they are in need to go with a proper server setup.
I'd like to, if reasonably possible, set up and manage it myself. I have some "high level" ideas of how some things work, but I am in no way at a state where I am capable of designing, setting up, rolling out, and supporting this.
The main need, is file sharing / backup. When I first got there, they had no proper network sharing or backup plan in place. I had a "better" solution set up at first, a few years ago and then about 1.5 years ago or so I got them set up with a synology nas, 4 x 2 TB drives in RAID 10. Migrated most people to use the data directly off the machine, for redundancy and also to leverage file sharing permission which are better then what windows desktop os (non sever) has to offer.
Now they are running into an issue where work is "rolling back". They will work on files, shut them down, double check them before they leave, and then randomly they come back in and some portion of yesterdays work is rolled back partially. These are auto cad files and excel files mostly, that we have noticed. This has to be stopped ASAP.
For now, I am blaming the synology since it's happening to everyone who uses these files. I thought at first it was just one user, and was thinking it was some configuration on his software or his machine causing the issue. Since it's doing it to multiple people, I'm really suspecting the synology. Although it is possible it's the software itself, but these are the newest versions of autodesk autocad and microsoft excel. I'm just at a loss, so I've temporary routed the files that just this department uses onto a workstation and shared among those four machines directly. The original files still live on the synology, and will get "synced / backed up" with syncback on a nightly basis.
I'm really thinking it's time to get a proper server setup, and I'm not looking for someone to write a step by step guide but either provide the bullet points or maybe guides that can help get me started.
We have 15 machines currently, 3 of which are laptops. Most are dell optiplex that were all ordered at the same time around 4.5 years ago. Three are iBuyPower desktops. One is an ASUS. The laptops are all dell laptops. In a perfect world, I'd like them to all be the same make / model. That's really not in the budget.
All but two machines are running windows 7 PRO. Two are running windows 10 PRO.
There is wireless access that the laptops use.
Almost every user has his / her own printer.
There's a comcast cable internet connection, and a comcast gateway. Following that it goes up to a 24 port switch (D-Link?) and that drops into a room with 4 people in it with an 8 port Cisco small business switch. All switches are unmanaged. Wifi is provided with a linksys access point. I do have in my office a Ubiquit Unifi AC PRO. I'm the only one who connects to that, long story... but yeah it's there.
So the goals are:
Redundancy / Backup (and stopping this "work rollback")
A cleaner / easier way to manage users and their permissions
Possibly VPN access for employees when they are home or on the road
Can this all be accomplished with one physical server:
This machine with handle active directory.
This machine will be a file server.
This machine will probably also be a print server.
Which server OS best suits our needs? I was leaning towards some flavor of Windows Server 2012.
Do you configure software installation on the client machine, or does the workstation become a thin client and all software is actually run from the server? If it is optional, I'd tend to think that changing the workstations to thin clients will cause us licensing issues? It would be easier, in the long run, for these workstations to become basically thin clients.
Their needs aren't super complicated, as I see it. I just need to get my feet wet fast. If they are willing to pop on this, I probably have maybe 6-8 weeks tops to learn what I need to learn. I know the first though most are going to get is to hire a pro to come do it, and I'm not 100% against it... but if its even partially reasonable I can learn enough to get this going in the time frame stated, I'd like to try. Even if we do go with a pro, I'm going to need to learn enough to provide basic support. I'm definitely not trying to go out charging business to support their networks, but I'd like to get these guys on a better setup and learn how to setup and manage it if possible.
EDIT:
Also, I do not mean to come off in an offensive way... I realize I will still have much to learn, even if I am able to work my through getting this rolled out in 2 months time. Not trying to suggest I can become well versed in that time frame.
I'd like to, if reasonably possible, set up and manage it myself. I have some "high level" ideas of how some things work, but I am in no way at a state where I am capable of designing, setting up, rolling out, and supporting this.
The main need, is file sharing / backup. When I first got there, they had no proper network sharing or backup plan in place. I had a "better" solution set up at first, a few years ago and then about 1.5 years ago or so I got them set up with a synology nas, 4 x 2 TB drives in RAID 10. Migrated most people to use the data directly off the machine, for redundancy and also to leverage file sharing permission which are better then what windows desktop os (non sever) has to offer.
Now they are running into an issue where work is "rolling back". They will work on files, shut them down, double check them before they leave, and then randomly they come back in and some portion of yesterdays work is rolled back partially. These are auto cad files and excel files mostly, that we have noticed. This has to be stopped ASAP.
For now, I am blaming the synology since it's happening to everyone who uses these files. I thought at first it was just one user, and was thinking it was some configuration on his software or his machine causing the issue. Since it's doing it to multiple people, I'm really suspecting the synology. Although it is possible it's the software itself, but these are the newest versions of autodesk autocad and microsoft excel. I'm just at a loss, so I've temporary routed the files that just this department uses onto a workstation and shared among those four machines directly. The original files still live on the synology, and will get "synced / backed up" with syncback on a nightly basis.
I'm really thinking it's time to get a proper server setup, and I'm not looking for someone to write a step by step guide but either provide the bullet points or maybe guides that can help get me started.
We have 15 machines currently, 3 of which are laptops. Most are dell optiplex that were all ordered at the same time around 4.5 years ago. Three are iBuyPower desktops. One is an ASUS. The laptops are all dell laptops. In a perfect world, I'd like them to all be the same make / model. That's really not in the budget.
All but two machines are running windows 7 PRO. Two are running windows 10 PRO.
There is wireless access that the laptops use.
Almost every user has his / her own printer.
There's a comcast cable internet connection, and a comcast gateway. Following that it goes up to a 24 port switch (D-Link?) and that drops into a room with 4 people in it with an 8 port Cisco small business switch. All switches are unmanaged. Wifi is provided with a linksys access point. I do have in my office a Ubiquit Unifi AC PRO. I'm the only one who connects to that, long story... but yeah it's there.
So the goals are:
Redundancy / Backup (and stopping this "work rollback")
A cleaner / easier way to manage users and their permissions
Possibly VPN access for employees when they are home or on the road
Can this all be accomplished with one physical server:
This machine with handle active directory.
This machine will be a file server.
This machine will probably also be a print server.
Which server OS best suits our needs? I was leaning towards some flavor of Windows Server 2012.
Do you configure software installation on the client machine, or does the workstation become a thin client and all software is actually run from the server? If it is optional, I'd tend to think that changing the workstations to thin clients will cause us licensing issues? It would be easier, in the long run, for these workstations to become basically thin clients.
Their needs aren't super complicated, as I see it. I just need to get my feet wet fast. If they are willing to pop on this, I probably have maybe 6-8 weeks tops to learn what I need to learn. I know the first though most are going to get is to hire a pro to come do it, and I'm not 100% against it... but if its even partially reasonable I can learn enough to get this going in the time frame stated, I'd like to try. Even if we do go with a pro, I'm going to need to learn enough to provide basic support. I'm definitely not trying to go out charging business to support their networks, but I'd like to get these guys on a better setup and learn how to setup and manage it if possible.
EDIT:
Also, I do not mean to come off in an offensive way... I realize I will still have much to learn, even if I am able to work my through getting this rolled out in 2 months time. Not trying to suggest I can become well versed in that time frame.