S
Simmy
Guest
I was asked to visit a local charity and take a look at their ageing Server 2003 setup which was having all sorts of random issues. Most importantly they couldn’t edit any users under AD and kept getting random error messages and registry warnings. They had been getting around it for now, and can still access files on the server, so I am now in the process of quoting for a new server setup and was hoping to run it by you lot.
There are 5 people there with server 2003 on an HP rackmount server with on premises exchange 2003 and a mixture of Windows XP/7 machines and 2 Macs.
Because they are a charity, I know they can subscribe to TTExchange and get some incredible prices for MS Server/Office and Symantec Endpoint/Backup Exec so I am basing my quote on that.
So I’m going to propose a new server with the following spec;
• Fujitsu PRIMERGY TX100 S3
• - Xeon E3-1220
• - 8Gb
• - 4 x 500Gb (2 x RAID 1 – For OS and Data)
• - 1 x 3Tb for Backup Exec images
• Online Backup Subscription
• Server 2012 Essentials license (£18+VAT)
• Symantec Endpoint Security on Server and Workstations (£3+VAT per device per year)
• Symantec Backup Exec (£72+VAT)
• 5 x Office 365 Enterprise E3 Licenses (only £3.40+VAT per user per month on charity/non-profit scheme!)
• Replace XP machine
I have been testing the above setup in ESXi for the last week, as I’d not used Server 2012 yet. It seems to work well, and Essentials provides a lot of functionality with a few clicks of the mouse.
With regards to migrating from Exchange 2003 to Office 365 Hosted Exchange – Given the age of the exchange server version, their troubles with AD and lack of signed certificates, I don’t think I’ll attempt to migrate considering there are only 5 accounts and they don’t use public folders. Manually configuring 5 users from scratch sounds far easier and then manually import the emails from PST. Is this standard practice when transferring a small number of accounts or is migration generally preferred?
They will be using Office 365 which comes with OneDrive and Sharepoint (25Gb per user). I was originally planning to store all files on a shared folder on the server, however this doesn’t make use of OneDrive at all. But using OneDrive renders the server redundant, as everything is stored online and not the server. Is there a way for users to use OneDrive, which then gets backed up onto the server? Folder redirect seems to exclude the OneDrive folder. I’m trying to get my head around how a OneDrive setup works with a server. Am I looking at it the wrong way? Should I be ignoring OneDrive? Is OneDrive primarily for setups without a server?
Server 2012 Essentials also offers nightly Client PC backup in addition to folder redirects. I guess I should be using one or the other, as running both seems a bit daft (it appears to do this by default).
Another company that shares office space with this charity also use the server (it was infact an IT guy from this company that setup the server originally, but he left a long time ago). I will also be setting that company up with Office365 and then user accounts on the new server to store their private company data.
Overall I’m really impressed with Server 2012 Essentials and it’s given me a chance to really get to grips with Office365 and the built in integration with Server 2012. Does that setup sound suitable for a small business? I’ve done a handful of server installs but always from scratch and never migrating from such an old server.
There are 5 people there with server 2003 on an HP rackmount server with on premises exchange 2003 and a mixture of Windows XP/7 machines and 2 Macs.
Because they are a charity, I know they can subscribe to TTExchange and get some incredible prices for MS Server/Office and Symantec Endpoint/Backup Exec so I am basing my quote on that.
So I’m going to propose a new server with the following spec;
• Fujitsu PRIMERGY TX100 S3
• - Xeon E3-1220
• - 8Gb
• - 4 x 500Gb (2 x RAID 1 – For OS and Data)
• - 1 x 3Tb for Backup Exec images
• Online Backup Subscription
• Server 2012 Essentials license (£18+VAT)
• Symantec Endpoint Security on Server and Workstations (£3+VAT per device per year)
• Symantec Backup Exec (£72+VAT)
• 5 x Office 365 Enterprise E3 Licenses (only £3.40+VAT per user per month on charity/non-profit scheme!)
• Replace XP machine
I have been testing the above setup in ESXi for the last week, as I’d not used Server 2012 yet. It seems to work well, and Essentials provides a lot of functionality with a few clicks of the mouse.
With regards to migrating from Exchange 2003 to Office 365 Hosted Exchange – Given the age of the exchange server version, their troubles with AD and lack of signed certificates, I don’t think I’ll attempt to migrate considering there are only 5 accounts and they don’t use public folders. Manually configuring 5 users from scratch sounds far easier and then manually import the emails from PST. Is this standard practice when transferring a small number of accounts or is migration generally preferred?
They will be using Office 365 which comes with OneDrive and Sharepoint (25Gb per user). I was originally planning to store all files on a shared folder on the server, however this doesn’t make use of OneDrive at all. But using OneDrive renders the server redundant, as everything is stored online and not the server. Is there a way for users to use OneDrive, which then gets backed up onto the server? Folder redirect seems to exclude the OneDrive folder. I’m trying to get my head around how a OneDrive setup works with a server. Am I looking at it the wrong way? Should I be ignoring OneDrive? Is OneDrive primarily for setups without a server?
Server 2012 Essentials also offers nightly Client PC backup in addition to folder redirects. I guess I should be using one or the other, as running both seems a bit daft (it appears to do this by default).
Another company that shares office space with this charity also use the server (it was infact an IT guy from this company that setup the server originally, but he left a long time ago). I will also be setting that company up with Office365 and then user accounts on the new server to store their private company data.
Overall I’m really impressed with Server 2012 Essentials and it’s given me a chance to really get to grips with Office365 and the built in integration with Server 2012. Does that setup sound suitable for a small business? I’ve done a handful of server installs but always from scratch and never migrating from such an old server.
