Your favorite RAID card?

thecomputerguy

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Anyone have preferences on a RAID card? I have to replace some drives in an older server because at least one of them is going out. It is a simple mirrored RAID but I'm not too happy with the RAID built into the ASUS PC-DL (http://www.asus.com/Server_Workstation/Server_Motherboards/PCDL_Deluxe/) motherboard. Seems very cheap and doesn't do a whole lot in reporting what's actually going on with the RAID / Drives.

Please provide links if possible.

TCG
 
HP Smart Array controllers....
Dell Perc controllers

Both of which are found on true servers...varying models. Good hardware controller based, lots of RAM, battery backed, and a big feature.....most support "online RAID expansion"...which tends to separate the real controllers from the fake-RAIDs. And ability to move drives from similar family controllers and the controller will pick up the RIS file on the drives and automatically put the RAID back together.
 
HP Smart Array controllers....
Dell Perc controllers

Both of which are found on true servers...varying models. Good hardware controller based, lots of RAM, battery backed, and a big feature.....most support "online RAID expansion"...which tends to separate the real controllers from the fake-RAIDs. And ability to move drives from similar family controllers and the controller will pick up the RIS file on the drives and automatically put the RAID back together.

Newegg doesn't have any HP smart array cards in PCI ... this is for an older server with no PCI-E ...

I really want a card with some good interface options ... currently the only way to tell if the RAID is failing on this server which I think it is ... is when the server starts to run "funny".

This is a custom built server using the on board RAID for extremely critical data for a Law firm with 20ish employees.
 
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this is for an older server with no PCI-E ...

I really want a card with some good interface options ... currently the only way to tell if the RAID is failing on this server which I think it is ... is when the server starts to run "funny".

This is a custom built server using the on board RAID for extremely critical data for a Law firm with 20ish employees.

Time for a new server then?
 
Time for a new server then?

The person they bought this server from charged them about $5000 for it plus another $3000 for install when they initially bought it when there were about 5 people total in the company which was about 4 years ago. Sucks because the server at the time was probably worth about $1500 bucks in parts.

Could be a hard sale ...
 
This is a custom built server using the on board RAID for extremely critical data for a Law firm with 20ish employees.

To be honest with you..."custom built" cloner server...."law firm critical "..well, TBH, ANY server for a business is "critical data".

But back to supporting an old cloner home built server at a business....old, weird parts, propose a new server, or walk away.

No way in "heck" I would try to find a RAID card for some motherboard of the month club home built. Who the heck knows what sort of oddball quirks you could encounter with some BIOS hiccup/glitch between unknown hardwares being mixed in bed together. I've seen it! Many years ago I took on a law firm client, had a cloner built server...some competitor computer place put it in, got canned from this client...I took over about 9 months after they installed this server. Server had a habit of locking up like once or twice a month. I wasted incredible amounts of hours trying to troubleshoot the oddball brand parts...ended up telling them "Let me install an HP ProLiant ML350 or ...I really can't help you". They bought it. Found out a while later some incompatibility between the RAID controller and that particular motherboard....found similar post in support forums of that RAID controller.

But bottom line..Tier-1 brand servers..usually no issues, all those parts have been tried and tested compatible together.
 
Agreed with stone cat. You so much as touch that server, you own it and any problems it may have till death do you part. If they have a failing drive in a raid 1, the most I would be willing to do is replace the drive. And that would be with a mountain of signed waivers and only if I saw a potential for a long term profitable client.

I'm sorry if they got screwed in the past, but you can't take that as your responsibility. Recommend a new t310, or, if their needs are that small, a 110.
 
20x employee firm...TBH I'd shoot for a T710 if I felt the officer was higher end, T610 if they were average in budget, T410 absolute minimum if they screeeemed poverty. Law firms good candidates for SBS, so a RAID controller that supported pair of drives RAID 1 OS, 3 or 4 drives RAID 5 or 10 for the data...SAS of course...no SATA.

Or if didn't want to do a server OS migration....do RAID 10 and skin that server with ESXi or V-Sphere and to a P to V of existing server overnight.
 
Ahh, I missed the network size. Again, agree with the nerdy kitty. 610 or 710. What roles are this machine fulfilling? A single cheap box seems like a very poor fit at that size network. Do they have data scattered all over the place on a bunch of consumer machines, or is there any server-based control of the network?
 
Ahh, I missed the network size. Again, agree with the nerdy kitty. 610 or 710. What roles are this machine fulfilling? A single cheap box seems like a very poor fit at that size network. Do they have data scattered all over the place on a bunch of consumer machines, or is there any server-based control of the network?

About 20 stations ... It's basically used as a file server ... All of their important Word Perfect Docs, Word Docs etc. and SQL Database reside on the server ... network is setup as a workgroup and all personal information in the My documents per each workstation has been redirected to the server including the PST file for each user. The only thing at risk of losing is anything the user puts on their desktop which they are told not to do, and do a pretty good job of following.

Server does not host email, dns, dhcp, website, or AD. Just a plain and simple workgroup.
 
A network is setup as a workgroup and all personal information ...has been redirected to the server including the PST file for each user. .

Unsupported config by Microsoft to host the PST across the network from the Outlook client. Plus it puts a huge load on the network, drives of the server, and sucks up many sessions on the Server component on the server. Backup software usually doesn't cleanly backup PST files cuz of Outlook still touching it across the network..so when it comes restore time for a PST..usually it's pretty dirty.
 
Assuming all the workstations have Pro level os installed, my first recommendation to them would be a T610 or T710 with SBS. Set up a proper domain with good gpo's. The individual machines shouldn't have any critical data on them that is not duplicated to the server. Make sure to configure the machine with SAS 15k drives. This is not a cheap solution, but it WILL pay for itself over the future. A law firm should never be handled the way it is currently. They are probably in violation of countless compliance rules and are damn lucky they haven't had any major catastrophe at this point.

As a case study, I took over a slightly larger firm last year that was in a similar shape as your's. They have two offices and about 30 workstations between the locations plus 6 notebooks for the attorneys and one of the paralegals. Their network was a hodgepodge of off-the-shelf BB specials, custom rigs, and a couple of low end HP business machines. We immediately addressed the servers and network. We set up 2 untangle boxes with point-to-point vpn, content filtering, firewall, etc. We installed a PowerConnect 2848 switch in their main office and a 2824 at their smaller location. We added a baracuda email archiver (to satisfy one of the biggest compliance violations). We then installed a T610 to run Server '11, and a second 610 to run hyper-v. We setup the sbs machine to run all the standard duties of a domain controller, folder redirection, as well as their SQL db's. We have 2 VM's running on the other machine which we did a p to v conversion of their existing "servers". All the heavy data storage is handled by the second server on which we maxed out the capacity. We have replaced all the custom and BB stations with Optiplex 790's with Core i5s. We are replacing the 3 year old, woefully craptastic, celeron HP's and the notebooks next quarter.

Yes, they spent a ton of money. However, they now have a reliable network that is blazing fast with room to grow and great central management. Once I laid out the compliance issues and the extreme cost of managing that mess, they went to the boss who immediately saw the liability issues. They jumped on the proposal and signed a two-year MSP contract.

It can be a hard sell, but if they don't see the importance of maintaining a proper network for their business, they eventually won't see the importance of paying you either.





Edit: On a side note, a client is coming in to meet with me tomorrow to discuss one of these: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-t620/fs?~ck= :)
 
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Assuming all the workstations have Pro level os installed, my first recommendation to them would be a T610 or T710 with SBS. Set up a proper domain with good gpo's. The individual machines shouldn't have any critical data on them that is not duplicated to the server. Make sure to configure the machine with SAS 15k drives. This is not a cheap solution, but it WILL pay for itself over the future. A law firm should never be handled the way it is currently. They are probably in violation of countless compliance rules and are damn lucky they haven't had any major catastrophe at this point.

As a case study, I took over a slightly larger firm last year that was in a similar shape as your's. They have two offices and about 30 workstations between the locations plus 6 notebooks for the attorneys and one of the paralegals. Their network was a hodgepodge of off-the-shelf BB specials, custom rigs, and a couple of low end HP business machines. We immediately addressed the servers and network. We set up 2 untangle boxes with point-to-point vpn, content filtering, firewall, etc. We installed a PowerConnect 2848 switch in their main office and a 2824 at their smaller location. We added a baracuda email archiver (to satisfy one of the biggest compliance violations). We then installed a T610 to run Server '11, and a second 610 to run hyper-v. We setup the sbs machine to run all the standard duties of a domain controller, folder redirection, as well as their SQL db's. We have 2 VM's running on the other machine which we did a p to v conversion of their existing "servers". All the heavy data storage is handled by the second server on which we maxed out the capacity. We have replaced all the custom and BB stations with Optiplex 790's with Core i5s. We are replacing the 3 year old, woefully craptastic, celeron HP's and the notebooks next quarter.

Yes, they spent a ton of money. However, they now have a reliable network that is blazing fast with room to grow and great central management. Once I laid out the compliance issues and the extreme cost of managing that mess, they went to the boss who immediately saw the liability issues. They jumped on the proposal and signed a two-year MSP contract.

It can be a hard sell, but if they don't see the importance of maintaining a proper network for their business, they eventually won't see the importance of paying you either.





Edit: On a side note, a client is coming in to meet with me tomorrow to discuss one of these: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-t620/fs?~ck= :)


Well with that said ... Sounds like this place is pretty messed up configuration wise. I definitely do not have the knowledge you guys do when it comes to this stuff ... I think it may be wise getting them running temporarily on a new set of drives until I can get them going into a new environment.

I need some serious practice setting up domains ... probably time to setup a virtual network and figure this stuff out the way it is supposed to be done. Do you have any resources for setting up a basic domain with folder redirection and some decent GPO templates? How do you sift through the endless amounts of GPO's windows server has to offer?

I have only really setup networks in a workgroup environment because the previous company I worked for ... for 10 years ... basically taught me to do it this way and apparently its wrong ... I need somewhere where I can learn to untangle this mess and do this properly. I thought I was doing it right all along ...

Any suggestions?
 
After 8 hours of research I think ... and tell me if this sounds right...

Get them on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2011 provided by a big box i.e. dell with at least a RAID 5 or RAID 10?

Create a domain
Install AD
Configure as a DNS Server
Configure as a DHCP Server
Add users and redirect using home folders

Find them a hosted exchange provider

Thoughts?
 
Create a domain
Install AD
Configure as a DNS Server

Those 3 right there are done in one step...DCPROMO

If you are not proficient in working with servers and active directory...Small Business Server itself may be a smarter choice for you to install and manage..since it has "wizards" designed for office staff to easily do some basic tasks on the server.
 
Those 3 right there are done in one step...DCPROMO

If you are not proficient in working with servers and active directory...Small Business Server itself may be a smarter choice for you to install and manage..since it has "wizards" designed for office staff to easily do some basic tasks on the server.

I am unfamiliar with the DNS snap in ... is there somewhere in there to point your server your designate as the dns server to point to router or modem for internet access? Then have all the workstations use the server for dns?

Home folder redirection seems like basically the "proper" way to do what is already done by moving the docs pics favs etc to the server ... right?

Can a user login and access their personal information from other workstations without having roaming user profiles setup? Does homefolder redirection reduce or eliminate the lag when logging on or off?

What are your thoughts about hosted exchange? Im getting the feeling that they should be prepping for $10,000 to $15000 budget to get all of this transferred over... seems pretty labor intensive considering they are running a mix of xp/7.
 
You're right in that this is going to be a big job to get them straightened out. Do not go to the client without a plan. Just telling them this is going to cost them will scare them off. Also, don't get in over your head. If you need help with this, reach out to one of us.

Stonecat is right, SBS is going to be very helpful to you. DNS, ad, and everything else is handled with wizards. The server should be set up in your lab and thoroughly tested before going into production. Hosted exchange may be your best option if you're unfamiliar with managing it. Have a look at office 365. Keep in mind law offices, medical, and other clients of this nature have to archive all communications, or they can be left open to serious lability issues.

You need to approach this one in stages; this project will take some time. Go ahead and replace that failing drive. Put together your plan in a couple of proposals. One for the best scenario, one with a little less expense but still right. If they're not willing to do anything, then I would walk away because you're going to have a problem client. Remember time is your enemy. A client that wastes your time with that kind of mess will keep you from getting the good ones that pay your bills. Again, reach out to one of us if you need.
 
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