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GECs36711Flag for South Africa

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Server Hardware for Server 2012

Hi Guys,

What hardware would be recommended for supporting Windows Server 2012 Standard?
Requirments:
-We currently have 100GBs of Data
-45 Users
-Perhaps a need for small business virtualization further down the road.
- Cost effective (Understandably what you pay for is what you get).
-RAID 1 or RAID 5

Specifically what make and model and hardware spec.
There are so many options and i would just like to narrow it down and concentrate on what i need to.

Thanks Guys
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Scott C
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What duties will this server be performing?

File/Print
SQL
Fax
Exchange

That will give us a better idea of what processor and memory you will need.

Also, what is your budget roughly?
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ASKER

File and Print
WSUS
Antivirus MAnagement
and Applications; Financial, Pervasive and SQL.

and would like room to virtualize in the future.

Basically i must propose to them how must it would cost.
Virtualization?

Are looking for DR or high availability?

Because then you're probably looking a multiple file servers and a SAN of some sorts.
@pradeep08_81

Yup i am aware of the requirements but uncertain of what Server to buy, IBM, HP or Dell and what specs that will surfice for the future as well.

@pgm554We currently have no need for VM enviroments but for the future if the company needs it, will be a added plus because Server 2012 comes with virtual instances.

So im just wanting a server spec that can handle all of that.

Thanks for the responses.
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@andyalder

Awesome, thank you for the spec.
I will run these and post back to you.
The test will be done on our main server currently. Is it ok to run the test while everyone is working from it? or is it a better bet to do it when everyone is gone?
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Member_2_231077

Use this to create a log - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/248345/EN-US .

Note you should run performance monitor from a remote machine and point it to the server as target since generating logs adds to disk I/O and you don't want to count the extra load that logging generates.

I'd let the logging run for 24 hours, then you'll see not only the disk I/O created by users during work time but also that created by scheduled tasks such as backup during the night. Logical disk: disk reads per second and logical disk: disk writes per second should do for all instances C: d: e: etc.
Thanks i will do just that.

Thank you so so much.
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@andyalder
Just a quick question.
How do you run the logging from the remote pc and point it to the server?

@pgm554
Thanks and Noted.
Do you run the tool on the server but put the log file on the remote pc?
When you click + to add counter at the top of the selection box it allows you to select local counters or counters from remote computer. So run the tool on a remote workstation and add counters from the server.
When i try and add another pc it doesn't allow me to. When i put the server's name in it gives me an 'unable to connect to machine' message.
Troubleshooting at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922775, should apply to normal perfmon issues as well as .NET ones.
Will check it out and let you know.
No its not working let carry on without it. What would be the recommended disk subsystem for 100GB's of Data, Server 2012, SQL and Applications.
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