Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of bkdavis
bkdavis

asked on

Server replacement for Dental office - hardware budget around $4000+/- WWYD?

We're looking to replace an aging server. The server we currently have is loaded with Windows Server 2008 R2 and used as a Domain Controller, DHCP, and DNS server. In addition it's primary function is to host dental software called Patterson Eaglesoft which utilizes a SQL database.

I'm trying to determine how I want to proceed.

At this point I'm considering just replacing the old server with a new Dell PowerEdge with the 3 year onsite warranty. The onsite warranty is great, but we hope to get way more than 3 years out of it, and extending the warranty beyond 3 years gets really expensive (around $1000 a year for support alone 24x7 4 hour response)

My other consideration is to  utilize a couple older servers, loading up the local disk (and RAM) so that I have at least 3TB of capacity (prob RAID 10) on each server and 32GB of RAM, then utilize Hyper-V replica to mirror the data from one server to another. My thought is that if server 1 was to crash, I would easier be able to swap over to server 2.

Another consideration would be to purchase a couple used servers leave the local storage at a minimum (RAID 1) and then purchase a couple QNAP NAS devices for my storage. The idea here is that if server 1 were to crash I would be able to get server 2 connected to the QNAP storage and get all the VM's back online as quickly as possible. My worry here is that the QNAP would still be my single point of failure hence the reason I would purchase 2 QNAP's (mirror 1 to the other) so if the QNAP 1 were to crash (power supply failure etc.) I would have all the data sycning to another QNAP and be able to point the servers to it.

In either situation I am tentatively planning on loading Server 2016 with 2 Hyper-V VM's, 1 for DHCP, DNS, DC services and the other for the Eaglesoft database and printer/filing sharing. Then utilize Hyper-V replica to mirror the data to another (server, NAS?). I am not real familair with Hyper-V but as I understand this should be an option, correct?

My budget is around $4000 for this hardware. I'd love to hear thoughts on how you all would proceed with something like this. Again this is for a dental office, which my brother owns. I am very well versed in supporting IT infrastructure for a large corporation (I am a System Administrator) but we have a much larger budget and utilize VMware HA clustering to SAN storage. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to get as many years as possible out of this setup. It's a pretty basic office setup with only 12 workstations. I would love to be able to set this up and get 10 years out of the server (and storage), if at all possible. Really the only reason we need to upgrade from the 2008 R2 server is due to local storage on the physical server. When Dell setup the RAID config they set the C:\ drive at 40GB, with all the Windows updates (winsxs) files it's getting near capacity. I would also consider purchasing another server, then adding some additional disks to our old server and use it as "server 2" for the data replication.

I know I just asked a lot, this forum is great and I really appreciate and value your input.

Thank you very much!
SOLUTION
Avatar of Adam Brown
Adam Brown
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Quick note: Look at the Dell T130 servers. They should be sufficient for this use case and you can get one for a good bit less than $2000, so getting two should be inside your budget. Using Server 2016 Essentials should also be okay for this, unless he has a huge practice with more than 25 people. Benefit there is that it includes all CALs already.
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of bkdavis
bkdavis

ASKER

So what are you recommending from a HIPPAA standpoint? I have a SonicWall firewall... Do I need to be encrypting data as well? What are your concerns with HIPPAA?
Thanks again!
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of bkdavis

ASKER

Tell me more about setting up Azure VM's... Can those be joined to my local domain so they are accessible via UNC path, as if they were on premises? Maybe that's how we should proceed... Setup a simple domain controller which would include DNS and DHCP services as well as print services, then create an Azure VM with our dental software.
Thanks again! Your time is greatly appreciated.
No comment has been added to this question in more than 21 days, so it is now classified as abandoned.

I have recommended this question be closed as follows:

Split:
-- 'Lee W, MVP' (https:#a42607674)
-- 'Adam Brown' (https:#a42607666)
-- 'Cliff Galiher' (https:#a42607713)
-- 'Adam Brown' (https:#a42607838)


If you feel this question should be closed differently, post an objection and the moderators will review all objections and close it as they feel fit. If no one objects, this question will be closed automatically the way described above.

seth2740
Experts-Exchange Cleanup Volunteer