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Things to know when buying a server

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Things you need to know when buying a server

Buying a server will always be a complicated decision. At LANcom technology we have a deep understanding of all the considerations that go into making this differcult puchase, having purchased and installed servers for many of our clients. So here is a quick guide, for the small to medium business, covering a few of the pitfalls you need to avoid.

Contents at a Glance

13 things you need to know when buying a...
Some helpful links
Who are LANcom Technology?
What's on the LANcom Technology blog
LANcom's other lenses
Reader Feedback

Tower or Rack?
There are two kinds of servers, rack servers and tower servers. The biggest pitfall to avoid in this area is to not buy a rack server unless you already have a rack or have budgeted for one. Racks can be very costly and sides and shelves for the rack are usually also an additional cost.
The level of the server
Broadly speaking there are three levels of servers, entry level, mid-range, and high-range.

Entry level servers for example HP's ML110's are low cost, but also low functioning e.g slower processors, less capacity for hard drives and memory, and very basic management software.

Mid- range servers for example ML350's can support up to 75 users and they have the advantages of: having hot plug drives, being dual processor capable, have much higher levels of memory, have better warranties and include management software.

Higher range servers have the advantages of the mid range servers but can support much higher levels of users and due to higher levels of performance they also have greater levels of redundancy.
The generation of the server
Servers can have different generations and parts across these generations are not always compatible. So you need to be aware of the generation of server you are purchasing, so that in the future should you need to replace any parts it is easy to locate compatible ones.
The speed requirements
The speed of a processor is measured in gigahertz (GHz), but it can be misleading to look only at the number of GHz. In general you would think that the higher the number the faster the machine, but in reality this depends on the type of processor. A quad-core processor can perform four processes at once as opposed to a single processor which can only perform one.
The ammount of memory (RAM) required
A point to remember when purchasing RAM is that many servers require RAM modules to be installed in pairs and all servers have a limited number of slots. In other words you have to have two of the same value and brand installed at the same time.

So when purchasing the server you should look to the future and try to establish how much RAM you will need, then ensure that this amount is a workable combination with what you a purchasing in the beginning.
The Brand
Here at LANcom we recommend purchasing a server from a large international brand such as HP or IBM and there are several reasons for this.

Firstly, large brands maintain availability of parts for purchase in order to support warranty claims. Smaller (Often referred to as White box) suppliers however cannot afford to sustain such an inventory and may not be carrying the same hardware week in week out and so getting replacement parts may be difficult.

Secondly, buying a larger brand's server helps you to avoid hardware software compatibility issues. For example, when you buy an HP server to run Microsoft Windows Server software there are likely to be tens of thousand of other companies doing the exactly same thing as you. This means that any compatibility issues that arise will most likely have already been identified and the fixes will be documented and in place or available to you or your service provider.

Thirdly, response from the bigger brands is often much faster as they have more resources available to them to deal with problems when they arise.
The ammount of data it will need to store (hard disk requirements in GB)
As one would expect planning for the future is an important step. Not only do you need to plan for the increase in employees using the network over the next 3-4 years (the average life of a server), but you also need to take into account if there will be an increase in data requirement per person. For example you may foresee the organisation storing more images in the future or possibly using video conferencing, both of which would mean an increase in data storage per user.
Back ups
When purchasing the backup solution it is important to ensure you have enough capacity to be able to back up both now and in the future. One trap in this area that people can fall into is to look solely at the compressed amount you are able to back up from your tape drives. Not all files compress well, and most zip files do not compress at all.

Also whenever possible you should try to get you back up on to one tape, because once a complete back up takes more than one tape you create a whole new dimension for failure in your back up process.
Warranty
Unless a server is non critical, i.e. not very important to your companies operations, and you can afford to have it down for up to several weeks, then you need a current warranty. This is because regardless of the brand you choose if a part on your server fails and you are not under warranty then you are treated as a new customer for that part and therefore are put at the end of the waiting list. Depending on the part you require you could be waiting up to 5 weeks for a replacement and that's if that part is still even available for sale.
The UPS
The UPS is a battery backup for your server. It ensures that if there is a power failure the server has enough power to shut down properly. This helps avoid problems with starting it up again.

When purchasing the UPS you need to think about how much up-time you want. You may just want enough time to make sure the server shuts down nicely say 10 minutes, or you may want enough time so that you have the opportunity to identify and fix the problem so the server does not have to shut down at all say 30 minutes.
Drive redundancy
RAID stands for redundant array of independent drives. It is the way that you protect your data in the case of disk failure.

RAID 1 is the cheaper option and is a lot better than nothing but RAID 5 redundancy allows you to use your hard disk space more efficiently. On the other hand it is slight harder to rebuild after a disk has failed. We recommend a minimum of RAID one but this will also be determined by the applications used of the server.
Operating systems
There are a number of different Operating Systems and versions of those operating systems that you can choose from to run on your server such as: Windows server or Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) either standard or premium.

When buying a server you can sometimes get the Operating system bundled in with the hardware. This is called OEM software. One thing you will need to remember with this is that while it is often cheaper if the operating system is bundled in with the server it can not be transferred to another machine. So if for some reason you end up purchasing a new server you can not transfer the operating system to that new server.
The Parabolic Price Curve
When it comes to the price versus performance of servers they tend to follow a parabolic curve. That is that an increase in price is not always proportional to an increase in performance. There is always a point before the curve 'takes off' that a relatively small increase in price equals a big increase in performance.

When buying a server you really want to:
- Determine the minimum performance usable at the time.
- Then try and push that to where the Parabolic curve 'takes off'

Things to know when buying a server

Things you need to know when buying a server

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

13 things you need to know when buying a server

Some helpful links

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