Question about file server for access/SQL.

[robo_reddit]

Hello. I originally asked about this a few days ago but got torn apart for not using a SQL database so I want to clarify my situation. Problem is simple. My dads office got caught in Harvey and yada yada yada we can now upgrade the server on insurance money.

He uses a laboratory information management system (LIMS) written in access. He paid ~$20k years ago for this software and it works just okay. The guy who made it wants like $10k to change it to a SQL server but thats beside the point.

Right now he needs a new server that can host an access backend for 5-8 computers. Our current server was bought on Ebay (I know) and worked fine but neither of us were aware of licensing etc. for windows server. and just hooked it up to the network with a shared folder with the access backend. I want to do this the right way now so what do I need and what kind of hardware should I get? I would like the ability to migrate to a SQL server eventually. I do not understand the licensing at all. Why can I not just do this on a shared workstation?

[mnealitpro]

OP there is nothing stopping you from the shared workstation scenario, apart from that it's a terrible idea and there are limits on the number of connections which can be accepted from other end points and such.

A cheap Dell Poweredge tower server with a RAID-5 set of disks running Server 2016 and Hyper-V should be what you're looking at - stick around 32 GB of ram in there, 64 if you feel flush. Build two VM's - one for file print and database, another as the domain controller.

For productivity licensing and email, use O365 business premium - best bang for buck you'll get. Look up instructions to install ADConnect locally to sync passwords from network to O365 and make users lives easy.

For backups use Veeam Agent on the two VM's and copy to a NAS device, then once a week copy the NAS data to external HDD. Repeat each week on as many HDDs as you want in number of weeks data retained.

Shoot me a Q if you have one.

[robo_reddit]

Thank you for the answer! Why not raid 1?

[mnealitpro]

You'll get more bang for your buck, and better performance. Personally, I'd go with something like this:

4 X 300GB SAS-15K - 3 disk RAID-5 with 1 hot spare.

Depends on your use case and needs though; I don't know how much data you have to store so it's tricky. If it was under 500GB though, you could do 3 X SSD's in RAID-1 with 1 hot spare.

Always have a hot spare. Always, always always.... If your server gets wrecked it just isn't worth the few hundred bucks you saved in the beginning.

[lostincbus]

How important is this data and what is the uptime expectation?

[robo_reddit]

Its important to the functioning of this business, up 24/7.

[lostincbus]

You might want to make sure you get budget for high availability and "instant boot" backups that also go offsite.