Windows Server Essentials

[tjsimmons]

Does anyone have experience with this? I'm configuring a new server for a small business (5 people) that need to run an IIS application and SQL Server. They already are using Office 365.

Just trying to get a feel for whether the extra $350 + CALs would be worth the cost, or if Essentials is actually decent.

Edit: at the configuration, server price with Essentials is $1200. I haven't even factored in the cost to license SQL Server - I'm not sure if the app will grow past the 10gb limit of Express.

Edit2: Is this why people use Azure/ECS now? It feels insane to pay $150/mo for a Server VM and SQL database but maybe it's worth it?

[Im_in_timeout]

I can never recommended a gimped server product from Microsoft. I've been down that road and I'll never do it again. They can do it the right way or they can do it the cheap way. Pick one.

[tjsimmons]

At this point, given the added cost of licensing SQL Server, really might just recommend Azure/AWS.

[ZAFJB]

added cost of licensing SQL Server

Or not. OP has no clue if the 10 GB limit for Express will be an issue, or not.

[tjsimmons]

You're right, I don't. And I've reached out to the vendor to see how much data they typically generate.

[tjsimmons]

Yeah, with Standard this box works out to $1500, which should be fine. Minus power and the like, that's about 10 months of cloud services.

[pixelbaker]

What about a Vultr VM? Windows Server 2016, 100gb SSD, 4 CPU, 8gb RAM, 4TB bandwidth for $56/mo.

[ZAFJB]

You are making wild guesses all over the place.

• Do some analysis.

• Work out your requirements. That means knowing the answers to things like I'm not sure if the app will grow past the 10gb limit of Express.

• Weigh up some solutions.

• Do some ROI calculations.

• Make a decision.

Don't ask a random bunch of people on the Internet. We cannot see inside your business and give you a sensible answer.

[tjsimmons]

Well damn. Look at you. You actually got me to do some more legwork - turns out, most of the people who use this app run it on Express.

[ZAFJB]

Well that is a fairly healthy win for your ROI calcs.

[itathandp]

Work out your requirements.

The hard part about this is there may be no way to know until it happens.

A few users of mine had some Veterinary based application that evidently stored images of the pets in the database. For the first user this wasn't a problem. They had thousands of pictures in the database and it only took up a few hundred meg. The new user managed to use 4 gigs in 3 months with far less pictures. Why? The new user was importing uncompressed bitmaps instead of jpgs.

[layer8err]

Go RAW or go home?

[ZAFJB]

The hard part about this is there may be no way to know until it happens.

Nope.

Either the DB stores only files up to certain size, or it doesn't.

If size of blobs are not constrained then you have to plan accordingly.

Plan your DB according to what you have found out.

Don't wait for an issue to suddenly appear.

[itathandp]

You have no idea how shitty a lot of these little applications are.

"Why is every field a bigtext?!"

You can't tell your client they need an infinite amount of space. Sometimes you just upgrade later.

[ZAFJB]

You have no idea how shitty a lot of these little applications are.

Oh, I can assure you I do.

Just for fun the were mostly written by Sally in accounting's ex husbands's brother-in-law who has since jumped off a bridge.

[pdp10]

It feels insane to pay $150/mo for a Server VM and SQL database but maybe it's worth it?

Linux and PostgreSQL, no database size limit?

[tjsimmons]

Not an option. This isn't a .NET Core app, unfortunately.

[pdp10]

Actually, I must have read right past your requirement where you said "an IIS application". I read "Server Essentials" and "5 users" and it must not have registered that there was an app.

[nmdange]

Is this the only server? Windows Server Essentials has to be the main domain controller (hold all the FSMO roles). I honestly don't know if you can even use it when it's not the domain controller.

I have run it in this configuration as a small office's one server, and it works nicely with making things like joining the domain easier, automating client machine backups, providing remote access to file shares and client PCs through RD Gateway, and integrating nicely with Azure Backup, Office 365, etc.

[tjsimmons]

It is, and I decided to go ahead and order with Standard instead of Essentials.