Hello everyone,
I'm no expert with servers/networks but have been doing ok with some classes and a lot of online research.
We are a small engineering firm with about fourteen employees. We run AutoCAD with a large number and size of files on the network. Our budget is not big but we do have a budget to do some upgrades before the end of the year.
I'm looking at adding more storage to our file server. The SCSI bays are maxed out with the largest drives available for the controller (900 Gbytes storage and 140 Gbytes for OS). Currently we have all active and archived files (~300 Gbytes of archived files) on these drives. However we would like to add additional storage and move the archived files to this location. We would still need to access these file for printing and migrating to new projects.
I'm not sure what to look for (USB, Network, SCSI or ?) so please help me decide. We would like to have fault tolerance (raid), good speed (bandwidth?) and one or two Terabytes of capacity.
Here are some of the specs for our system for the file server (we also have a 2003 SBS for the DC & Mail) housed in a Middle Atlantic rack:
OS
2003 Server file server and backup
2003 SBS
System
Product Name ProLiant ML350 G4 (tower)
Physical Processor 1 Intel Xeon @ 3.20 Ghz
Physical Processor 2 Intel Xeon (Not Installed)
Virtual Hyperthreading Processor 1 (Physical 1) Intel Xeon
Virtual Hyperthreading Processor 2 (Physical 1) Intel Xeon
Operating system environment Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 3790)
Total memory - 4096 Mbytes
System board
DIMM 1 (DDR SDRAM) 1024 Mbytes (333 MHz)
DIMM 2 (DDR SDRAM) 1024 Mbytes (333 MHz)
DIMM 3 (DDR SDRAM) 1024 Mbytes (333 MHz)
DIMM 4 (DDR SDRAM) 1024 Mbytes (333 MHz)
Does the system have ECC memory Yes
PAE enabled Yes
Resilient memory information
Number of cartridges 1
Number of modules 4
Configured for advanced ecc Yes
Communication
USB Root Hub USB Root Hub 2.0
USB Controller1 Standard PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller2 Standard PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller3 Standard PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Root Hub USBRootHub0
USB Root Hub USBRootHub1
USBDeviceOnPort1 American Power Conversion USB UPS Speed=LowSpeed
USBDeviceOnPort2 Aladdin USB Key Speed=LowSpeed
Network Controller 1 HP NC7761 Gigabit Server Adapter
Storage
Diskette Drive1
IDE CD-ROM1 HL-DT-ST CD-ROM GCR-8482B
Physical Hard Drive 1, Controller Slot 0 146.8 Gbytes 10K RPM - COMPAQ BD14685A26
Physical Hard Drive 2, Controller Slot 0 146.8 Gbytes 10K RPM - COMPAQ BD14685A26
Physical Hard Drive 3, Controller Slot 0 300.0 Gbytes 10K RPM - COMPAQ BD3008A4C6
Physical Hard Drive 4, Controller Slot 0 300.0 Gbytes 10K RPM - COMPAQ BD3008A4C6
Physical Hard Drive 5, Controller Slot 0 300.0 Gbytes 10K RPM - COMPAQ BD3008A4C6
Physical Hard Drive 6, Controller Slot 0 300.0 Gbytes 10K RPM - COMPAQ BD3008A4C6
SCSI Tape Drive HP Ultrium 3-SCSI
PCI Slots
PCI-E Slot 1 Available
PCI-E Slot 2 Available
PCI Slot 3 In Use
PCI Slot 4 Available
PCI Slot 5 Available
PCI Slot 6 Available
Thanks,
Chris