Server for an enterprise network for one hundred machines

Question

Iron

I have a friend (however, it’s more likely that our wives know each other, and not us), he is the owner of a network of pharmacies, a person who is rather far from computers, and would like to get what is called a second opinion about updating the fleet of cars. I am relatively closer to machines, but not so much as to have an opinion :) He now has a rather motley zoo there, on which there are motley applications written in FoxPro for DOS, Delphi, and accounting, of course, on 1C. There are a hundred computers (this is in the enterprise network, pharmacies do not count). Now he seems to have eight servers there (I don’t know which and what). He is offered the following:



According to suppliers with such servers, it will be possible to put only terminals instead of computers. Questions:

— Will it really be possible to leave only terminals?
- We will install terminals, but will our old FoxPro for DOS work there?
- What else is needed? (I don't really know what is already there, however.)
- Is the price real?
— What else should I ask the owner/supplier?

Update: Here is the response :) Thank you all very much, I will kiss everyone in karma. Now I am contacting back with a friend, according to the results we will clarify the questions or write back personally. Personally, I like the idea of ​​an audit (if it hasn't already been done there).

Answer 1

Almost choked on the prices. The spec is hell, forgive me fellow resellers who compiled it:
- Already old processors with insane frequency and because of this, five times more expensive
- for some reason, SSDs and SAS and everything in servers, although obviously for virtualization, and means here it asks for at least the initial class of storage systems.
- the total memory is 256GB, I understand, of course, that there is not much of it and it is cheap now, but for a hundred machines it turns out almost three gigabytes of memory per client.
- What is the purpose of the 10 Gbit infrastructure?
- 3 UPS?
- the rack can be taken three times cheaper, if not fundamentally everything is from Dell.
In general, you can remake everything completely different, but if the task for those who sell was formulated in the same way - “there are a hundred computers, eight servers, there are different databases, it would be necessary to update”, then the answer is quite worthy.

Answer 2

To begin with, I would advise you to conduct a total audit of what is _already_ used on work machines and in work processes.
Transferring and ordering something without thinking now is stupid and a waste of money.
At least because it first looks at the current tools, looks at their more modern counterparts, and already selects hardware, software and everything else for them.
When it is clear what exactly is used and for what tasks, what software, what versions, under what OS, with what tasks, and under what this software works, then you can already think about virtualization and terminals and about transferring the entire infrastructure to a single platform - otherwise it will be, as in the comments above - half of the software under doswith exporting somewhere exclusively to floppy disks and hemorrhoids with where to plug this floppy disk for import

Answer 3

On the UPS, the price tag is adequate.
I do not like cases, but I quickly looked. The first disti I came across has similar ones:
210-32068/001-K PE R710 (2)*X5690 (3.46Ghz) 6C, 96GB (12x8GB) DR LV RDIMM, (8)*900GB SAS 6Gbbs 10k rpm 2.5" HDD (up to 8x2.5"), PERC H700/1GB NV BBU (RAID 0-60), DVD±RW, (2)*DP Gigabit LAN with iSCSI, iDRAC6 Enterprise with 8Gb VF, 2GB SD, RPS (2)*870W, Bezel , Sliding Rack Rails with Cable Management Arm, 3y ProSup NBD
It has a standard price of 11k $
And there are a lot of them in their warehouses in the Russian Federation.
Yes, there is a little less memory, and more disks. Reid adapter is more decent, etc.
540-10719 Broadcom NetXtreme II 57711 Dual Port SFP+ Direct Attach 10GbE NIC with TOE and iSCSI Offload, PCIe x8 - Kit
$392 in stock
Didn't look further. I have not worked with an affiliate program for a long time, but for sure they give 15-30% for this spec easily. Of course, I’m talking about incoming prices, you already have final prices.
Most of all confuses 3 points:
1. It is Dell that is being sold. And that's just steaming. Well, what for closet affairs, which they do not. Take a knur or a rittal, they're sure to overwhelm them. As a last resort, ARS - you will always find at least components for them.
2. Disks as I understand it is supposed to be put in a server. They will not be guaranteed. Yes, and how they are generally supposed to be screwed there, I can’t imagine.
3. The architecture is missing. Why is this all? Points of failure to wind up, the controller dies - there is no work, the mother dies - there is no work, the cord is pulled out - there is no work, etc. etc. It would be better to have a couple of servers like DL360 and a small shelf for them like VNX5100 - it will easily fit into the budget.

Answer 4

I understand the question about virtualization, but what software for this? vmware view? It's just that software will cost more than these servers :)

Answer 5

I strongly do not recommend transferring all machines to terminals. You can easily get into trouble with this, say, when starting a professional 1C. For starters, I would take a more powerful personal computer as a server, a simple switch, a couple of weak terminals and experiment with transferring programs in an isolated real environment. When everything is ready, you can already think about the server. Perhaps such a powerful one will not be needed.

Answer 6

Why is there a 42U rack for a server with a shelf?
There is nothing unusual in the typewriter itself - in many companies such packs have already begun to be ordered. Yes, fast six-core, yes 128 gigs of memory. Yes, spending is not a problem.
In general, the carcass is worthy, but it would not be worthwhile to attach terminal stations in such numbers there.

Answer 7

“We will install terminals, but will our old FoxPro for DOS work there?”
Be very careful with the operating system, at our institute on 2003 Windows, DOS executables without a patch "hung" the server. and after the patch, 50 students worked normally.

Answer 8

Transferring everything to virtual machines is risky in terms of the fact that if an anonymizer is enough to set up something on a local machine, then a competent admin is needed with this economy. Plus it is not clear how to deal with remote machines in this case.
True, if network growth is planned (and significant), then this may make sense, otherwise I would advise not to listen to suppliers, but to allocate an administrator-architect (if any) a budget within which he could develop the network himself.

Answer 9

The most important thing ...
There are 3 switches for 2 servers, and besides, what kind ...

Answer 10

The picture is unfortunately blocked at work. But as far as I understand, this is a typical server for anything related to virtualization. But in fact, this is not very important at the moment, because. iron is the second step, first you need to understand what are the needs? The third point, the criticality of business, how terrible is a simple one computer - ten - one server - the entire infrastructure. For good, for each service there should be RTO and RPO i.e. recovery time and recovery point (i.e. for what period, you can lose data).
For example, DOS and FoxPro are voiced, which means you can rake compatibility problems, which means there is a chance that you will have to produce something on an old OS like 2003 server. In general, you need a complete list of the main software, database sizes, users, etc.
The second point, why terminals? What is the purpose of their implementation?
The fourth point is partly related to the second. Who will support all this? Perhaps it’s easier for a person to go into the clouds, at first glance it’s more expensive, but in fact it can come out cheaper if you count all the costs for 3 years, say, and take into account the risks.

Answer 11

I agree with the above.
1) SFP10 - it is not clear why.
2) 8 servers what? what configuration, what load?
3) Disks. If you do virtualization, then it seems to me that there should be storage.
4) If you virtualize, then you need to include software in the spec, as you rightly noted above, it can turn out to be more expensive than hardware;
5) How much warranty?
6) If there are 2 servers, then they should be designed so that each of them can carry the entire load. 8 servers and 100 clients on one of these - sorry, I don’t believe it.
Speka - unscrupulous or unfinished.

Answer 12

Hm. Everyone was surprised by 10Gb, and I was surprised by the lack of a centralized storage. It is best to take some kind of shelf with SAS disks, 2-3 1U 2x processor servers. This money should be enough. There will be a much more stable configuration, without VDI I would not use it either.