Do you have all the information you need?
You know that it is going to be the main server. It is going to house pretty much every service imaginable. Is this recommended? Sure, if you got redundancy, a backup, a plan for recovering, and the ability to fix everything. Do you know what software will do all this? Do you know the required hardware for this? What about software licensing? This is one area where research will be great. I cannot do all of it in one post, but will recommend some sites for information about this. Other links are welcome as well- Intel Ark
- AMD CPUs
- Asus Motherboards
- Western Digital Enterprise Drives
- Seagate Enterprise Drives
- Kingston Server Memory
Do you know how long you expect this server to last?
If the previous server has run for almost 15 years before getting ready to die, you need to make sure the current server can last for years! When you sell the idea to your managers, make sure that you indicate this. Depending on who or how you build the server, you need to make sure you get a decent hardware warranty on all the parts you can. For the warranty terms, you need to make sure that hardware components come to you quickly, and hopefully, for free. Yes, I realize that nothing is free, but you're paying for the warranty, because you know that nothing lasts forever.What if the company you are buying from only offers a 1- or 3-year warranty, but you need this server to last for 10 years? Do you completely abandon that supplier? Not necessarily... When working on the side of selling servers, if we knew that hardware was going out of style soon, we'd recommend they purchase two of the motherboards, an extra CPU and CPU cooler, and at least one extra power supply. Why? Because we don't want to be left saying "Too bad, so sad!". It's a small price to pay to offer peace of mind when needed. If the spare parts don't get used, then that means this server could be used longer. Why these pieces in particular though?
Depending on what you purchase, you may have a custom power supply with the case. If so, get a spare one to replace it with. To keep it running even longer, get a decent UPS, and make sure the critical components are plugged in to the Battery Backup section. The UPS is critical, and you should also buy an extra battery, as they are usually expected to last up to 3 years in decent conditions.
The Motherboard and CPU should be bought as a spare, because these change constantly. Almost every year, new sockets or advances are made, and previous products will either be difficult to find, or cost too much for most organizations by the time you need it. Purchase it now, and put it with the spare battery and power supply.
"But what about the RAM? The hard drives? The case?" Well, most of these are going to be available for years with the current technology. When DDR3 RAM took over, for instance, DDR2 RAM was still available from some major manufacturers. Even years later, it's still available! Hard drives are the same way. As long as the interface is the same, it should be a simple matter of restoring your data. The case should not be damaged, unless you have a physical intruder who is planning on sabotage - You store your server in a secured room that only your IT team have access to, right? If not, make sure that's one of your requirements!
Choosing the components
For space, you went all-out with storage and memory! This is good for you, but bad for the company. If they only need a couple terabytes, and you quote them for five terabytes and no explanation, it's not going to fly. As well, unless you have thousands of people connecting to your MySQL server, there is almost no reason to get 128 gigabytes of RAM, let alone ECC Registered memory. Tone it all back a bit. I'll go into further detail below.Storage
For storage, depending on how much data you anticipate them using, you can get away usually with less. If they need two terabytes now, and I expect this to last for 5 years, I'll say double it, as your goal. I would then get larger hard drives so that I don't need to buy as many drives. So let's choose the 2 terabyte drives, and make sure they are Enterprise-class drives. We'll plan to RAID them in RAID 10 though, not RAID 5. Wikipedia has a great article to help describe the different versions of RAID; I suggest reading it if you are unfamiliar with the different levels. So for 4TB, and RAID 10, we would need 4x 2 Terabyte hard drives. Yes, it cuts the storage space in half, but it allows any single drive to fail, or a combination of two drives, if they are the correct drives, to fail. It also gives a GREAT performance boost, due to the striping of data. Mirroring plus striping is the new standard, as large RAID 10 arrays. RAID 5 is usually slow for writes, as it's constantly calculating checksums for all writes, and I, personally, do not like the delays I sometimes see with onboard RAID and RAID 5.Memory
For the memory, we'll tone it down to 16- or 32-GB of RAM. We'll get ECC Memory, if that's what our CPU calls for. We may expect this to be on for everyone, but unless it's doing many, many calculations, we can most likely leave most data on the disk. ECC Memory is Error-Checking and Correcting Memory, and should be used when possible. Wikipedia has an excellent article about it that I recommend you read, if you don't know about it. Make sure that any industry-specific server applications will run together with whatever else you are choosing, and make sure you have spare memory slots available for if (when) you need to upgrade.Central Processing Unit(s) and Motherboard
For the motherboard and CPUs, you need to decide what type of processing you need. Let's discuss CPUs first.When choosing the CPU, if you need more parallel computing, you'll benefit from dual-CPUs, or a great CPU with Hyperthreading. Because of how much changes every quarter, I will not recommend a specific CPU, but recommend researching them with links above. If you are doing some of the more basic server tasks (i.e. file/printer sharing, basic static website, domain controller, proxy, etc), you can get away with a single physical CPU. If you are doing lots of virtualization or high-end data-driven applications, consider two physical CPUs. The choice to do two physical CPUs requires a special motherboard, and certain CPUs, which is why we are choosing this first. When buying Server CPUs, you will also need to purchase the heat sink and fan separately.
Now, for the motherboard, you need to do research on the ones you want. First off, does it have the proper socket for your CPU? As well, is it a single- or double-processor motherboard? If it's a double, you will need to split your RAM for each CPU, and likely need to buy your memory modules in groups of 4. The motherboard specs will also show what type of memory to get (i.e. ECC non-registered, Non-ECC registered, ECC registered, etc), and how much it requires. These are the first two important motherboard details.
Also with a motherboard, you need to look at the form factor, drive connectors, remote management features, and onboard RAID (if applicable). The form factor is the size of the motherboard, and where the mounting screws are. There are many motherboards that fit in standard cases, and usually these are good for single-CPU installations. There are also much larger motherboards, and some motherboards that rely on certain cases. Take note of what type you are aiming for, and be sure you have the space available! For the drive connectors, unless you are using a dedicated RAID card, make sure you have enough space for all your hard drives, an optical drive, and at least one or two spare plugs. Almost all motherboards right now contain SATA drive connectors, so we will assume that is what you are getting. Some optional features to look at would be if you want remote management (access the console from another system, including BIOS and booting to Safe Mode from another system), and what type of onboard RAID controller it has (if needed). Your needs will determine what to look for.
On the next post, we will discuss the Power Supply, UPS considerations, Form Factor, and other special hardware requirements. Stay tuned!
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