WhatIsaServer?

For the small business owner, adding a server to your network doesnt need to be a daunting task
Ifyoudon'talreadyhaveaserverinyourbusiness,you'reprobablyalreadyusingadesktopsystemasa serverofsorts.MaybeitcontrolssomefilesorprintersthatyoucansharewithotherPCs,butthereare keydifferencesbetweenserversanddesktops,andmanygoodreasonstoinvestinaserverforyour smallbusiness.Firstandforemost,youneedtounderstandthesekeydifferencesbetweenserversand desktopcomputers. Solet'slookatsomeofthosedifferences.Onthesurface,theyseemverysimilar.BothhaveaCPU, RAM,andharddrivesforstorage.Servers,however,aredesignedwithheavydutybackendtasksin mind,andaren'twellequippedtorunnormaldesktopworkloads,suchasgraphicsintensive applications.Serversexcelatrunningservicessupportingthosedesktopapplications,suchasdatabases. TheCPUinanentrylevelserverisn'tallthatdifferentfromamidleveldesktop,butdoesdifferinsome ways,suchascachesizes.Toputitsimply,CPUcacheisasmall,dedicatedpoolofRAMthattheCPUcan usetostorefrequentlyrequesteddata.Ifthecacheislarger,theCPUappearsfasterbecauseitcanstore moredatainthecacheforfasterrecall.ServerCPUsgenerallyhavelargerandmorevariedcachesthan desktopsystemsforjustthisreason.Likemoderndesktopsystems,serverCPUscanhavemultiplecores, althoughtheygenerallymakebetteruseofmultiplecoresthandesktopsystemswill. MultiplecoreCPUsarebasicallyasingleCPUthatcontainstwoormoreprocessingcores.Inessence,its likehavingseveralCPUsonasinglechip.UsingmulticoreCPUscangreatlyincreasetheprocessing powerofthesystemandlengthentheusablelifeofyourserver. Someentrylevelservers,suchasanIntelCeleron445,mayhaveasinglecoreCPUs.Foranofficeof fewerthan10users,thisisgenerallysufficient.Beaware,though,thatafewextradollarsinvestednow inonahigherpoweredserversayadualorevenaquadcoreCPUcanbegreatlybeneficialasyour businessgrows.Overestimatingyourneedsnowmightbeyourbestbet. UNDERSTANDINGRAID Oneofthemajorhardwaredifferencesbetweenserversandworkstationsisthedisksubsystem.While desktopshaveasingleharddrive,serversgenerallyhaveseveralharddrivesconfiguredtoappearasa

singledisk.ThisiscalledRAID,orRedundantArrayofInexpensiveDisks.RAIDiswidelyusedtoprotect serversfromindividualdiskfailures,criticalwhenyourbusinessisatstake.IfadriveinaRAIDarrayfails, itdoesnotmeanthatthedatacontainedonthatdriveislost,sinceotherdrivesinthearraystillcontain thedata.TherearemultiplelevelsofRAID,butforentrylevelservers,RAIDlevels1and5arethemost common. RAIDlevel1isasimplemirroroftwoharddrives.ThedatastoredonaRAID1arrayexistsonbothdrives atalltimes.Ifonedrivefails,theotherdrivestillhasacompletecopyofthedata,andtheservercan continuetofunction.RAID5ismorecomplex,involvingatleastthreedrives,andthesetupcansurvive thefailureofanyonedrive.Eitheroptionwillprotectagainstfailures,butRAID5deliversmoreavailable diskspacethanRAID1andisfasteraswell.Thisdataprotectioniscrucialtoaserver,andanyserveryou addshouldbeequippedwithaRAIDcontrollerandaRAIDarray.MakesureahardwarebasedRAID controllerisintheserveraswell,notjustasoftwarebasedonesoftwarebasedRAIDworks,butcan bemoreproblematicfortheuninitiated,sincethereisntadedicatedcontrollermanagingthehard drives.IfyoureusingsoftwareRAIDonly,youmayrunintodifficultyintheeventofadiskfailure, especiallyifyourenotanexpertatsoftwareRAIDrecoveryprocedures. Thedisksinserversarealsogenerallydifferentthanthoseindesktops.There'smoretoharddrivesthan justsizethespeedatwhichtheplatterswithinthedrivespincangreatlyaffectperformanceofthe entireserver.Harddrivesrunningat10,000RPMcandeliverdatafasterthanslowerdrivesrunningat 5,400RPM,especiallyunderload.Thereareseveraldifferenttypesofharddrivesaswell,suchasSATA andSASdrives.Formostentrylevelservers,7,200RPMSATAdrivesconfiguredinaRAID1orRAID5 arraywillbesufficient.Forhigherperformance,youmaywanttoconsiderSASdrives.Generally,higher performancedisksarenecessaryonlyiftheserverwillberunningheavierapplications,suchasalarge database. Someentrylevelserversofferhotswappableharddrives,whileothersdonot.Hotswappabledrives enableaharddrivetobereplacedwithoutshuttingtheserverdownorevenopeningthecase.Ifadisk fails,itcanbepulledoutoftherunningserverandreplaced.Whenthediskisreplaced,theRAID controllerwillthenrebuildtheRAIDarraytoensurethatthedataisprotected.Iftheserverdoesnot havehotswappableharddrives,thentheservermustbeshutdown,opened,andthefailedharddrive replacedinsidethesystem.

RACKVS.TOWER Entrylevelserversaregenerallyavailableineitherarackmountortowerform.Ifthisisthefirstserver forthecompany,youprobablywonthaveasuitableserverrackalreadyinplace,andforasingleserver, addingthatrackmaynotbecosteffective.Thus,atowerserverislikelytobethebestoption. Manytowerserverscanlaterbeconvertedtorackmountserverswiththeappropriateconversionkit, soifyourinfrastructuregrowstothepointwherearackisrequired,yourexistinginvestmentcanbe modifiedtofityourneeds. Atowerserverisgenerallyonlyslightlylargerthanaregulardesktopsystem,andcanbeplacedundera deskorinanareathathaslittletraffic.Thoughitsagoodideatoalsohaveamonitor,keyboard,and mousehookeduptotheserver,dontbetemptedtousetheserverasadesktopsystem. AWORDABOUTRAM ServersalsogenerallyhaveveryfastRAM,whichisquiteimportantforperformance.Sinceserversare runningmanydifferenttaskssimultaneously,fastRAMandafastsystembusarecrucialtomaintain smoothoperation.ECC,orerrorcorrecting,RAMisalsoafeatureofmostserverclasssystems.ECC helpsprotecttheintegrityofthedatastoredinRAMduringnormalprocessing.Itcostsabitmorethan nonECCRAM,butinaserversystem,itsgenerallyarequirement. Anotherfeatureofmostserversisredundantpowersupplies.Thismeansthattheserverhasatleast twopowersuppliesthatbothdrawpowerduringnormaloperation.Ifonepowersupplyfails,orpower iscuttothatsupply,theservercontinuestofunction.Notallservershavethisfeature,butsomeoffer theoptionofaddinganotherpowersupplylateron.Aswithanycomputer,youshouldaddaUPS (UninterruptiblePowerSupply)toprotectyourserverfrompowersurgesandoutages. THESTRIPPEDDOWNSERVER Sinceserversaren'treallymeanttorundesktopapplications,theirgraphicssubsystemsaregenerally verybasic.Manyserversdon'tevenhaveakeyboard,monitor,ormousepluggedintothem,sincethey canbemanagedthroughthenetwork.Inasmallbusinessenvironment,however,youmayusefullyhave amonitor,keyboard,andmouseonyourserver,especiallyifit'stheonlyone.Mostentrylevelservers areonlyslightlylargerthandesktopsystemsandcanfitunderadeskorinacorner.Makesurethat theresadequateventilationandclimatecontrolwhereveryouplacetheserver.

Forconnectingtothenetwork,mostservershaveatleastonegigabitnetworkinterface(thepieceof hardwarethattalkstothenetwork).Theseinterfacesaredifferentthanthenetworkcardsindesktops sincetheyperformcertainnetworkfunctionsbythemselves,relievingtheserver'sCPUtohandlemore complextasks.Theendresultisthattheycanpushmoredataunderloadthannormalnetwork interfaces.Ifmultipleinterfacesareintheserver,theycanevenbebondedtogethertoprovidegreater bandwidth. Byaddingaserverevenanentrylevelservertoyournetwork,youcanbenefitgreatlyfromthese features,especiallyconsideringthedataprotectionavailableinaRAIDarray.Also,byaddingaserver, youreducethelikelihoodofspywareandvirusesimpactingyourbusinessdata,aslongasyourunstrong antivirussoftwareontheserver. Forthemostpart,serversinsmallbusinesssettingsaredesignedtorunalargenumberofdifferent servicesandapplicationstosupportasmallnumberofusers.ProductslikeMicrosoft'sSmallBusiness Serveraredesignedtodojustthat.Theyoffermanydifferentfunctionsthatcanrunonasingle dedicatedserver,buttheycansupportonlyarelativelysmallnumberofusers.Inmanysmallbusiness environments,thisisallthat'snecessary.Andthere'sonemorebitofgoodnews:Thesedays,entrylevel serversareavailablefornearlythesamecostasmidleveldesktops,makingthemanaturalforsmall businesses.