Terminal Server / Application Server / File Server

[Guest Cary W. Shultz]

Good morning, TS-Land!

 

I was just speaking with one of my colleagues about a new client and he

wants to set up a Terminal Server that will also be the Application/File

Server.

 

We are looking at a Dell 2950 with dual Quad-Core XEON CPUs and 16GB of RAM

(apparently this is going to be 64-bit?).

 

He mentioned that it was his intention to make the TS box also the File

Server. I suggested to him that we might want a separate server to do this.

He disagreed. That is okay. Good healthy discussion is always a good

thing. ;-)

 

The new client is currently rather small but expects big growth. They think

that they will be up to 50 employees within the next calendar year. Most of

them would be "remote" users.

 

The TS will also house many "inventory applications". I am not sure what

this means at the moment (I hope they run on 64-bit OSes) as I do not know

what those apps are.

 

The company wants maximum "up-time" as they loose a lot of money for every

hour that they are down. Their revenue is pretty awesome!

 

What is the general opinion on this "setup" in this Forum/Newsgroup?

 

Thanks,

 

Cary

[Guest moncho]

Re: Terminal Server / Application Server / File Server

 

Cary W. Shultz wrote:

> Good morning, TS-Land!

>

> I was just speaking with one of my colleagues about a new client and he

> wants to set up a Terminal Server that will also be the Application/File

> Server.

>

> We are looking at a Dell 2950 with dual Quad-Core XEON CPUs and 16GB of RAM

> (apparently this is going to be 64-bit?).

>

> He mentioned that it was his intention to make the TS box also the File

> Server. I suggested to him that we might want a separate server to do this.

> He disagreed. That is okay. Good healthy discussion is always a good

> thing. ;-)

>

> The new client is currently rather small but expects big growth. They think

> that they will be up to 50 employees within the next calendar year. Most of

> them would be "remote" users.

>

> The TS will also house many "inventory applications". I am not sure what

> this means at the moment (I hope they run on 64-bit OSes) as I do not know

> what those apps are.

>

> The company wants maximum "up-time" as they loose a lot of money for every

> hour that they are down. Their revenue is pretty awesome!

>

> What is the general opinion on this "setup" in this Forum/Newsgroup?

 

Well, the debate you have going, also goes on in this group too. I

believe it is a matter of user count plus usage vs. Money.

 

If you cannot afford two servers and the user count and usage is low, go

with one server for both. Only the business can decide that.

 

I have setup sites both ways based on money and business requirements.

One client had the money, the other did not.

 

From your server description above, it seems like you have the money, so

I would actually go with two servers or maybe three because of the high

user count. One F/S and two TS servers.

 

I have not played with 64-Bit TS servers so I do not have the knowledge

of how many high-usage users can comfortably fit on that hardware.

 

Others will definitely have different opinions and that is all good.

 

moncho

Hate arguing but debating is fun..