My brother has come to me asking me to look into the possibility of setting up a server for his office at work. I have very litttle knowledge of networks, so some advice would be much appreciated. Firstly, as the machine used as the server would be newly built, is it possible/ sensible to use it as a desktop and the server at the same time? Also, as clients have access to the network, is it possible to make the files available to the networkbut hide/ password protect them so they can only be accessed by the staff? Finally, what software would be best to use for this? Thanks in advance.
If all they want is a file server you may as well just get a NAS with built-in RAID, and only hand out passwords to the staff.
Personally i'd let servers be servers and desktops desktops. How would you access the server if you were booted into something else? Doing that would complicate the permissions unnecessarily. I've had a brilliant experience with freenas so far - it can handle your permission needs (^and RAID) easily... and you can't get much better than free
You don't provide any info on what type of server is needed: - Domain controller / support for hot desk - Print server - Email server (exchange, RIM etc) - File server - Web server / Extranet / Intranet - Development environment / Source Control If you just want a file server then look at a dedicated NAS device, it will be easiest to install / support. Many here on BT will have a Freenas box as an alternative that makes use of existing hardware.
If he want's to do it properly then get someone in who does it for a living. How many users are there? What desktop OS is he using? How much data? Emails onsite/offsite? iphone/blackberry support? You'd be looking at £8k or so for a fully installed SBS server
buy a ready made solution, from someone like dell, i know i know, Sacrilege, but you build it for them, they will be looking at you to support it if things dont work quite the way they want. it'll cost around £3000 ish, for a reasonable sbs server, just add in some support from dell, and you wont be getting the calls, dell will.
TBH, if you have to ask such basic questions, you better not venture into this... An production environment is a place that does not handle half-implemented solutions very well and since you have no clue what to do, I predict trouble...
You haven't provided enough information to give a proper answer i.e. what are their requirements for the server? In any case, you should not use a server as a desktop. It does sound like you are a real novice, so I would definitely think carefully about undertaking this if they require any sort of level of security or reliability.
Could you please provide details oh what the server needs to do eg file sharing, mail etc although I would be best to buy something already built eg. something from the HP range
If this is a real office, based on the info you're giving, I don't think you're up to setting this up for you brother. But I would advice an ML350 with a raid and a decent back up system (redundancy!). File sharing and protecting folders is basic functionality on a server os.
