Rackmounted server for SQL and SAP

My company is going to be looking for a new rackmount server to run our systems on and i get to purchase it "yay?"

The DB we will be running is 30gb DB that expands by about 200mb per month with SQL server 2005 32bit (its not my fault)

96gb of DDR3 Ram
SSD HDD's that are hotswapable
running Small business server
and some sort of dual core Xeon

any suggestions as to companies that would build a system like this?

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Dell. IBM. HP.

I would just grab an IBM 3550 or the same type of offering from HP or Dell

allows for 8 (I think) 2.5" SAS drives so you can have 2 mirror for OS 2 Mirror for Log and Temp DB and a RAID 5 or 10 for your data volume. I wouldn't recommend SSD unless you have some IO data that makes you think you require that many IOPS. Plus with the way SQL works reading from disk and working from memory it would be far cheaper to load up in ram so every data page in use is store in RAM.

I've setup many DB servers and would be more then happy to share anything I know that can help.

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Rod
http://www.RodRosenberg.com

Give outlet.dell.com a try.
Something 2U for drives and noise.
Don't forget a backup solution of some sort.

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"I came here to kick ass and assign IPv4 addresses. And I'm all out of IPv4 addresses." --secretsquirrel

I have 12 R610, including the three I just bought two weeks ago.

I would also recommend SAS drives instead of SSD drives as well, like rodrosenberg mentioned.

Here is a link to Dell Outlet where I just purchased mine:

http://www.dell.com/us/dfb/p/p.....d?~ck=anav

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i7 950 stock, 16gig Cosair 1600mhz, 120 Patriot SSD, 240 Patriot SSD RAID 0, 600gig VelociRaptor, Asus Rampage III Extreme, GTX 670 SLI, CoolMaster Haf 932.

Dell is great if you need the support, I swear by them, but you can also build your own. Use a supermicro bare bones on newegg and go to town.

Assuming going big, I would start here:
SUPERMICRO SYS-6026T-NTR+ 2U Rackmount Server Barebone Intel 5520 Dual LGA 1366 Dual Intel Xeon 5600/5500 Series
2x Intel Xeon E5649 Westmere-EP 2.53GHz 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 12MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 80W Six-Core Server Processor BX80614E5649
6x Kingston 16GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ECC Registered Server Memory DR x4 w/TS Model KVR1333D3D4R9S/16G

And like they said, a few 15k SAS drives would probably be better than SSD for this.

There is lots of room to cut back, but also lots of room to expand. Just no hardware support.

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Psyberian wrote:

Dell is great if you need the support, I swear by them, but you can also build your own.

I would avoid doing this, especially if it is mission-critical and the only real hardware the company runs. If you go with Dell/HP/IBM and get a decent support contract (note that this may be a large up-front expense) then you have techs and/or replacement hardware onsite when something dies (because it will).

SpoonDogSVT wrote:

Don't forget a backup solution of some sort.

Seconded. Also, RAID is not backup.

Yeti wrote:

SQL server 2005 32bit

Ow. Is there something keeping you from upgrading to 64 bit? With 32-bit your database will be limited to less than 4GB of directly addressable memory unless Microsoft pulled some cute tricks with sql server.

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Spork wrote:

Psyberian wrote:

Dell is great if you need the support, I swear by them, but you can also build your own.

I would avoid doing this, especially if it is mission-critical and the only real hardware the company runs. If you go with Dell/HP/IBM and get a decent support contract (note that this may be a large up-front expense) then you have techs and/or replacement hardware onsite when something dies (because it will).

Yep, like what I said, only if you don't need the support. If you need/want the support Dell is great. Get a hold of a Dell rep. They can often take huge discounts off equipment, especially if there is the possibility of future sales. It also gives you a direct contact for future sales for servers, desktops etc.

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When in doubt, set something on fire.

Spork wrote:

Yeti wrote:

SQL server 2005 32bit

Ow. Is there something keeping you from upgrading to 64 bit? With 32-bit your database will be limited to less than 4GB of directly addressable memory unless Microsoft pulled some cute tricks with sql server.

I should clarify that its currently running 32bit on the server its on now, i need to talk to the DB guy but im almost certain that we will move to 64bit when the new server comes along.

and i probably will be going with a Dell system i just need to spec out a few systems so i can present them to my boss when he gets back from his 2 week Euro vacation

and right now the "backup" is a External HDD that gets taken home each day and swapped with the one from the previous day.

and i will probably want to change some things in that regard as i am doing my best to slowly get the entire office up to par things like making sure all the systems have anti-virus software on them. (only 4/25 did and half of those were running XP)

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hey whats that transport doing over my base?
OH MY GOD ITS HIS COMMANDE*PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT*

I'll add one more thing if the server is primarly for SQL and the DB size is 30-40gb you don't need that much RAM a good sizing tip is as much Ram as your largest table. if you had 40-50gb of ram and ran that database every single data page could be loaded in memory.

I've got DB servers with 500 users that have a 60-100gb databases and only run 32gb of ram.

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Rod
http://www.RodRosenberg.com

we are also running SAP and 96gigs is just what the DB guy specced to me not to mention the real jump in price is enterprise server (32gb+) vs SBS so you might as well go for the gold so to speak so you dont have to upgrade your systems for a LONG time

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PDXLAN Avatar-of-War
_____________________________________
hey whats that transport doing over my base?
OH MY GOD ITS HIS COMMANDE*PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT*