Windows Server 2012 on an Atom Mini PC

[bitchstewie]

Agreed a Linux box will let you do more, main caveat is skills especially if something should stop working (whilst a Synology is Linux it's more or less a sealed appliance).

Whichever way you go, forget about RAID0 as it offers you nothing other than risk - if you're putting in two hard drives you want RAID1.

[mikef]

I would pay attention to this:

beanbag said:

Following a painful discussion with the developer, it's become clear the reservation system can be hosted on a NAS server such as a Synology NAS

I'm a great fan of Synology NAS's, I have two of the things. They are great as media servers, file servers, backup devices and cloud front-ends. They are also highly locked-down to anyone who isn't a Linux ninja (you can't even fire up a browser). The 3rd-party Linux applications that are available to download from Synology have been thoroughly tested on that platform. What your developer /may/ be saying is that his app is built with tools that can run on Linux distro's in principle, but has never been certified on Synology's proprietary O/S. If that were the case, and I were the developer and asked to get something to be supportable on Synology, I'd likely be quoting for a month's effort including testing, at a grand a day and you'd need to provide me a Synology box to test on.

Can you separate out the need for a system to run the reservations system from your other server needs? Can that stay on the original windows box?

[TonyRPH]

I suspect the the reservation application is simply an executable that can be run from any location, e.g. local drive or network drive.

Older versions of Sage could run like this, and some even supported running across UNC paths, e.g. \\servername\sharename\app.exe

If his developer says it will run on the Synology, it'll likely run on any shared storage.

[beanbag]

bhstewie said:

Agreed a Linux box will let you do more, main caveat is skills especially if something should stop working (whilst a Synology is Linux it's more or less a sealed appliance).

Whichever way you go, forget about RAID0 as it offers you nothing other than risk - if you're putting in two hard drives you want RAID1.

Apologies, you're right. I meant RAID1 mirroring. Not interested in striping. That was a mistake on my part

I'm not really much of a linux expert and I really do need something that's simple to manage. I also haven't the time to experiment either, otherwise a Linux box would have been ideal, I agree.

I spoke to the mother-in-law and managed to get the budget for a Synology DS216+ which I've ordered from Amazon.

It's the most powerful version of this series and I hope it'll do for what we need.

It also offers the Btrfs file system which I'm told is much better (based on the reviews I've read), and is future proofed with regards to linking more storage. However having said that, we'll have 1TB of storage for an office that currently uses just 35GB....

Talking of which, I bought a pair of WD RED 1TB HDD's so these will be mirrored internally, plus there is also a removable 1TB USB drive that will contain a removable back-up that can be taken home if necessary.

I hope this'll be a solid solution. I'm quite excited to get it set up. The inner-geek in me likes a new IT gadget.

Edited by beanbag on Monday 30th May 11:41

[beanbag]

mikef said:

I would pay attention to this:

beanbag said:

Following a painful discussion with the developer, it's become clear the reservation system can be hosted on a NAS server such as a Synology NAS

I'm a great fan of Synology NAS's, I have two of the things. They are great as media servers, file servers, backup devices and cloud front-ends. They are also highly locked-down to anyone who isn't a Linux ninja (you can't even fire up a browser). The 3rd-party Linux applications that are available to download from Synology have been thoroughly tested on that platform. What your developer /may/ be saying is that his app is built with tools that can run on Linux distro's in principle, but has never been certified on Synology's proprietary O/S. If that were the case, and I were the developer and asked to get something to be supportable on Synology, I'd likely be quoting for a month's effort including testing, at a grand a day and you'd need to provide me a Synology box to test on.

Can you separate out the need for a system to run the reservations system from your other server needs? Can that stay on the original windows box?

Missed a few points here while doing my last reply.

I spoke to the developer again to gain clarity on this. He has confirmed the following:

The reservation system will work on any server that offers an SMB shared location that can be mapped on a Windows client. The server just hosts the database files and these are located currently on a network share.

There is no need for anything else other than a network share and this can be hosted on any server platform including a NAS.

Also, just to add, the old Windows box is dying. The reason I need to change it is because we've had a number of system crashes which I believe are memory related but unless I do a full memtest, I can't be 100% sure. It's also ridiculously slow and when it's running any services (I've stopped any unnecessary ones), the reservation system slows to a crawl.

It really has to go.

Edited by beanbag on Monday 30th May 11:41

[bitchstewie]

Thing with a Synology is it's a bit of a swiss army knife.

If you outgrow it as a NAS or your requirements change you'll still be able to use it for backups or whatever.

One thing I would say is be very cautious about exposing the thing to the internet using any of the web based admin interfaces - it's nice to have but it's a security risk.

Use OpenVPN for the VPN and make sure all your user accounts have strong passwords enabled (good luck doing that with a bunch of elderly ladies )