Tryin' to keep a company network up

[bjr]

It looks like the company i work for is needing to upgrade their server OS (we're currently using the MS 2012 server). It's realatively a small network maybe 200 users and using three servers. The options seem to be Microsoft or maybe the Redhat Linux. The fellow I'm helping isn't a programmer and neither am I and the Redhat stuff looks real intimidating to setup for the backup senerio that we currently use. The new MS server is very expensive to go on those machines. Are there any administrator types out there that have went to the Redhat/linux stuff and what was the results? Was it a good thing or should we stay far away from Red Hat and PAY the MS price? The 'ol MS 2012 is slowly going away on us. bjr

 

[RNeumann]

We use Linux OS for our server. Digital Ocean provides the OS and hardware. Maintaining your/our own servers is quickly going away. The cost, headache and risk simply isn’t worth it for most small businesses. We hired an outside IT guy to setup the productivity, time card and management software on the remote Server.

For most server folks Linux is king. MS is a distant second and the few others (like Mac) make up the last little bit.

We transitioned from a server I maintained in house to the remote server in November.

 

[mddorange]

The severity level to switch to Linux can be from minimal to gigantic depending on the knowledge level on your administrator. You can always hire someone to do the transition for you, but then someone will have to be trained to support it.

There are a lot of remote server services out there. Finding the right fit is most important.

If you go with a major player, then you might not get the hands on help that you will be looking for.
If it is too small of an operation, then you may find yourself hitting a wall when you need to expand or upgrade.

When talking with prospective companies, make sure they give you current companies about your size to talk with to see how happy they are with their service.

 

[wjmst]

It also depends on what those servers are used for. You may have some applications that will only run on MS server, so you need to make sure you look into that as well.

 

[Oaktree]

There are a lot of remote server services out there. Finding the right fit is most important.

If you go with a major player, then you might not get the hands on help that you will be looking for.
If it is too small of an operation, then you may find yourself hitting a wall when you need to expand or upgrade.

It also depends on what those servers are used for. You may have some applications that will only run on MS server, so you need to make sure you look into that as well.

Bingo! Not only that, but if everything is on a remote server, you're SOL if the internet goes down. I'd wanna keep accounting, inventory, mission-critical stuff like that in-house so you're not completely dead in the water over something you have no control over.

Another downside to a smaller provider, what if there's a problem nights/weekends/holidays? Will there be off-hours support? A smaller company might be more likely to go feet up than a larger one too.

 

[kcflhrc]

The majority of our Telecom Equipment has migrated to Linux. It seems stable enough. But it's just application's running on top of the Linux instead of the proprietary software we used to use. For me I load up the Linux, patch it, then load the application. I know it is a lot more complicated than that but for me it's just about that simple.

 

[RoyKing]

typical neglected network, I ran many sized networks from 30 users to 5000+. Most networks today are far beyond what the average users can handle. Very hard to outsource without getting ripped off. If you have good band width and reliable lines and your machines are running win10, price going to the cloud, or at least mirroring your data there. You need to give more info on what you do with your network, mail, filesharing, printing, or Active directory and Sql etc. It not going to be cheap

 

[Guidshir]

I'm curious as to why they need to upgrade from Server 2012 (is it R2?). Don't get me wrong, upgrades need to be done and prepared for, but the actual tasks with an MS server are usually simple from one version to another unless it has been neglected for too many versions or the software running on it is junk. By the time 2012 becomes close to end of life there will likely be something past server 2016. In my experience an "every other" major version is a pretty easy and safe upgrade path.

 

[RoyKing]

Probably hardware is that old also

 

[TheMan419]

It is the keeping up good hardware that most people fall flat on. We run three servers. A "main' one that handles most stuff and then two others for some minor tasks that are just resource hungry enough that putting them off on their own severs is nice. However that lets us be on a three year cycle. Buy a new server every year and push them down the chain. Keep the 4 year old one around as a spare in case the magic black smoke gets out of one of the other servers.

Back up is to the cloud and to an external hard drive every night.

 

[RoyKing]

That works

 

[hawkeye08]

Servers and apps is one thing, many neglect the actually network also. It is scary to see how some of the businesses handle their networking needs. I just changed to Ubiquiti for my home network (simple, router and wireless access point, down from 5 access points in the past). We just installed the Access point Saturday after having it temp located. I have strong signal in whole house from a single AP. I am working on configuration that will isolate my network traffic to limit the traffic from IoT (internet of things) devices such as IP Camera, security system, basic weather stations, DVD, TV, etc on their own virtual network. The hope is to limit those devices access to rest of my home network.. VLANs and firewall rules.. lots of fun.

I may even be able to repurpose our old family computer (with years of digital photos and videos) into something useful (perhaps running Linux)... Linux runs better than Windows on the old hardware.

Good luck on your project.. lots of moving parts.