Hp Proliant ML300 Servers

Servers, such as the HP ProLiant ML300 Servers, are everywhere these days. They can help you manage files and printers, better secure your company network, and generally do more for you than a desktop can. This guide will help you understand what a server is, how to decide if you need one, and how to go about finding the right server to meet your needs. Planning to meet your server needs requires a bit of investigation on your part. You must consider:

• What problem are you trying to solve?
• What kind of software do you need for the number of people you have?
• How fast does the server need to process data (i.e., processor speed)?
• How many processors do you need? Some solutions require two or more.
• How much memory (RAM) do you need?
• How much hard disk space does data require, now and in the future?
• What kind of hard disk controller (SATA, SCSI, or SAS) do you need?
• Do you want a rack mount server or a tower?
• How many network interface cards do you need?
• Do you plan to attach additional backup and storage drives (tape or optical, for example) to your system?
• What level of RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) do you want to support?
• What kind of server management tools do you need?
• Do you want help getting your server set up?
• What level of maintenance and support do you need?

Assessing your needs

If you don't have answers for the list of questions above, how do you go about assessing your solutions needs? You have to evaluate several different aspects of the solution to get a complete picture you can use to find the right server to support it:

• The solution itself
• Software
• Data
• Users

Your Solution

While you probably have a good idea of what kind of solution you are planning to create, the more details you can define for it, the easier it will be to choose the right hardware. For example, if you are building a file and print server you might ask:

• How many employees are in your company?
• How many and what kind of printers do you need to support?
• How much data do you have now?

In addition to defining your solution, you need to consider any additions or changes you plan to make in the next few months. While your print server may only need to manage one or two printers initially, you may grow it to support eight to twenty printers, including multifunction printers, scanners, and other printing and imaging devices. When you choose to buy a server for your initial implementation that will support future expansion, you save both time and money.

The software

If you plan on running a particular set of software packages on your server, such as a Web server or database, you should gather all of the pertinent details about those packages before you go server shopping. Most have very specific requirements for the kind of systems they need, including the best processor speed as well as a minimum amount of memory and hard disk space.

While the documentation for each software package includes these basic requirements, consider asking the software manufacturer or reseller for their advice on what kind of system to buy. It is in their best interest for your solution to succeed, and they have a lot of experience putting their software to work on different servers. Typically, this help is free, so take advantage of it.

The data

How much data you have now and how much you'll generate over the life of the server will directly dictate how much storage space your server should offer. While defining exactly how much data you have, or how much you will have, there are ways to calculate some approximate numbers based on past history.

For example, if you plan to build a file server to hold documents currently scattered among many different desktop systems, add up the amount of space they take up and divide that by how long it took you to create them. You'll have a good idea of how much storage space you need immediately, and you can calculate the average amount of data you create per month. Multiply that average by 24 or 36 months, and you'll have a good idea of how much storage space you'll need on your server in two or three years.

If you are creating a more complicated solution like a database-driven Web site, rely on your consultants to help you define how much data the system will generate. Also, don't forget that your actual data isn't the only information your server will store. Any software you install will take up disk space, as will the server's operating system, so you have to take all of that into account when you consider drive space.

Users and performance

Finally, you need to have a good idea of how many people will be working with your solution and how well it needs to operate for them. Both of these factors affect the horsepower your server needs. If your file and print servers will only have eight or ten users, you won't need as much power. However, if it will have to support fifty to one hundred users your power needs will be more significant.

If you are building an intranet or a Web site, you need to have a rough estimate of how many people will visit the site per day. In addition, if you are building a database solution, how many people will be accessing the database at once?

Also, consider how many users you expect to support in six months, a year, or two years. You want to be sure that your server is ready to support an increasing number of users.

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Borrowed from HP web site