Looking for recommendations for hardware configuration for 3Shape Server

[sup_tech]

We currently have about 10 workstations with potential growth in the future. At the moment we use an old (almost 10 years old!) HP Xeon workstation with Windows 10 and need to replace it. My plan is to use a workstation grade system with Xeon CPU and Windows Server OS to overcome the issue of limited TCP connections. What would you recommend as the base hardware configuration?
I think we would go with 2x2TB SSD for OS and software installation and 2x4TB SSD for the database. Both arrays will be RAID1.
Any recommendations for the actual Dell or Lenovo workstation that can be configured as such? 2.5GBe or 10GBe network adapter would be great as well.

TIA

 

[sup_tech]

Any recommendations would be highly appreciated!

 

[Jussi Roivanen]

Yep, windows workstantions have limit of 10 concurrent connections. Windows Server editions do not have that, it uses CALs (Client Access licences) and amount of connected Clients is limited by that. At one point Windows Server Essentials was limited to 50 connected Clients (50 cal) and to 25 users (created to active directory for proper domain logon). Windows Server Essentials might be enough for you at, depending other stuff in your network, and amount of users.

Server is used as dedicated server so you dont design anything with server, you dont do other things with server: its just serves shared folders, runs sql server or sql server express edition (eg 3shape database instance),handles backups etc. Basically single CPU that is equal to design software recommendations will do the trick.

You should do fine with 64gb of ram but 128gb is.. well, more. Any larger amounts memory is needed usually on virtualization etc, which i assume you are not doing.

Knowing amount of reads and writes 10+ (and expanding) client network generates on server disks (which is a lot more than on workstation!),i would go with server grade ssds. For example Samsung 980 M.2 SSD (which is popular) has estimated life span of 1.5mil hrs, HP mixed use server SSDs have 3.35mil hours.. Sure these 200$ home ssds last eternity at home use, but not in server use.

Having proper server hardware is all about redundancy, which on larger environments is an assurance. Workstation hardware is good, but no match to server in that aspect. Server RAIDs usually can have larger cache and battery backup to finish read/writes on powerloss, thus preventing things getting ****ed. Servers might be able to hold two power supplies: on psu failure, other psu takes over etc. More redundancy, more $$$ it takes.

and weather to choose tower server or rack.. rack servers are darn noisy. if you have storage space or basement and a rack cabinet, then rack server is an option

 

[sup_tech]

@Jussi Roivanen
Thank you very much for taking the time and providing this very valuable information!
Looks like i will be looking for a Dell server then.

One question to you, or anyone who can comment - 3Shaper guy mentioned that we can run the server virtualized in Hyper-V. For obvious reasons this seems like a great option, as in case of disaster recovering a VM is much easier than bare metal server. For the license dongle he mentioned an app that will take care of this.
Has anyone configured the 3Shape server in Hyper-V environment?

 

[Jussi Roivanen]

My experience with virtualization is limited to openvm and i have never tested 3shape in virtual environent.

Having Virtual Machine (VM) does not remove possibility of disastrous failure of hardware that runs virtual machine. Advantage of virtualization is basically that you can take snapshots of a VM to allow fast recovery if system running on VM gets screwd. You can also backup those snapshots and run them on any hyper-v capable computer. Basically if server running VM fails, then just set up some workstation to run that VM until main thing is fixed - only thing to worry is that temporary computer has enough storage to accommodate VM.

My guess is that VM hosts (hyper-v) can be configured to allow guests (virtual machines) to access locally attached USB devices. Then there is usb-over-ethernet solutions.. but i dont have experience on them.

 

[sup_tech]

My experience with virtualization is limited to openvm and i have never tested 3shape in virtual environent.

Having Virtual Machine (VM) does not remove possibility of disastrous failure of hardware that runs virtual machine. Advantage of virtualization is basically that you can take snapshots of a VM to allow fast recovery if system running on VM gets screwd. You can also backup those snapshots and run them on any hyper-v capable computer. Basically if server running VM fails, then just set up some workstation to run that VM until main thing is fixed - only thing to worry is that temporary computer has enough storage to accommodate VM.

My guess is that VM hosts (hyper-v) can be configured to allow guests (virtual machines) to access locally attached USB devices. Then there is usb-over-ethernet solutions.. but i dont have experience on them.

thank you very much, your comments were long awaited ones, you gave me some direction to move to.