File Server requirements

hi,

my friend wants to install a file server in their company,
capacity of company is about 50~70 pc(users), so he asked me
if there is any special requirements for file server! and i dont have previous
information on it, so could it be a normal pc? how large should be the memory?
harddisk? speed? and others?

thanks

Alans,

I do not have enough information to help you. There are many factors that go into this question.

1) How large are the average files?
2) How much space does each user need?
3) Do you need redundancy?
4) How often does each user access the server? How many users access at the same time?


You can use a regular PC, a server, or even a Network Attached Storage device. Depending on the types of files his users would store combined with how cheap hard drives are, I would get a few 500 gig drives in a RAID array. If you provide more information, I may be able to assist better.

I use to work at a company with approximately 1500 users, and the main file server was about 700GB, 1GHz CPU and 512RAM.......older machine. Every once in a while the server would run out of space and we would run through it and find 10GB of MP3s hiding in there.....

But for the most part, we will need the questions above answered to be able to better answer your question

hi,

1) How large are the average files?
2) How much space does each user need?well, they are normal users, so they usually deal with .doc, .xls,
.pdf files plus users files (documents and settings like application data...)....

4) How often does each user access the server? How many users access at the same time?
i think they work all at same time from 8am to 5 pm so..!!

and no, no need for redundancy.
and if for 1500 users a normal pc is ok then for 70 user a normal pc
with specifications KiLLaBeE mentioned will be more than good, right?

If the machine is to be used solely as a file server, then the hardware requirements mentioned above will be more than enough.

The main reason why people get specialised servers is to do with issues like redundancy, hot-plugging and increased reliability.

The CPU is not that critical (i.e. anything over 1 GHz), but the more RAM you add, the faster the server will be able to serve commonly accessed files, as they can be held in memory.

Also fast hard disks and a solid network card won't hurt.

You will only begin to run into problems when you start trying to run other application servers like Exchange and SQL Server on a machine with a low spec.

I agree with DaLight. Get an older PC and install high-RPM hard drives and a decent amount of RAM. RAM is cheap.