Before making any purchase, you now need to investigate two more things.
The combined size of the database (IE how much to all the drawings on all the machines add up to in storage size).
Can you find a relatively local consultant to setup everything in either Linux or MS Server 2003.
If you can find a reliable Linux person that has some experience with AutoCad setup, go this route. It will save a bundle.
On the Cheap you will need a good Server with mirroring or Raid redundancy setup. This prevents data loss.
You will need:
a backup solution to handle preferably automated nightly backups.
a Good UPS unit.
a quality switch that can handle 12 connection. This will support the PCs, servers, Internet connection, a work group printer or 2 and leave room for a few more devices. If the price difference between 12 and 24 is minor, buy the 24.
DO NOT BUY AND USE HUBS!
Shop for an inexpensive Color Laser to replace most of the Inkjet printers.
At the risk of sounding evangelistic, Mac OSX runs Apache server as part of the OS. It is likely not going to move this discussion along, but a server thread without a Macintosh is… well… monopolistic?
Reach out to their nerd community (the drafters likely have friends that do this stuff). Depending on the age of the owner, it might make sense for him to ask around to his friends/business contacts to see if they have an adult aged (25+) son/daughter that does this sort of thing. (avoid the PFY- Pimply Faced Youth)
I’ve certainly gotten a few side jobs via my Mom’s chatting about me with her dental patients.
Lots of IT guys around, and anyone that is a mid-level IT guy running a 40+ person IT environment is capable of doing the work, and probably won’t charge too much.
I’m close to that area, but not close enough to recommend anyone, and a bit too far to go there myself (Not that I’m using the SDMB to solicit business, I’m just offering some, I hope, helpful advice)
Something to consider here (hopefully just a clarification to butler1850. Look for someone whos business does this. An IT/computer consultant who is not prepared to back their work and provide ongoing support is a disaster begging to happen. Doing this type of work myself for small businesses I have had a few parts I installed take a nosedive a few weeks later. Having a major failure in a server in a networked office environment that needs that server could bring an otherwise profitable business to its knees in a few days if the people who are supporting your systems cannot respond and effect repairs promptly.
Calling in another repair provider in many cases could be almost as expensive as the initial setup if the person who did it does not use standard methods or worse has you passworded out of root admin accounts on *nix machines.
In addition, some areas have licencing for computer repair/sales (CA does). The fines for not maintaining said licence are pretty steep and mainly are consumer protection tools (written receipts, warranties, not exceeding estimates, etc).
You can probably do pretty well with $1500-$2000 even with a pretty hefty multidisk RAID. Remember, much of the price of high end machines is in fancy graphics and sound cards and all manner of bells and whistles that are irrlevenat in an office environment, even less so for a server.
I knwo there may be licensing issues, as the programs are licensed to the business… but they have covered their tracks legally and shouldn’t have too much of an issue.
The problem with this is that backup becomes a nightmare. Better to concentrate the files on the server drive and make damn sure that gets a nightly incremental and a weekly full taken off-site.
As for the recommendation that they use a retiring workstation, I would nix that one too. Hardware is so cheap these days. This is a mission critical deal here, and as a file server (what it sounds like to me) getting adequate hardware brand new shouldn’t be expensive.
You need a good RAID subsystem as was mentioned, and some way of offloading files to removable media, preferably tape.
You need more than a switch (which they probably have if they are already peer to peer) if you want to connect all this to the Internet, you need a good router.
I would also specify GHz Ethernet, it is not expensive any more. That is one area where you don’t want to skimp because it is basic infrastructure that will be used for a long time, though if 100 is what they have in place it is all working, it is probably not worth the bother.
If it really is just a file server this shouldn’t be too hard. For this office they probably aren’t going to need a lot of the rigmarole. Just a standard XP server license like this one. I am assuming that Autocad does not need an app server because if it did they would have one already. Checking CDW, I find this little honey. It even has a file server windoze on it. If only it were capable of RAID 5! I am sure I could build a more powerful server for less, but take it as a baseline.
A very valid point… while it’s not my profession to provide this sort of service, it does make a nice side project that gets me some extra $$$, and my customers a bit of a break in the price.
It’s all about the compromises of $$$ vs availability. They are a direct ratio. More $$$ = better support.
For a small business, a day of downtime might be ok, given that parts might take that long anyway. If you can’t afford that sort of time, you need to be either stocking parts inhouse, or have a vendor on call that does.
As for licensing of the business/vendor doing the install, I am not aware of any requirements for such in the Northeast. We’ve pretty liberal business/labor laws here. If I did enough work to warrant running a “business,” I’d investigate further, but as it’s usually only a job or two a year, it’s not been worth my while…
I was not referring to software licences, I was referring to things like CA Bureau of Electronic & Appliance Repair If someone does not maintain this licence ($165/yr last I paid) they could be subject to fines if a customer files a complaint and the repair provideres licence is non existant or suspended.
Do not buy anything until you understand what “act like a server” means, in specific terms. By this I mean you must define what you want from it. If you just buy a piece of hardware and say “Go forth and serve”, it’s all going to end in tears.
Seconded, this is where consultations come in. Find one locally and get the boss to cough up for an hour and take a look at what you have and what your needs are BEFORE you pick up so much as a single scrap of hardware. Make no assumptions, explain everything you can. Omitting details because you think the solution may be too expensive is going to leave you with processes that could have been included. Lying or misleading your computer guy is kinda like lying or misleading your wife, it will ALWAYS come back to haunt you. IF he says something is a bad idea…it probably is.
Heavy computer work is also a scary frontloaded cost, the boss may balk at a $10K upgrade to your information infrastructure, but even a few seconds of network lag per transaction add up in a big hurry to hundreds or thousands of labor dollars wasted on glassing* at the workstations. For pro drafters and engineers, that gets expensive in a hurry. We did a little mini study at my last employer and doing timing over the phone for a few basic network requests. Some of the common ones averaged 12 seconds. Multiply that by 400 users on the system and 30-40 of those transactions per day per person even at $10 an hour thats $530 per day in labor waiting for the computers. In a couple weeks that could pay for a new server including software and setup or a hell of a bandwidth upgrade for some other bottleneck.
*Waiting for that little windows hourglass to turn back into a pointer.
Checking CDW, I find this