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Subject: Buy SBS 2003 NOW, or Wait for SBS 2008? Software Assurance?

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U M

United States
Member since
7/13/2007

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Posts: 84

9/06/2007 10:53 PM
I am literally about 1 month away from buying a Brand new HP DL350 G5 with SBS 2003 R2 (premium or standard) have no idea yet.... Will this hardware run SBS 2008? Since my office has no running server right now, would it be a better idea to just wait and stick it out for SBS 2008? Or would it be better to just have a platform which is been established like XP Boxes, SBS 2003, and office 2003... My fear is having to upgrade EVERYTHING in the office... I guess my only other option is buying an open license with software assurance. Since the NEW SBS 2008 is only 1 NIC and NO ISA.. Would I be buying Standard with Software Assurance or Premium with software assurance?!?! Big price difference. Its on that border line of get it now or wait it out. I have no idea which way to take this thing. I am also going to have a Terminal Server running office and various other apps. (DL580 G2) Anyone provide any direction?

Eriq Neale User is Offline

Texas, USA
Member since
5/3/2005

Microsoft MVP
Posts: 2114

9/09/2007 05:52 PM
U M - I'm not familiar with the HP product line, so I can't tell anything about the specs on that particular box. What has been released publicly about SBS 2008 (or whatever it will be named) is that it will only run on 64-bit hardware, so as long as the box you get is 64-bit capable, and most servers made in the last year or so are in general, it should be able to run the new version. We do not know what the hardware specs will be for the new version, so I can't really advise beyond that. The general guidelines I use for determining server hardware still applies, though: buy as much CPU, RAM, and Disk as you can afford now, because you will need it later. That being said, the real deciding point should be the business need you have for a server. If your business would improve of become more efficient by implementing a server now, then get one now with the software that is currently available. If adding a server now would not add efficiency or productivity, then you could wait. At this point, I will likely not be an early adopter of the next version in a production environment for any of my existing clients, and until I really get my hands on the product for a significant amount of time, I can't tell you when I'll be able to gauge when I'll be ready to do that for my clients, etc. As to choosing between Standard and Premium for a 2003 purchase, are you going to make use of ISA or SQL in your environment, or is there a business need for it? If the answer is yes, get Premium. If the answer is no, get Standard. No one knows what fulfillment will look like, or what the product SKUs will look like, when the next version is released. And we likely won't know for a while. So make the best business decision you can with the information you have. That's really all any of us can do. HTH... -Eriq

Eriq Neale - Small Business Specialist, SBS MVP, Mac Guru EON Consulting LLC www.eonconsulting.net Lead Author of Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed In bookstores December 10, available for pre-order now Listen to eOnCall at AIRtunZ or visit www.eoncall.com.

william warren User is Offline

United States
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12/8/2005

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9/26/2007 12:15 AM
What cpu is in the machine? That will be your biggest clue as to if it will run it.

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U M

United States
Member since
7/13/2007

Registered Users
Posts: 84

9/26/2007 05:52 AM
I belive the cpu is going to be a 2.13 Core 2 Duo or a Quad Core cpu (single processor)

Eriq Neale User is Offline

Texas, USA
Member since
5/3/2005

Microsoft MVP
Posts: 2114

9/26/2007 01:28 PM
Dual-core or quad-core processor will be fine. -Eriq

Eriq Neale - Small Business Specialist, SBS MVP, Mac Guru EON Consulting LLC www.eonconsulting.net Lead Author of Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed In bookstores December 10, available for pre-order now Listen to eOnCall at AIRtunZ or visit www.eoncall.com.

william warren User is Offline

United States
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9/26/2007 01:35 PM
Posted By U M on 9/26/2007 05:52 AM I belive the cpu is going to be a 2.13 Core 2 Duo or a Quad Core cpu (single processor) I agree ..just stuff the thing with ram..:)

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Farfel Knabe User is Offline

Norway
Member since
10/10/2007

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Posts: 4

10/11/2007 08:38 AM
Hi! I have a similar scenario as mention above! I have a customer with SBS 2003 that now is 4 years old, and the server is really drawing it's last breath... The manager wants to upgrade to a new hardware and has read about Couger and he wants this "new cool OS" - but my recomandations to him is that we buy a new (not too expensive) server with SBS 2003 now, with x64 hardware compability and SA, and wait with Couger until 2009 - when the Couger server OS is more reliable than it will be just after the realese date in 2008. /Farfel

william warren User is Offline

United States
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12/8/2005

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12/26/2007 12:54 AM
i'll be advising my client who is looking to purchase in may of '08 to go with sbs 2k3 now and purchase software assurance for 2k8.

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william warren User is Offline

United States
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12/8/2005

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12/26/2007 12:55 AM
Posted By U M on 9/06/2007 10:53 PM I am literally about 1 month away from buying a Brand new HP DL350 G5 with SBS 2003 R2 (premium or standard) have no idea yet.... Will this hardware run SBS 2008? Since my office has no running server right now, would it be a better idea to just wait and stick it out for SBS 2008? Or would it be better to just have a platform which is been established like XP Boxes, SBS 2003, and office 2003... My fear is having to upgrade EVERYTHING in the office... I guess my only other option is buying an open license with software assurance. Since the NEW SBS 2008 is only 1 NIC and NO ISA.. Would I be buying Standard with Software Assurance or Premium with software assurance?!?! Big price difference. Its on that border line of get it now or wait it out. I have no idea which way to take this thing. I am also going to have a Terminal Server running office and various other apps. (DL580 G2) Anyone provide any direction? as long as the machine you are purchasing is not a celeron(all of the xeons are 64-bit) you're fine.

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Andrew NP Tech User is Offline

Australia
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10/16/2006

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Posts: 72

1/08/2008 12:43 PM
Celerons have been 64bit for quite a while now so even a Celeron or a Sempron weill work - just. In fact all servers and even desktops are 64bit these days. The main difference is that the server chips have support for EEC and FB ram ect for higher reliablity, larger caches ect. Also some of the low end chips do not have virtulization acceleration. Please just buy a proper server however. In regards to your actual question on if to buy now then the answer is YES. However I recomend to go to a entry level Quad core chip since SBS runs lots of processes and these are the best "bang for buck" - Entry level quad core chips are very cheap now so there is no reason not to buy one. The second thing is to use 2GB ram sticks - you can start with 2x2GB ram sticks now which leaves room to run 8GB under sbs 08. Also make sure you buy SA - that way you get the upgrade to 08 and can shift the OS to another machine if need be. SBS 2003 R2 is a rock solid OS at this stage so its a really good choice and you get the option to upgrade to 08 when your ready. I suspect what a lot of people will just do is buy SBS now with SA, install it on a server and then just leave it run for three years. Then they will sell the customer a new server with NO OS on it and install the SBS 2008 they are entitled to under SA.

william warren User is Offline

United States
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1/08/2008 01:44 PM
celerons don't have hte l1 or l2 caches required for server work and they aren't validated for data integrity either. Unless you are running a heavy load dual core xeons are fine. What features of sbs ar you going to use and how many users?

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Ron Foster User is Offline

United Kingdom
Member since
12/10/2007

Platinum Membership
Posts: 39

2/20/2008 03:39 PM
I fully understand the issues surrounding the NDA for SBS 2008. I have recently installed SBS 2003 R2 Premium on a DELL PE840 Quad Xeon 3220 2.4GHz, with 8Gb of RAM and a pair of mirrored 250Gb HDDs. There was a message during the install stating that quad processers were not supported, and I know that I am only using 4Gb of RAM. Currently using the 2 NIC solution and ISA. Hopefully we are ready for SBS 2008........ My question is: Do you think that it will be possible to move everything off of the server to HD and then rebuild using 2008, then suck all of our data back in again? I do believe that there is room here for one of Mariette excellent articles (once the NDA is over).

Mariette Knap User is Offline

The Netherlands
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3/24/2005

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Posts: 12895

2/20/2008 03:57 PM

Thanks Ron! No doubt there will be a lot documentation when the new SBS will be released. As all of this under NDA I cannot comment on any of your question 'how, what and when'...

Mariëtte Knap Smallbizserver.Net Administrator

Mission accomplished. We have joined the branch office to our SBS 2003 Headquarters and have the same user experience on the branch office as we have on our local network at the Headquarters. Want to know how? Signup up for a subscription and get instant access to the article series 'How to add an additional Domain Controller from a remote office to the SBS domain'

Andy Trish User is Offline

United Kingdom
Member since
5/5/2007

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2/22/2008 08:36 PM
I believe the NDA is ready to be relinquished, Microsoft have started releasing information on Cougar as from today https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/productssolutions/servers/40053325 hope this helps those not on the testing phases. Andy Trish NCI Technologies Ltd

Des Quinn

United Kingdom
Member since
5/20/2005

Registered Users
Posts: 281

2/22/2008 10:58 PM
NDA may still be about but Dave overton is spilling the dirt as is the MS site Have a look below for info http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/

william warren User is Offline

United States
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12/8/2005

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2/22/2008 11:14 PM
he's not spilling anything that i have not seen on ms's site or previously on other sites.

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Forums > Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 > Small Business Server 2008 Standard > Buy SBS 2003 NOW, or Wait for SBS 2008? Software Assurance?

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