We are finally going to upgrade our SBS 2000, and at this time it looks like our best route is to get SBS2003 with SA, to get 2008 when it comes out. I was looking on Jeff Middleton's site to get info on the Swing Migration, and it appears the best process is to end up on a new server. However, if we end up with 2003 on the new server then we will have issues migrating to 2008 this winter, so I need to have a temporary server to run SBS2003 for a few months. I have an old server at home that I got on eBay a couple of years ago to play with when I was taking a server class at the local junior college that I could bring in for a while, but it ALMOST meets the minimum specs for SBS 2003. MS lists requirement of 750 MHz processor, and this server has dual PIII-733 MHz. Would this be close enough to get by for a short while? It is currently running Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with no problems, but in my home network it's not really doing an work besides running WSUS once a month. The server's other specs are:

 

Dell PE2400

2xPIII-733

2GB RAM

6x74GB SCSI RAID5

 

Then the plan will be to reformat our current SBS2000 box to be the second server for SBS2008 Premium.

 

Thanks for any advice,

Dave

Alan and Stan,

 

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I was planning on using Jeff's SwingIt kit, in fact it was reading the description on his web site that made me realize that the easiest route was to end up on new hardware. Plus, I was planning to reformat the current SBS2000 box to use it for the second server for SBS2008, and that would be easier if it were not in use on the SBS2003. The specs on the current server are: Dell PE600SC, a single P41.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM (could add more easily enough,) and a pair of mirrored hard drives with a system and a data partition. (IDE drives on a CERC controller.)

Oddly enough, I do have a pair of 866 MHz processors for the PE2400, since I actually built it from 2 eBay servers after the UPS man smashed the first one, but I couldn't get either motherboard to boot with the faster processors. And the processors that are working are the ones out of the smashed server.

 

Anyway, since this will be a temporary setup from the time we migrate to 2003 until 2008 comes out (which looks now like that will be a shor time,) and then the PE2400 will go back to my spare bedroom doing basically nothing but running WSUS and giving me something to experiment on, I'm not inclined to spend much of anything on it.

 

We only have 12 or 13 workstations, and not even all of them connect to our SQL database, and aside fro that it's just a file server, ISA/ internet server, and Exchange.

The users are already noticing a performance drop, that is why we are looking into upgrading. But I think that is more of a configuration issue than a hardware issue, since at the time I set this up 6 years ago, I really didn't know anthing about servers. In fact, thanks to the boss passing the job of setting up the new server to me I actually used this live production SBS2000 system to teach myself on the fly to be a network administrator. And shortly afterwords started taking server classes at the local junior college, after finding several things that it seemed I shouldn't have done.

 

Thanks,

Dave

Alan,

 

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure any more what the speed of the drives is. I just checked the original config on Dell's web site and it shows 7.2k drives, but I know that is not the same drives that are in it now. It shows 3 - 9MB drives, and it currently has 6 - 74 MB drives. ($1200 worth of drives to build an array half the size of the new hard drive I put in one of my workstations last month for $125.) Anyway, it sounds like it might at least work for a temp server while we wait the short time until SBS2008 comes out. 

 

I don't know yet what I'm looking for in a new server,I'm planning on calling at least Dell and CDW, and maybe some others for bids to see what I can find. The only thing I know for sure is I'm going to ask for at least twice the RAM MickeySoft reccomends.

 

Thanks,

Dave