Binary Business

The sales person assured you. Your IT person swore it wouldn't be a problem. And yet, one year later your server is telling you that it is out of space. I have seen it far too many times. Rather that spend an extra couple hundred dollars when the server is purchased, the smaller hard drive is choosen. Both the sales person and your IT specialist repeat the mantra "You will never fill that hard drive!" Any time someone uses the words "never" or "always" you should immediately be suspicious, particularly when used in the context of Information Systems. Trying to predict the future of a field that changes as rapidly as technology is a fool's errand.

The Problem

When configuring a server both the sales person and the IT specialist will recommend a hard drive based on guidelines, experience and an outright guess. The issue with this scenario is that can not possibly fully understand your business and the amount of data you process in the short period of time taken to configure a server. Although Microsoft provides guidelines as to the recommended hard drive size, they are only considering Windows. This recommendation does not include the other software you will install on your server. Typically the lack of foresight will not become apparent for a year or later. The problem is that the recommendations do not consider all of the updates that will be applied to not both Windows and all of the software you installed afterwards.

Facts & Figures

• The hardware requirements for Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, as stated by Microsoft calls for 16GB of free hard drive space. However they admit that this is subject to change based on your configuration.

• A 1TB (1000GB) hard drive can be purchased for $175.

• The software required to safely resize a partitioned hard drive costs $500.

• Labor costs to resize a partitioned hard drive or replace a small hard drive with a larger drive will typically run from a minimum of $500 to several thousand depending on the server's configuration.

The Solution

In this case proper planning and a little pragmatism can save you thousands of dollars in services charges and lost productivity. My rule of thumb is to determine the current needs based on Microsoft's requirements and the additional software that will be installed. Once we have determined the current needs, I take this number and double it. The resulting hard drive size is the one that is purchased. Additionally the server should be configured to have one drive that contains Windows and all software. A second drive or RAID array should then be used to house all data files. The same method for determining the size of the data drive should be utilized, determine the current storage needs and double it.

The rationale behind this practice is quite simple. I first accept the fact that I cannot possibly accurately predict how the client will end up using the server. How the server is used will have a direct affect on the amount of storage space that is required. Furthermore I cannot predict the frequency and size of the updates that will be released for Windows and the rest of the software installed on the server. The most important factor to consider is that it is far cheaper to purchase a very large hard drive with the initial server purchase than it is to safely add space later. It should also be noted that once Windows fills the hard drive on which it resides it will stop functioning normally. Left unchecked this can result in countless other problems that will quickly escalate the costs of correcting the issue. Save your company both the trouble and expense by avoiding this common mistake.

For planning services that prevent this and many other costly errors, please contact Binary Business.