Best Network Design for Small Business Server

[Adamxxx]

Hi,

I am looking to perform a network upgrade for a small business which has 6 users. A robust backup procidure is a critical requirement for this business.

The network will use microsoft small business server 2003 and will utilise Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server 2000 and a basic file server.

My thoughts are to create hard drive images for each of the users containing the basic software programs that they use (e.g. Microsoft XP and Office 2003). The only machine I want to have to worry about backing up is the SBS Server. This means I want no files to be stored on the individual PC's. In the event of a disaster I can rsstore the PC's using the images I have created and restore the server.

Is this relatively easy to achieve? or for this number of users can someone suggest a better method of data backup. Please refer me to any online resources which may prove useful on this topic.

 

[ncotton]

i think you have is absolutly spot on their Adam. Just make sure you create profiles for the users that have home directories on the server, rather than the local machine, everytinh will fall into place.

Hope this Helps.

Neil J Cotton
njc Information Systems
Systems Consultant

 

[TechCarnivore]

Your design makes sense.
Using Small Business Server, you can chose to enable and configure My Documents redirection and have the users "my documents" folders moved from their local system to a location on the server. It's quite easy and takes just a few minutes.

 

[LWComputingMVP]

I strongly recommend you get a book on SBS and read it as well as installing SBS a few times in a test environment so you can get thoroughly familiar with it. SBS is a finicky beast that wants you to manage it a very specific way, through the use of the wizards whenever and whereever possible. Failing to do so can create problems now and in the future.

Your data storage plan sounds find, but you might want to look into folder redirection (which should have wizards to allow you to configure the feature in SBS). This will help ensure users don't save things locally.

As for backup, I would recommend you read over this - I've answered many questions on backup (though not necessarily on this forum) and written up a web page on the topic based on what others generally ask. Some of the information you may already know... some you may not.

http://www.lwcomputing.com/tips/static/backup.asp