Multiple SBS's

[Dogers]

Is this possible? Someone told me somewhere that you could only have primary server functioning as the AD master - but could you still have more than one sbs server in the domain?

Someone is looking at getting 3 SBS servers, so that they will all do different things (ie, one runs Exchange, one SQL+FS, one ISA).. is this possible at all?

 

[dkediger]

According to MS, this is NOT possible. Only a single SBS server hosting the FSMO roles for a single AD domain.

You can put up other non-SBS Windows servers in the domain and host other services that way. The limits are 1 domain, no trusts to other domains, and 1 SBS server. Additionally, the included apps with SBS (Exchange, SQL, ISA) will only run on the SBS server. Normal versions and CALs of these apps would need to be acquired to run on "regular" servers.

Depending on the load, a single, properly configured server is sufficient for all those tasks. If there's a web site running hitting SQL for a lot of data though, separate servers would be the ticket.

For SBS 2003, MS broke the product down into "Standard" and "Premium" editions. The Standard includes only the SBS server and Exchange. Premium includes SQL/IIS, etc. If there's a large SQL db involved, the Standard edition can be acquired and then normal SQL can be added behind the SBS server.

 

[Dogers]

When you say 1 sbs server, presumably you mean in the whole domain? If so, i thought so!

The idea behind it is so that the ISA server and the fileserver are seperate, i believe.. as well as the fact the 3 sbs servers would be coming cheap! :/

Since it has to be 1 box, their existing ones wont cope.. What spec server would you recommend for SBS running all the services together (minus ISA, as they really dont want that on their core box, which i dont blame them for!) for around 30 users. I'd guess at something like a dual 2.6/8 p4/xeon with 2g ram and as much disk as they can afford? (maybe more mem? i hear exchange is very mem hungry??)

 

[dkediger]

Yeah, 1 SBS server is the limit. I doubt another SBS server would even install into an existing SBS domain or it would bork on startup when seeing another SBS in the same domain.

The basic specs for SBS server are the same as a Standard Win2k/2k3 server. SBS won't take advantage of more than dual CPUs or 4GB RAM. Invest in the RAM and a great SCSI RAID system over the CPU speeds. Unless there is a large volume of mail in transit, Exchange will work well with 1GB. I would prioritize: Disk->RAM->CPUs.

Don't forget backups, Veritas and CA have SBS versions of their programs that provide the agents for Exchange and SQL, although you can also cobble the basic NTBackup to work as well.

I'm running SBS 2k for 20 users, with Exchange, a small SQL db, and ISA server on a dual 2.4 XEON, 2 GB RAM, and an Ultra 320 RAID 5 setup. We don't have a heavy internet load, so ISA hasn't been a problem. Be sure to add a second NIC to the server for ISA, so you have an Internal and External interface. If there is heavy internet use, you could utilize a single drive for the cache.

Here's a Microsoft doc on capacity planning for SBS. Its a couple years old and relates to SBS 2k, but it seems to be accurate with my situation:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...echnet/prodtechnol/sbs/2000/plan/sbs2kcap.asp