Question : Problem: Storage capacity expansion suggestions

Hello everybody,

It is small office with 15 users and domain controller with limited storage space on it available. All users initially put their files on shared folder but over time amount of data grew a lot so we were forced to store files on couple external drives connected locally to workstations. We're looking for solution which will allow us to use shared folders to store all the data currently spread between several places, assign access permissions and extend it in the future if necessary. This solution should provide some redundancy and fast access to files so multiple users can access these files at the same time. I tested Thecus NAS enclosure with 2x750GB drives in RAID1 but it is too slow and limited as functionality. I was also thinking about adding 2 more drives inside the server (2x1.5TB in RAID1) but I am not sure that I have enough SATA ports inside and actually not sure that built-in Intel Matrix RAID currently used for storage array can operate multiple RAID sets. The server is tower so we're not looking at rack-mountable solution until it is the only option available. I am net familiar with file servers, but would be separate server with Windows 2003 Standard, hardware RAID with enough ports a good solution, what do you think? How actually businesses expand their storage? I'm looking forward for your opinions and thoughts.


Thanks.


P.S. The price is also a factor as right now we cant's spend $6000 or more just for storage, especially during recession. We'll be adding about 1GB data daily to shared storage. We are not looking for expensive solution. New storage will be used for backups as well (for example, we can backup Exchange database from Domain controller to it).

Answer : Problem: Storage capacity expansion suggestions

IME, a second server with a RAID1 or RAID5 (more economical) array is probably the best solution.  There are some low-cost NAS devices, but security is usually an issue with these.  Not only are they easily disconnected from the network (i.e., easily stolen), many of the ones I've seen don't participate in the domain security and therefore the files are not as secure to begin with. In large corporations, NAS's or SAN's would be in a locked file room, but I doubt you have that physical security in such a small office.

If you have enough physical drive bays within your existing server, you could conceivably add another RAID controller card inside that server.  However, there are other good arguments for having a second server, since it would provide some redundancy that you are currently lacking.  Right now, if your domain controller goes down, your entire system would be down and all of your documents unavailable until you could get new hardware and restore everything.  With a second server, you could make it a domain controller and DNS server as well, so that your network would still operate if one of the servers failed.