We are looking at upgrading our server which holds all the audio on it. It is currently a 1ghz machine running windows 2000 pro.



What is recommended as the basic spec for a server which will eventually be running the remote voice tracking client along with serving the audio as normal.



Also could we use the server for a scoop capture machine in the future if we decided to go down that route. I know it is best practise to restrict what you have running on the server but we need to get the most use out of it we can to justify the costings for example it would be great to have our CCTV recording onto the server under it's own application.



Which OS should we go for - from what I read it is Windows 2003 server - correct?



cheers and hope the move went well



Matt

Matt Wade
Need Training or Consultancy for Broadcast Radio Software Products?
Get in touch
w: https://mattwadeonline.co.uk
e: training@mattwadeonline.co.uk

Hi Matt,

The hardware needed to run a Myriad files server depends on how many machines will connect to it, what other software you will want to run on it, and how much storage you need.

For a basic Myriad server running a small 3 machine network and not running any software but the Remote Edit Server, I would say 3GHz single processor machine would be more than adequate.  We would not recommend running additional software on the machine, as this could cause stuttering on the playout machines if the local applications are CPU or Disk access intensive.

Disk space is not the cost issue it used to be, so we would recommend at least 250GB of disk space with RAID1 or RAID5 to help protect from drive failure.

As for the OS, Windows 2003 Server Standard would be our recommendation.

Regards,

Andrew

Thanks Andy - do you have a particular brand of pc which you use as servers - do you just use a normal PC rather than a 'server' pc and it runs windows server?

The network will be 5 pc's. We use Acer machines in the studios - POWER FG machines - do you see a problem with us using one of these just with the correct OS running and at 3GHz?

Is there anything to avoid?

Would you also use the server as the internet gateway if you had a broabband connection to run around the myriad studio workstations?

Matt

Matt Wade
Need Training or Consultancy for Broadcast Radio Software Products?
Get in touch
w: https://mattwadeonline.co.uk
e: training@mattwadeonline.co.uk

any ideas on my last post.



ta

Matt

Matt Wade
Need Training or Consultancy for Broadcast Radio Software Products?
Get in touch
w: https://mattwadeonline.co.uk
e: training@mattwadeonline.co.uk

Hi Matt,

For most of our systems we build the server ourselves using off the shelf components.  Most of the hardware is similar to that of the workstations we build with the exception of the mainboard (which is a higher grade) and the Hard Drives, which are usually specifically RAID edition SATA drives in the servers.

We do not have a specific brand of pre built machines that we would recommend over another, but any major brand server should be capable of acting as a server for a small Myriad network.

I can't see a problem with the Acer machines, so long as they have enough expansion slots for all the cards you need to add to the system.  The spec I found on the web for the Power FG only had 256MB RAM so I would recommend upgrading to 512MB if that is the spec you have.

You can use the server as a gateway if you like as it should not cause a problem.  However, if you already have a modem/router and a small network, then you could just add all of the machines on to the router and let that act as the gateway.  Doing it this way would make it slightly easier to achieve things like remote control of the studio machines.  On the other hand it would make remote control of the studio machines easier.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Andrew

Hi,



Would there be any issues with running win XP Pro on a server machine, as we only have small network (3 pcs) and Win 2003 server is slightly outside our price range at the moment ?



Thanks,

Peter

Hi Peter,

You could do - in general the drivers for Windows XP are the same as for Windows Server 2003, so you shouldn't have any hardware problems.

It wouldn't give you any real benefits though as you would still be limited by XP's inherent design.

That said, for a small network you may get away with it

------------
Peter Jarrett, Technical Director
Broadcast Radio Ltd.

Bill Bailey: No win, no fee, no basis in reality. Just a room above a minicab office in Acton and a steady stream of greedy simpletons whose delusion is only matched by their clumsiness

Thanks Peter,



I will see if I can get win 2003 server on a charity licence

just to be on the safe side.



Regards

Peter