Remote office networking suggestions...

[TheCardMan]

I need some suggestions on the best way to connect 2 or 3 satellite offices. Here is the layout:

Service Company

Main Office: 6 Users (2 bosses, bookkeeper, admin, sales, clerk)

Remote Office 1: 1 User (plus outside staff with no need for connection)

Remote Office 2: 1 User (plus outside staff with no need for connection)

Remote Office 3: 2/3 Users (plus outside staff with no need for connection)

Currently each site has an Internet DSL Connection.

Main Office runs Quick Books Enterprise (On users desktop), needs to have remote office access schedules/files and be able to make updates to it. A service orientated application (http://www.insightdirect.com/industries/window_cleaners_software.html) is being evaluated which would tie in with Quick Books and provide contact management, estimating, scheduling, and work orders. These remote offices need to access this information.

Main office has a very basic network which allows them to share the Internet Connection. 1 PC runs the QuickBooks program. I was thinking of putting a server in to run QuickBooks and the new application. Email is provided by the DSL connection carrier and Outlook is used as the PC Client. All PC's are running Win XP SP2. Blackberries are also used to receive emails for the management team.

I am looking for suggestions as to best set them up for communication between offices sharing files and applications and streamlining their environment.

[Fubarian]

cheap : TS into "spare" XP pcs and run the app from there

benefits : cheaper, "desktop like" experience, low bandwidth, encryption
drawbacks : 1 user per terminal, multiple ports opened on firewall

not so cheap : 2003 server with ... 5-10 TS/serverCAL licenses (~100/~50 each) -- cost est ~2000-3500
benefits : multiple users on one server, redundancy, provides "like desktop" experience, 1 port open on firewall, low bandwidth, encryption
drawbacks : ain't cheap.

[TheCardMan]

Thanks

I am most likley going to use Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, Does this include any Terminal Service Licenses? Why are TS licenses so expensive? What should I expect to pay for the Small Business Server software which includes 5 Cal's and an additional 3 or 4 Cal's?

[Fubarian]

Business Server is a great fit for your environment -- just make sure you buy a beefy server to run it because it will be very taxing. You're not just running Active Directory, but exchange, hosting files, DNS, (probably) dhcp, IIS, etc on this monster, so plan accordingly. My recommendation -- get a dual core server with a 2 chip capacity (only get 1 chip to start, 3ghz?), and 8gb ram capacity (2-4 to start), and probably a pair of raid1 160g SATA drives to start (scsi if you can afford it, raid5 and DEFINATELY get a 3 year warranty with the server). Should hold you over for a couple years. Don't forget backups (an external hard drive might do the trick for a small environment along with shadow copy).

As for the people to connect in, plan on getting a supplement server for this. On top of having things like office and other programs you run, running along with your server gets kind of scary. The last thing you want is Betty from "forwards everything" land to bomb your server to kingdom come because "that email" was "cute" or the dancing pigs was just too irresistible. (see : "pink slip virus" commercial ...CONGRADULATIONS!!!) Bottom line : Protect that bad boy as if it was your lifeblood ...because it is :) I would highly suggest a separate server for a TS operation for that simple reason.

Anyway, that aside and to answer your question, the TS cals are expensive, its like having a whole, free desktop license because that’s as close to a desktop experience as you can get ...without the desktop (see : thinclients). For the setup I'm running now, I planned on 25% more than I should "ever see" on my server. Why? If a user wanted to log in with their thin client and a laptop so they could copy info back and forth, I don't see a problem with that. So technically, one user could use ...3 cals at one time max. Is this super realistic? no, but could it happen from time to time? yes. So I planned for it. I ended up with 75 cals and I use about 50-60 of them in a day. I use device cals instead of user cals but you may want to consider user instead. It's your call. (you'll probably want user cals)

This is a lot of info I know, but for what you're doing, you are on the right track. If you have any further questions, do not hesistate. TS, Security, Servers and 2k3 are my friends :)

[Fubarian]

and no, small business server does not come with TS cals. You can log in as many as 3 (1 console, 2 remotes) at the same time, but its "administration mode" not "application mode" (effectively, that means nothing other than "you can only have 2 remotes")

[TheCardMan]

Thanks Furbarian, I will take this all into consideration. Very good information and I thank you for sharing!! I was looking at the Dell SC1420, dual core/dual processor box with 2 80GB Sata and 1GB Ram. May reconsider now and up it a little. We are also now talking about replacing some desktops with New, so I may be able to take an existing desktop and use it for the applications. I am assuming I will need just Server 2003 on that or could I have any OS running the applications?

Regards,

Joe

[Fubarian]

You want 2k3, standard, with ....aahhhh 10 user TS cals. In my experience, our users use about
.0000001% cpu (so I made that up, but you get the point -- how fast do you want the OS to load? :))
about 30mb per profile (which is restricted via group policy and its roaming so if I'd replace the TS box and sneak in another one, they don't know it, my documents is folder redirected to a network share...which is backed up, yay)
use ABOUT 100mb ram each. (office 2k2 uses about 30-40, word 10-30, IE 10-20, various junk 10)

Assume 256 for the OS and other services. My guess you could squeek by with 1GB -- but the second it uses it all ...it goes to virtual ram and SLLLOOOWWSSS DOOOWWWWNNNNN (see : angry user phone calls). I'd also guess not everyone would be on it at the same time using -everything-, just check on it from time to time using perfmon and you'll be fine :)

next post I'll give you some pretty picture examples of TS in a live environment so you can guess/check what your people will use/need.

[Fubarian]

35 users active at the time of this "picture" :)

the network graph was taken with me looking at it, so in theory it would be a touch lower.

active users is :gasp!: active users
mem-cpu is actually just the cpu graph
network is the network usage
processes just shows you some mem use of office and msaccess
mem is mem usage