contemplating SBS for a small high school

greetings,

would SBS (2K or 2K3) be a decent choice small high school
with 40 total computers, 20 of which are a in a student lab?

the available h/w is an older dual processor Dell
(P3/700MhZ processors) with 256MB RAM and 20GB (RAID) disk.

AD, e-mail, internet content filtering, file
sharing/printing and some non-heavy DB usage are the
"killer" apps for them.

is the h/w config enough?

thx,

boB

Steve
Thu Sep 18 08:14:13 CDT 2003

boB Rudis wrote:

> greetings,
>
> would SBS (2K or 2K3) be a decent choice small high school
> with 40 total computers, 20 of which are a in a student lab?
>
> the available h/w is an older dual processor Dell
> (P3/700MhZ processors) with 256MB RAM and 20GB (RAID) disk.
>
> AD, e-mail, internet content filtering, file
> sharing/printing and some non-heavy DB usage are the
> "killer" apps for them.
>
> is the h/w config enough?
>
> thx,
>
> boB

It would really need more RAM, but otherwise is probably fine. What
exactly would the hard drive RAID array consist of?

SBS would certainly give you everything you say you want to run, and 40
workstations is within its' limits.

--
Steve Foster [SBS MVP]
---------------------------------------
MVPs do not work for Microsoft. Please reply only to the newsgroups.

Marina
Thu Sep 18 08:10:47 CDT 2003

256 mb RAM is not very much. Get at least another 256.

Marina

"boB Rudis" <bob@rudis.net> schreef in bericht
news:06a801c37de4$a5222640$a001280a@phx.gbl...
> greetings,
>
> would SBS (2K or 2K3) be a decent choice small high school
> with 40 total computers, 20 of which are a in a student lab?
>
> the available h/w is an older dual processor Dell
> (P3/700MhZ processors) with 256MB RAM and 20GB (RAID) disk.
>
> AD, e-mail, internet content filtering, file
> sharing/printing and some non-heavy DB usage are the
> "killer" apps for them.
>
> is the h/w config enough?
>
> thx,
>
> boB

David
Thu Sep 18 08:23:01 CDT 2003

Hi Bob:

The answer is absolutely not!

We manage several schools, two of which are High schools. The best hackers
in the world come from these schools. What we have found that works best are
two distinct, separate domains--one for the faculty and staff, one for the
students. A one-way trust from the staff domain to the students domain, both
with group policies and OUs configured. Anything less, and you're asking for
trouble.

Also, if you're planning to provide Internet access and/or email, you have
to be very careful of child protection laws. You have an ethical and legal
responsibility to address and ensure these laws are enforced from a
technological standpoint.

Finally, be sure you have Errors and Omissions Insurance; especially if the
school is public.

--
David M. Streb, MCSE
Microsoft Certified Partner
Specializing in Exchange
and FrontPage Hosting
http://www.exiis.net
Dave at exiis dot net
"boB Rudis" <bob@rudis.net> wrote in message
news:06a801c37de4$a5222640$a001280a@phx.gbl...
> greetings,
>
> would SBS (2K or 2K3) be a decent choice small high school
> with 40 total computers, 20 of which are a in a student lab?
>
> the available h/w is an older dual processor Dell
> (P3/700MhZ processors) with 256MB RAM and 20GB (RAID) disk.
>
> AD, e-mail, internet content filtering, file
> sharing/printing and some non-heavy DB usage are the
> "killer" apps for them.
>
> is the h/w config enough?
>
> thx,
>
> boB

Javier
Thu Sep 18 11:18:02 CDT 2003

> I am probably incorrect, BUT I thought that SBS does not
> support interdomain trusts and therefore your suggestion
> cannot be implemented.

Well, to be fair he started by saying "The answer is absolutely not!"... one
could interpret that as "Do not use SBS in this situation".

However, there are other options available (to use with SBS)... Thinking out
loud-> if only the staff/faculty need Exchange/SQL the students could be
given access to the internet using ISA... without being part of the domain.
However, in this situations you really need strong password policies and
changing it frequently.

My $0.02,

--
-Javier

<< SBS ROCKS !!! >>

David
Thu Sep 18 16:58:05 CDT 2003

Hi Guys:

Correct about *NO* to SBS in a high school environment, and yes to multiple
2000/3 boxes with separate, one-way trust domains. Correct in that you
cannot two SBS domains with a trust.

Personally, no matter how you try to configure this setup, I believe you're
asking for more problems than it's worth. Yes, you could use a SecureNat
configuration with ISA, definitely add virus protection, more RAM, etc. But
this is not a good environment for SBS based on past experience.

Bob, you're welcomed to drop me a line--no need to re-create the wheel. I
could at least share what we've been through so you can make a more informed
decision.

--
David M. Streb, MCSE
Microsoft Certified Partner
Specializing in Exchange
and FrontPage Hosting
http://www.exiis.net
Dave at exiis dot net
"Javier Gomez" <javier_gomez@remove.this.bit.engineer.com> wrote in message
news:ufAEvBgfDHA.2348@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> > I am probably incorrect, BUT I thought that SBS does not
> > support interdomain trusts and therefore your suggestion
> > cannot be implemented.
>
> Well, to be fair he started by saying "The answer is absolutely not!"...
one
> could interpret that as "Do not use SBS in this situation".
>
> However, there are other options available (to use with SBS)... Thinking
out
> loud-> if only the staff/faculty need Exchange/SQL the students could be
> given access to the internet using ISA... without being part of the
domain.
> However, in this situations you really need strong password policies and
> changing it frequently.
>
> My $0.02,
>
> --
> -Javier
>
> << SBS ROCKS !!! >>
>
>