Newbie setting up Windows 2003 Servers

axle_bolt · 09-18-2007, 07:39 AM

Hi guys,
I'm looking for advice on a completely new set up. We will have a piece of office management software that will used remotely on a Windows Server. At the moment there will be 10 users spread over 2 offices, though the company wants to expand to maybe 10 offices over the next year so a possible 50 users.
The sw company that sells the sw package says the best set up would be to have a server running the application and a 2nd server running terminal services. They have been very reticent in supplying any other details about the package until its actually bought.
The servers I am looking at getting will both have Windows server 2003 with 5 CALs each, Xeon 2GHz quad core with 4Gb ram and 300Gb HDs.
Do you think I need 2 servers? With the 5 CALs on each server do I need to have terminal services running at all can I not just use the CALs?
This is the first time I have worked with window servers, terminal services and the concept of having a license for each user to connect to a server so at the moment I'm a bit overwhelmed
I'm doing this as a favour and as a way to gain experience, I generally work with unix/linux based servers.
Cheers
AB

**Cellus** · 09-18-2007, 01:26 PM

You will be setting up a Terminal Services Licensing server, which will be handling the CALs in regards to TS. MS has a short article about 2k3 TS CALs which you should read here.

You will need to have Terminal Services if you are to have remote connections off the server. As recommended by the software company, one server should be responsible for TS. This is to separate any problems that may come up if, for example, the apps server goes down because of software problems, at least users can still remotely connect to the network because the TS server is still up. The same also works vice-versa because if the TS server goes down, at least people on the local network still have access to the apps provided on the apps server. In otherwords, you are separating a single source of failure.

Some like to use virtual servers to separate particular services. While this does not necessarily alleviate hardware problems (unless using clustering or some other "distributed" system like VMware Infrastructure), if the logical server (ie. software) goes down, at least the other services are not affected.

09-18-2007, 07:39 AM	#1 (permalink)
axle_bolt Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 1 OS: XP/Vista	Newbie setting up Windows 2003 Servers Hi guys, I'm looking for advice on a completely new set up. We will have a piece of office management software that will used remotely on a Windows Server. At the moment there will be 10 users spread over 2 offices, though the company wants to expand to maybe 10 offices over the next year so a possible 50 users. The sw company that sells the sw package says the best set up would be to have a server running the application and a 2nd server running terminal services. They have been very reticent in supplying any other details about the package until its actually bought. The servers I am looking at getting will both have Windows server 2003 with 5 CALs each, Xeon 2GHz quad core with 4Gb ram and 300Gb HDs. Do you think I need 2 servers? With the 5 CALs on each server do I need to have terminal services running at all can I not just use the CALs? This is the first time I have worked with window servers, terminal services and the concept of having a license for each user to connect to a server so at the moment I'm a bit overwhelmed I'm doing this as a favour and as a way to gain experience, I generally work with unix/linux based servers. Cheers AB

09-18-2007, 01:26 PM	#2 (permalink)
Cellus Moderator Networking Team Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Canada Posts: 2,664 OS: Windows Vista Business SP1, Windows XP Professional SP3 My System	Re: Newbie setting up Windows 2003 Servers You will be setting up a Terminal Services Licensing server, which will be handling the CALs in regards to TS. MS has a short article about 2k3 TS CALs which you should read here. You will need to have Terminal Services if you are to have remote connections off the server. As recommended by the software company, one server should be responsible for TS. This is to separate any problems that may come up if, for example, the apps server goes down because of software problems, at least users can still remotely connect to the network because the TS server is still up. The same also works vice-versa because if the TS server goes down, at least people on the local network still have access to the apps provided on the apps server. In otherwords, you are separating a single source of failure. Some like to use virtual servers to separate particular services. While this does not necessarily alleviate hardware problems (unless using clustering or some other "distributed" system like VMware Infrastructure), if the logical server (ie. software) goes down, at least the other services are not affected. __________________ TSF Networking Team Virus/Trojan/Spyware Removal Help Donate!