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Networking: A Beginner's Guide
a particular server, you'll need fast responses to these types of problems. If you built a
server yourself by buying a motherboard, a disk controller, a video card, and so forth,
you're not going to get effective support, either for the hardware or for any compatibility
problems that crop up with the software. For both Novell and Microsoft NOSs, make
sure that each part of the server--as well as the entire system collectively--is certified by
Novell or Microsoft for its respective NOS.
For Microsoft operating systems, go to the following URL to look at Microsoft's
Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) and make certain that the hardware you like is
certified:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/hcl/default.mspx
When selecting servers, you often select a manufacturer first and then select the
actual model you need. This is because, everything being equal, you're slightly better off
if all your servers are from the same maker. Managing servers from one manufacturer is
much easier than managing servers from many manufacturers. You can do a better job
of stocking spare parts that might fit into all of your servers, and you can build a better
relationship with the manufacturer or a particular dealer, which might hold additional
benefits. For example, Dell lets companies certify their in-house technicians on Dell
hardware (including servers), and then allows them order parts more directly, bypassing
the first level of support (the first support people's job being mainly to intercept the easy
questions that beginners ask), and also provides other benefits.
Be conservative in selecting servers and server brands. You should stick with the
top names in the industry for many reasons, including these:
They have much more established service organizations and practices
They are likely to offer higher-quality support
Because so many other networks are based on their equipment, their technical
support databases probably already contain any problems you may encounter,
and they probably have fixes available
The NOS vendor is also more likely to have data on any problems concerning
one of the top servers
They have much better in-house engineering, and their servers are likely to
perform better and to be more reliable
These are just the biggest reasons. You might remember a time when the mantra in
management information systems (MIS) departments was, "Nobody ever got fired for
buying IBM." A similar type of mindset makes sense when buying servers, not only
because the purchase is more defensible, but because buying from major manufacturers
actually makes better business sense, for the reasons cited in the preceding list.
Remember these general differences when you select a server for either NetWare
or Windows networks: First, while any server is RAM-hungry, Windows servers work
better with more RAM than an equivalent NetWare server. If everything else is equal,
plan on giving a Windows server 50 to 100 percent more RAM than a NetWare server.