Well, first I will give a few details on the other. It used to be that I had a pretty fast server with two VMs. One was the domain controller, Active Directory, DNS and DHCP server and the other what is known as RDS (remote desktop service) (the old Terminal Services. Everyone would remote RDP into the RDS server and the apps would run from there. Think of RDPing into your computer at work. Only keystrokes and mouse clicks but the apps all ran on your computer. With RDS one app is used by all the users in sessions. The benefits are installing only one app like one AC, but you weren't taking advantage of running the app from your own more powerful computer. The VMs were also on regular spindle hard drives and not on SSDs. There is debate on that, but I find it slower. Anyway, the negatives outweigh the benefits. Remote Desktop Services is meant for more of a company with 1,000 users and the IT can simply manage the one RDS server. It was driving me crazy so I changed. Took a lot of time and money but I made the switch and the difference is amazing.
I got all Dell clients with 16 GBs of RAM, N2RVM M.2 NVMe 12 Gbps SSDs (cards) in a with the top-of-the-line Intel i9s. Started wit Win11 Pro, which I find faster than 10 Pro anyway.
For the server:
2 times 512 GB SAS SSDs @ 6 Gbps in a RAID 1 for the OS which is Windows Server 2019 Standard Hyper-V
2 times 1TB SAS SSDs @ 6 Gbps in a RAID 1 for the VMs.
1 VM with the DC, DNS, AD and DHCP (Windows Server 2019 Standard)
1 VM with all of the Apps and databases including SQL Server for AC. (Windows Server 2019 Standard)
96 GBs of DDR4 Buffered RAM
2 times Xeon CUP E5 2560 2.1 Ghz (older server -- probably the weakest link in the server)
Of course all Cat6 cables using a 26 port LinkSys PoE Smart Switch for the computers and printers
1 Eight port Cisco PoE Smart Switch for the VoIP phones and wireless via Ubiquiti
pFsense with the latest OS for the firewall/router
Bitdefender Antivirus/Malware/Ransomware for the VMs and Windows Defender for the Hyper-V and the clients
Veeam Backup and Replication for backup of the VMs (although sorry - sorry JamesNT - considering switching to Altara).
2 local backups (one USB air gapped) and one to another server, one online nightly and one to take home weekly.
FINALLY!! One Microsoft Certified IT specialist with 30 years of experience in networking to set it all up CORRECTLY
The remote for users is RDP via VPN with two factor authentication to satisfy HIPAA.
I got the Dells on sale, the Dell Server was already here and was upgraded to the 96 of RAM, the OS was already on 512 GB SSDs, just swapped out the data drive to SSD so the cost wasn't that great.
The key thing is the IT specialist who will let an error message slide by for a day but has to stamp it out by the following day.
It sounds like a lot but I had a lot of it and the Dells were the most expensive and the IT support available 25/7 via phone/text/email.
The setup is smoking fast and the program just hums along. If the prescription writer wasn't written the way it was and SQL didn't bring over all of the inactive medications for each patient), you wouldn't know it was AC.
Of course, it helps to have a membership with Experts-Exchange and to make the necessary registry hacks to nearly make Windows 11 appear and run like Windows 10.
Last edited by Bert; 03/22/2022 1:22 PM.
