Ideas for network
Ideas for network
Im going to start an office with 3 Ops. I will have desktops in each one, a desktops at the front desk and a laptop in my office. I will use OD and Owandy sensors. Would I be OK with a "peer-to-peer" and designate one of the stations a server with added memory and space OR should I get an actual server? Thanks!
Re: Ideas for network
with only 3 ops i don't think you really need a server however you would need a workstation and Raid 1 Sata harddrive is fine with OD.
the workstation to act as server you would need 4gig mem, good video card, two 500gig (to 1t) Seagate Sata harddrive to uphook as Raid 1. Partition into two drive OS and Data. if you want more fancy then put OS on different set of hard drives. I recommend Raid 1 for Sata (mirror harddrive) since they are cheap.
the workstation to act as server you would need 4gig mem, good video card, two 500gig (to 1t) Seagate Sata harddrive to uphook as Raid 1. Partition into two drive OS and Data. if you want more fancy then put OS on different set of hard drives. I recommend Raid 1 for Sata (mirror harddrive) since they are cheap.
Re: Ideas for network
thanks for you reply. the "server" in the peer to peer i was thinking to have a large hard drive and hook up an external drive for nightly back up. i dont know what RAID is or what it does...can you elaborate? thanks!
Re: Ideas for network
What you're thinking is fine. RAID is when you have a computer that has two or more drives where everything that goes into one drive gets automatically copied to the other, so if your C: drive fails, you just use the other drive.
Jorge Bonilla DMD
Open Dental user since May 2005
Open Dental user since May 2005
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jordansparks
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Re: Ideas for network
You don't need RAID. Yes, one workstation could easily be the "server" in a peer-to-peer.
Jordan Sparks, DMD
http://www.opendental.com
http://www.opendental.com
Re: Ideas for network
thanks all. as for back ups, should i be ok with hooking up an external hard drive for nightly back ups?
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Rickliftig
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Re: Ideas for network
IMHO, you should have at least two backup techniques. External hard Drive for one is fine, but an off-site backup using a home computer or service like Carbonite is necessary too.
Think of it this way - if the worst happened, how would you recover?
ie) if the office burns down; if there is a power surge and everything is fried; if the computer is stolen, etc, etc.
So I have a server at the office that has a RAID array (for reliabilty in that unit) and it backs up to one other computer in the office 3 times a day. Then it backs up to the house each night at 8:00 and sends me an e-mail message using Logmein if its is sucessful. Once a week I back up to a usb key, carry that home and then install it on a spare server at the house. That is the most important step because it insures that my backup worked.
If there is ever a proble with the office computer, I will bring in the spare server. Actually, the first thing I wiil do is call Open Dental, cry. "Help!" and ask, "what do I do next?"
Yes, it is complex! And it leaves a lot of places that you have to be careful about security! Lock those computers down and make sure no one can access the data. I understand why most docs hire someone to do this for them!
Most of the info and strategies I gleaned from the Computer Hardware and Maintenance Message forums on Dental Town. There is a lot of good archived info ther and a lot of good advice also. if you ask your question on those forums you will get many other good replies.
Think of it this way - if the worst happened, how would you recover?
ie) if the office burns down; if there is a power surge and everything is fried; if the computer is stolen, etc, etc.
So I have a server at the office that has a RAID array (for reliabilty in that unit) and it backs up to one other computer in the office 3 times a day. Then it backs up to the house each night at 8:00 and sends me an e-mail message using Logmein if its is sucessful. Once a week I back up to a usb key, carry that home and then install it on a spare server at the house. That is the most important step because it insures that my backup worked.
If there is ever a proble with the office computer, I will bring in the spare server. Actually, the first thing I wiil do is call Open Dental, cry. "Help!" and ask, "what do I do next?"
Yes, it is complex! And it leaves a lot of places that you have to be careful about security! Lock those computers down and make sure no one can access the data. I understand why most docs hire someone to do this for them!
Most of the info and strategies I gleaned from the Computer Hardware and Maintenance Message forums on Dental Town. There is a lot of good archived info ther and a lot of good advice also. if you ask your question on those forums you will get many other good replies.
Another Happy Open Dental User!
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
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Rickliftig
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- Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:50 pm
- Location: West Hartford, CT
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Re: Ideas for network
Reply to my reply...
I should add that the servers (Dell SC1420) were purchased on EBay - lightly used for less than $500 each and the workstations were also on Ebay for about $200 (HP DC5100 SFF). The monitors were new from Office Depot and Staples. The wiring was done professionally and cost under $2000. The most expensive items that I purchased were monitor/keyboard arms - thse buggers were $600 each. BUT my point is that there are a lot of ways to economize on a system and still have reliability.
I should add that the servers (Dell SC1420) were purchased on EBay - lightly used for less than $500 each and the workstations were also on Ebay for about $200 (HP DC5100 SFF). The monitors were new from Office Depot and Staples. The wiring was done professionally and cost under $2000. The most expensive items that I purchased were monitor/keyboard arms - thse buggers were $600 each. BUT my point is that there are a lot of ways to economize on a system and still have reliability.
Another Happy Open Dental User!
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
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Rickliftig
- Posts: 764
- Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:50 pm
- Location: West Hartford, CT
- Contact:
Re: Ideas for network
reply to my reply to my reply: <G>
When I woke up this am I realized that I had ranted a little bit too much in the previous posts. Sorry!
To simplify - look up "daisy chain backup" in the help section of Open Dental and make sure that you have a regular offsite backup - That's a good place to start. Then, identify vulnerabilities in your data security and think of how you would handle scenarios where key components failed, or were lost, and work from there.
After all, your whole practice will be on these hard drives and the information is worth far more than their weight in gold.
When I woke up this am I realized that I had ranted a little bit too much in the previous posts. Sorry!
To simplify - look up "daisy chain backup" in the help section of Open Dental and make sure that you have a regular offsite backup - That's a good place to start. Then, identify vulnerabilities in your data security and think of how you would handle scenarios where key components failed, or were lost, and work from there.
After all, your whole practice will be on these hard drives and the information is worth far more than their weight in gold.
Another Happy Open Dental User!
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
Rick Liftig, DMD FAGD
University of CT 1979
West Hartford, CT 06110
srick@snet.net
Re: Ideas for network
to explain about Raid 1
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1455
I have been using this cheap pci card for 2 years without any hiccup.
what it does is that you can hook up 2 identical harddrive mirror each other if one fail the other will take over and keep running.
As for backup here is my backup.
Create monthly backup on an external harddrive for the 12 months. This harddrive I only bring in once a month just in case someone delete something and we need old data.
Two usb harddrives for daily backup swap everyday create backup for 2 weeks.
Mysql backup every two hours this just backup the database only and not the image directories. FTP schedule to load these up on my webhosting provider and only keep for 1 month then overwrite.
I also have server fail over but we are not getting into this are we. Let me explain quickly, I am using Double-Take software for mirror and fail over. What this does is that if the main server can't be ping by the fail over server it will email me so that I can take action. Then I can log in and see if the main server is still on or not. If not then I can do a fail-over it will take 3 min to fail-over. The fail-over will copy ips,share folder, turn on mysql service etc and make this the main server nobody will notice anything. After that I can fix the main server and do a fail back this will mirror all the data to the main server release the ip etc.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1455
I have been using this cheap pci card for 2 years without any hiccup.
what it does is that you can hook up 2 identical harddrive mirror each other if one fail the other will take over and keep running.
As for backup here is my backup.
Create monthly backup on an external harddrive for the 12 months. This harddrive I only bring in once a month just in case someone delete something and we need old data.
Two usb harddrives for daily backup swap everyday create backup for 2 weeks.
Mysql backup every two hours this just backup the database only and not the image directories. FTP schedule to load these up on my webhosting provider and only keep for 1 month then overwrite.
I also have server fail over but we are not getting into this are we. Let me explain quickly, I am using Double-Take software for mirror and fail over. What this does is that if the main server can't be ping by the fail over server it will email me so that I can take action. Then I can log in and see if the main server is still on or not. If not then I can do a fail-over it will take 3 min to fail-over. The fail-over will copy ips,share folder, turn on mysql service etc and make this the main server nobody will notice anything. After that I can fix the main server and do a fail back this will mirror all the data to the main server release the ip etc.