I'm the IT director at a small private school with around 90 students, and we have about 100 Windows devices (Surface Laptop Go & Lenovo Yoga) connected to a local Active Directory server using roaming profiles. Teachers log in through Azure Cloud, so they don't use the local server. The previous server was a Lenovo ST550 ThinkStation with a Xeon Silver CPU purchased in 2019, but it has died. Thankfully, my head of school is willing to spend up to $7000 on a new server. Previously, login times were slow, especially with many students logged in at once, likely because I set up the AD server on a HyperV VM with limited RAM instead of utilizing the main machine. Now that I'm looking at a new server, I'm considering the Lenovo Thinkstation P620 with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5965WX and 64 GB of RAM. I would like at least 2TB of storage as well. I have two main questions: What server do you recommend within my budget, and will increasing the RAM help speed up login times for roaming profiles? Is there anything else I should consider for hardware improvements?
5 Answers
With your budget, you'd be better off not going for the P620. Instead, look at rackmount or tower servers from Dell EMC PowerEdge or HPE ProLiant. These options are specifically built to handle more reliable performance for the role you need and will likely enhance your students' login times significantly without compromising on important server features.
Slow logins typically stem from either weak WiFi connections or too many Group Policy Objects (GPOs). Roaming profiles can be particularly inefficient for physical machines. If your setup allows, think about limiting folder redirection instead or exploring options for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) which would require a faster connection. It's just a better fit for handling such loads.
I recommend sticking to enterprise-grade hardware with a warranty instead of prosumer models. The Dell R7615 provides an excellent balance between price and performance. Roaming profiles tend to rely more on storage and network load than sheer memory. If you're trying to save costs, consider getting a bare server and adding drives and memory yourself. Look for enterprise-tier SSDs like Samsung PM883s for storage — they’re great for this kind of setup!
You might want to consider if there’s anything other than AD running on your current server. If it’s mainly just file storage, maybe it's time to transition everything to Entra ID for better management. Also, be cautious about relying on roaming profiles as they might not be the best fit for your physical devices — switching to local profiles with limited folder synchronization could streamline the process.
Virtualizing your Domain Controller isn't the core issue; having just one DC could lead to bottlenecks. Generally, it's wise to have more than one DC to avoid a single point of failure. Plus, ensure your student connections are hard-wired to gigabit speeds to minimize delays, as relying on potentially overloaded wireless could be slowing down log-ins significantly.
Related Questions
Lenovo Thinkpad Stuck In Update Loop Install FilterDriverU2_Reload