Hi, I am new to windows server and never really used it ever before. I have an old machine and I've been asked to do or to deploy windows server and then a file server and share and a backup server. The machine is really old which is DELL 390 Workstation. So is there any light version of windows server to do such a job in old machine? For regular windows when we want a light and reliable copy we use LTSC IoT Enterprise for windows 10. But for server what options do we have? It will serve about 20 users. The main reason for that deployment request is the client who asked me been using Google Drive for several years to store and share their work files that being accessed from all 20 users, but recently they got many duplicate and missing files. So the client asked me to do the server on an old machine he have. Files are Microsoft Office or PDF files .....etc. So what would be best option for such task to do it? Note: he doesn't want to go out for cloud again at all. But may want to access files outside office work. So I googled and found that the solutions for that is to have windows server to have later on file server and share server and backup server. So I thought if there is a light version of any server. I found versions started from 2008 and there are a R2 of some versions. So please may you suggest me best options for that deployment request. Also note that I will start to learn it using YouTube but do not have roadmap yet because I don't know what to search for. Sorry if it makes no sense or seem silly but this is the client asked situation.
On server it is not about light (actually it is never about light on any windows OS) it is about servicing and support.
Hum.... All computers will be on windows 10. So does using an old version of windows server like 2008 is ok for such situation? All I need is the file share and backup. Please excuse my ignorance. Thanks a lot for your valuable time helping me.
I am sorry for bothering you but it is really that I do not know where to start, and I hope may someone have time to guide me.
Rough overview. Server 2003 is roughly from the XP era. Support expired. Server 2008 SP2 uses Vista 6.0 kernel. ESU Support ends 2026. Server 2008 R2 is Windows 7 equivalent (6.1). ESU also due to end in 2026. Server 2012 - Windows 8.0. Server 2012 R2 - Windows 8.1. Server 2016 - Windows 10 RS1 (1607 / 14393). Server 2019 - Windows 10 RS5 (1809 / 17763). Server 2022 - Windows 10 21H2 (19044). Server 2025 - Windows 11 24H2 (26100). As Servers are usually installed for long undisturbed runtime and are very rarely upgraded, use the highest Server supported on your hardware to have a few years without having to bother about end of support. 2025 for modern hardware, 2022 for Windows 10 era hardware, 2019 or 2016 only for hardware not supporting the former.
Thanks a lot, i think i may use 2012 or 2016, right? what is the minimum machine I may use to deploy server 2012 or 2016? given that all other computer clients will use windows 10 ltsc iot and will use the server for only file share and back up for that files, but no exchange or any other things. the current suggested machine is dell precision workstation 390. I do not know if it suitable or not.
Why so low? Even Server 2019 and 2022 still support a broad hardware range. Only 2025 has the "SSE4.2" hard requirement. If the clients use Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2021, try Server 2022 first.
It's the bare minimum required to install it. The actual requirements are based on what you do with it. Having 8 or 16 GB RAM surely helps a lot. Also fast storage, to avoid bottlenecks when streaming videos. A decent CPU and/or GPU if you use hardware decoding on a media server (although this is usually done on the clients, these days). Server also has SKUs, the two main ones are Server Standard and Server Datacenter, the latter not being relevant regular environments outside of data centers. A few others exist but deal mostly with minimal role changes and licensing. And then, you'll have the choice between installing without GUI (ServerCore) or with GUI (Server with Desktop Environment). The Core Editions are lighter but have to be configured over command line and Powershell, mostly. It's basically the question if you need Windows at all, as a Linux environment can provide a storage Server as well.
@jineso As per your client's requirement, they just need a basic network attached storage. Since you guys are planning to repurpose an old piece of hardware, a Linux based NAS/file server solution would be way less time consuming to set up and maintain compared to a full-blown Windows Server offering, IMHO. And no, OMV is powered by Debian doesn't mean it's incompatible with a Windows environment. In fact, you can use it in conjunction with every major OS, like your Android phone, or the client's fancy new MacBook as well.
I highly Suggest Windows Server 2022 STD, at least 8GB ram minimum, Recommended 16GB. You will need 240GB SSD for Windows Server OS and Applications needs.. and 2 paired of 1TB for Mirror in case one of these drive died or crash and easy to replace same size.. I own 3 Windows Server 2022 all are licensed (paid).. and 3 TrueNAS storage.. Most of all my Windows Server 2022 are more than 16GB to 32GB and rest of my TrueNAS is 64GB ECC ram... (I have total 40TB of data!!) for you as starter Suggest use to use DELL 390 Workstation and check see if you at least 8GB ram is fine for 3 hard - drives. 1 - 240GB SSD, 2 - 1TB Hard drive @7200 RPM.. Not to worry about graphic card like 1GB Video card PCI-E and that about it.. Load drivers (Chipset, LAN driver, other Dell Driver to meet and controller driver ACHI.) ATGPUD2003
exactly I try to make windows server 2022 more like w10 I made an ISO if admins allow it I can post it for anyone who wants to test it