I’m going to start with a bit of history before getting to the main questions and what I’m planning. (Primary concern is SSD choice below.)
Our family business began in 2001 so we’ve been using QuickBooks since then. We’ve focused primarily on contracting services regarding commercial and industrial boiler needs. The past few years we’ve begun to grow and shift our business to another portion of this industry where we’re becoming more of a service and parts reseller instead. Primarily it’s hard to find people willing to work hard out in the field. Sales is just the most logical route to go.
So we had basically used QuickBooks Premier over the years, first we only had a single user setup, but we had more office hands over time. Which heck, back in 2009 we used a Dell Inspiron laptop to run and host QuickBooks. Terrible multi-user performance over wifi then. Then the computer got terribly slow so I got a Dell OptiPlex (Core2Duo) based machine to switch everything over while also using wired ethernet. (Not long after that switch, the harddrive in that laptop failed. The Optiplex was configured with a RAID 1 array so it felt safer.
Time goes on, we’re up to the current workstation being a custom built machine with the AMD FX-8320 8-core processor and a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, everything on gigabit at this point. Everything was mostly fine at first until we got more involved with using QuickBooks for even our Payroll needs.
However ever since we’ve upgraded QuickBooks to the 2016 and recent 2018 it’s been more of a nightmare for multi-user access (Firewall issues) and performance. Even the point where it’s just out right slower and even some issues with data.
Such as:
- Lost descriptions of a 1000 inventory items that were keyed in in bulk.
- A deposit made correctly with the original deposit detail print out proving it - being 70 cents off sometime later.
- Same as above, except dollar amount was right but the Payee name was “forgotten” a few hours later after the initial deposit detail report showed it correctly.
Which I’m faced with a dilemma overall. We need the 5-user license we have now, but I can’t say for sure where our issues truly stem from. Is it QuickBooks or have we reached the point where our hardware isn’t sufficient enough to correctly process the data across multiple levels? Or is something in the computer corrupting data?
This is where I’m taking the next step because we don’t have a proper server in our business, at all, let alone a dedicated managed switch. Sure we have a d-link gigabit switch in the closet connected to a nice Asus router but I think both the network and server environment could use some serious upgrades. After all, 5-user license, with normal usage of 3 to 4 users on at once wouldn’t be getting gigabit speeds anyway. Even if the network supports it since the machine used as a server only has a single gigabit line to it. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a part of the problem.
So cue the Dell R720XD. A networking buddy of mine initially recommended the Dell R320 along with a nice IBM Blade G8000R 48-port gigabit switch that includes 2 x SFP+ add-in. In fact I picked up the switch for a pretty good deal since I’ve been using used enterprise gear at home. Even as a small business the used market is still most ideal. With the switch connecting to the server at 10Gbps speeds this should help balance out multiple gigabit users connecting to the server.
The R320 was nice and all but I’ve begun to question the CPU requirements out of QuickBooks. I’ve read it’s only a single threaded application still, but I can’t really get the tech support at Intuit to really confirm. All their site said was 2.4GHz minimum. That’s about it… I’ve ran a complex report on the current machine hosting it and I’ve hit 10% to 11% overall CPU usage with the QuickBooks server application.
In theory I calculated that it’s possibly 12.5% to roughly be a single core out of all eight? I could be doing this wrong. Though the idea is to have a CPU equal or superior to the FX-8320 in single threaded applications. The R320 doesn’t seem to support anything really beyond 2.4 or 2.5GHz.
So I’ve settled on the R720XD (Which is on its way.) that, while unfortunately has a 1.8GHz CPU in it currently, that has all 12 x 3.5" HDD trays, 2 x 2.5" rear trays, and 64GB low-voltage DDR3 ECC memory. The motherboard supports dual CPUs, but I only need to start off with one. Which I’ve got an Intel Xeon E5-2643 V2 3.5GHz processor on its way for it. It seemed most ideal to go ahead and just get the 6 core chip now rather than the 4 core version, since they both have the same speed. Assuming I simply need to go ahead and get the fastest one I can get for it.
Now QuickBooks relies on a database for it’s file. It uses SQL Anywhere from what I’ve seen. I personally am still learning a lot in the field of enterprise gear, I really don’t know how critical ECC RAM may be when it comes to database needs. Especially database software that does cache the data in system memory. I want to assume it can be critical especially for rather intensive data needs.
Since our company must rely on QuickBooks for every aspect of day to day operation, I’m all for using a machine with ECC memory. I wouldn’t hesitate. Time and data are far to critical to cheap out on.
Which brings me to the big question, the storage configuration.
Should I run the H710P for a RAID 6 configuration? I’m starting off with 6 x 2TB HGST enterprise HDDs. I plan to keep two spares on hand.
Or should I just use an HBA controller compatible with ZFS and go the route of a ZFS based OS for the main storage?
The HDDs will be used for daily backups of our QuickBooks data and I plan to use it to keep all our files on. Random documents, perhaps backups of our workstations onto it.
Now since I plan to run ESXi, I’m wanting an NVMe SSD running in the server. I personally use a Kingston KC1000 480GB in my Dell R710 at home, I’ve been using it for my VM OS drives under ESXi at home. Even happy to have installed Windows Server 2016 Essentials on it in just three minutes.
This I feel is most critical, because I know an NVMe will blow the SATA SSD away that we use now for the QB Server. Though the key component I don’t know and can’t honestly figure out is how the thing reads and writes to the drive. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot of random reads and writes either. Though maybe someone can help considering it is a database related software of some kind.
So for the NVMe drive, I’m actually considering the Intel Optane 900P 280GB PCIe SSD. What catches my eye about it is the raw performance it offers across the board and its life span.
Would a database such as this benefit so much if I ran both the Windows Server 2016 OS on the drive along with the QuickBooks Server and it’s data file compared to other NVMe drives like my Kingston or a Samsung NVMe?
The SSD config is what I’m needing to figure out the most right now, I want to cover all grounds in ensuring I have a reliable system that is in full control of our financials.
I know QuickBooks sucks but there’s not much alternatives, and before anyone suggests it we are not interested in QuickBooks online at all. I see that suggestion way too many times on Intuit’s forums.
I’m the type of person who wants full control of my data, not having to worry about a cloud service that may or may not be there in the future. I just know it’s finally time to really focus on moving forward with technology better suited to our business needs.
With that said I have full intention to run Windows Server 2016 Essentials since the only way we can use linux to host the QuickBooks server is if we got QuickBooks Enterprise. Which we may have to use later on, but as of now we don’t need to.
Thank you in advance for any inputs or suggestions. I’m looking forward to this project because it really gives me a chance to continue to learn more in this field. It’s certainly inspirational watching the videos by @wendell in regards to the enterprise gear. Thinking ahead on what would allow for future expansion as the business grows further and just designing everything.
I’m definitely treating it as if it were one big system coming together between the server and the workstations. 
