Ultimate BIM server machine

[Matthew Johnson]

Having missed the small print in the AC18 press releases I had not realised that our Windows Server 2008 SP2 (Small Business Server edition) is not able to run AC18 BIM Server. We now have to look at building a standalone BIM Server box (because I'm not going to upgrade the $35000 server just yet for our less than 30 users).

Graphisoft give some good hardware advice at http://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/technotes/setup/hardware-compatibility/recommended-hardware-for-gra...
Lots of CPU cores + lots of RAM + fast drives

What I'm curious about is what options are working in practice;

What operating system is everyone using?
Do you have an all-in-one server running email, file share, domain control AND BIM Server?
Is a standalone machine that just handles to BIM Server improved enough speed-wise to offset the extra overhead of backing up a file server and separate BIM Server?

[Matthew Johnson]

I'm now hearing discussion that Windows 7 and 8 (because they are designed as client machine OSs and not a server OS) have limitations in terms of numbers of concurrent users that can access files on them.

Does this limitation affect BIM Server of does the application get around this limitation on Windows 7 and 8?

Is anybody successfully running a Windows 7 or 8 BIM Server?

[Laszlo Nagy]

Here is another article on HelpCenter that might answer some of your questions:

http://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/technotes/next-generation-teamwork/bim-server-best-practices/

[justdhruv]

what can be a good configuration for just four users, in primarily residential type of work.

Would Intel NUC type of machine be good enough?