Server OS Suitability

[nmX.Memnoch]

Actually it was win2k that introduced AD.

But still, even then, win2k pro & winXP pro can only JOIN a domain, only server can HOST it, or run as Primary/Secondary/Backup Domain Controller.

Say again???? - Active Directory where introducte in 'Windows NT' (i just dont realy know, what version probebly NT-4.0 (or even as early as 3.5)

Wrong. Windows NT 4.0 had a simple Windows NT domain model that was introduced in Windows NT 3.1 (which didn't stick around long because 3.5 was released and then 3.51 quickly after that).

Active Directory wasn't introduced until Windows 2000.

XP has a 10 concurrent connections limit, but since the application itself has a limit of eight then you won't have to worry about that. If you need more than 10, you'll need to run a server class OS.

He said the application has an 8 user limit, but that doesn't mean there won't be more than 8 users concurrently connected to a share on that box.

These are a questions that haven't yet been asked:

How many people are in your organzation?

How many peopl have access to the database? Not how many use it at once, but how many total people have access to it?

Pushing those questions aside though...if you are looking at replacing the current machine you might as well get a real server with a real server OS that will allow you to host more than just the database. A database with an 8 concurrent user limit isn't going to be that resource intensive, especially on a newer server. Get a server with a decent amount of power that's stable and reliable--i.e. a Dell PowerEdge 2850 (2800 if you don't have a rack)--and consolidate things you have running on other servers (except for AD because that's a pain to move and I wouldn't have my AD controller doing other tasks anyway).