How to Plan a Server Refresh for a Small Business

The short answer: Start with an inventory of what you have: each server's age, warranty and operating system support dates. Measure what your workloads really use, decide what should stay on-premises, and plan the licensing, the migration and the disposal of the old hardware before you buy anything.

1. Take stock of what you have

For each server, record:

• The model, its age and its serial number or Service Tag.
• Its warranty and support end date, from the manufacturer's support site.
• What runs on it, and who depends on it.
• The operating system and its support end date.

Operating system support dates often set the timetable. Windows Server 2012 R2 reached the end of extended support in October 2023, Windows Server 2016 follows in January 2027, and Windows Server 2019 in January 2029. A server running an unsupported operating system no longer receives security updates.

2. Measure what your workloads actually use

Don't size new hardware from the old server's specification. Collect a month of real figures: CPU and memory use at peak, storage capacity and growth, and disk activity. Hypervisors, monitoring tools, iDRAC and iLO all report these. Many businesses find their old server was heavily over-provisioned, or that storage, not the processor, was the real bottleneck.

3. Plan for the next five years

Allow for growth over the life of the new hardware, typically three to five years: more users, more data and new applications. It's usually cheaper to buy spare memory slots and drive bays you can fill later than to replace a server early.

4. Decide what belongs on-premises

A refresh is a good moment to ask what should move. Email and file sharing often move to Microsoft 365. Line-of-business applications, large data sets, and anything with strict latency or data-location requirements often stay on-premises. Many businesses end up with a mix of the two.

5. Check the licensing

• Windows Server is licensed per physical core, with a minimum of 16 core licences per server, and client access licences on top.
• Virtualisation licensing has changed significantly in recent years, particularly for VMware since Broadcom acquired it. Price it for the new hardware before you commit, not after.
• Line-of-business software can be licensed by core or tied to specific hardware, so check with each vendor.

6. Plan the migration

1. Confirm you have a recent, tested backup of everything on the old server.
2. Build and test the new server before moving anything to it.
3. Migrate in stages, starting with the least critical services.
4. Agree a downtime window with the people affected.
5. Keep the old server available, switched off, for a short period in case something was missed.

7. Check power, cooling and space

New servers can draw more or less power than the ones they replace. Check rack space, UPS capacity and cooling before the hardware arrives.

8. Retire the old hardware securely

Old drives hold your business data. Have them securely erased or destroyed, get a certificate that records it, and dispose of the hardware under the WEEE regulations.

Need help?

Apaxon sizes, supplies and deploys server refreshes, and is a Dell Technologies Authorised Partner. See enterprise servers or request a quote.