Minimum Server Specs (was Re: [K12OSN] A couple of questions)

[Calvin Park]

I'll be more than happy to share my findings when I deploy our servers
here. So, maybe in 5 weeks or so, after classes are in session again. :)

-Calvin

On Sun, 2004-08-01 at 21:17, Shawn Powers wrote:
> I'm home sick today, missed church and everything, so I'll happily 
> elaborate on one of the most-asked-hardest-to-answer questions.
> 
> The problem is that it depends SO MUCH on what the configuration and use 
> of the clients are.  Also, is the /home directory on the server, or 
> mounted from another file server.  Also, is everyone on the computers 
> doing the same thing (ie, mozilla running 30 times is easier than 15 
> different applications running)
> 
> I think the RAM rule is to have 50 or 100 MB per client, and 512 for the 
> server itself.  That rule may be outdated, and disputed slightly, but 
> it's a pretty good rule to go by.
> 
> The drive space rule is that if you have more than 8 clients or so, you 
> NEED to have a SCSI based /home directory -- preferably in a RAID array. 
> 
> The CPU rule is that you get as much as you can afford. :)  I don't have 
> any real-world track record to go from here.  My first large scale 
> deployment will come online in about a month.  I bought (3) Dual Xeon 
> 3.2Ghz servers, and I'm running JUST openoffice on one of them, and JUST 
> mozilla on one of them.  That's not the "normal" setup -- but I hope it 
> will let me grow.
> 
> My suggestions, if you're talking about 30 clients -- get 2-3 GB of RAM, 
> Gig ethernet, SCSI based /home directory (15,000RPM drives if possible), 
> and a dual xeon CPU if you can afford it.  That might be overkill, I 
> really don't know.  I always like to err on the side of safety. :)  
> You'll also need a switch with a gig uplink port for the server.  You 
> really don't want to cut corners there, you need a switch, and it has to 
> hook to the server via gigabit.
> 
> I know that a PIII 1Ghz with 512MB RAM will happily support 4 clients 
> over 100mbit with an IDE drive.  That's about the biggest deployment 
> I've had to date. :)   You can be sure I'll report after the school year 
> starts as to how my servers are handling it.
> 
> Maybe this thread could turn into a "you show me yours I'll show you 
> mine" thread, so we can all see what size servers are handling what 
> loads how well.  I know there is a spot on the k12ltsp site for case 
> studies, but I've never had a chance to post my setups.
> 
> Anybody else want to describe their setups?
> 
> -Shawn
> 
> 
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