[K12OSN] Server Spec Question

[Eric Feldhusen]

I'd recommend those Ultra 320 drives are 15k rpm drives. I haven't used 
them on ltsp servers, but I've seen them in use and there's a noticeable 
difference.

I'd also go with gigabit ethernet for the connection from the servers to 
your network.

Another suggestion that I've got in use at the moment is to use the 
second ethernet port of all my servers to plug into a seperate switch on 
private subnet, and I do all my nfs shares of my /home over this space. 
  That way, the communication between the ltsp server and the file 
server doesn't travel on the same port as the ltsp client traffic.  At 
the moment, this setup isn't loaded up enough now that it'll matter, 
but... maybe down the road, I'll have a little headroom to grow.

The rest of your questions, I'm not sure, so I won't lead you down the 
wrong path, but keep posting to the list, because I'm very interested.

-- 
Eric Feldhusen
Network Administrator for Adams, Chassell,
Dollar Bay-Tamarack City, and
Lake Linden-Hubbell Public Schools
emailto:eric at remc1.k12.mi.us

Shawn Powers wrote:

> We addressed the issue of a "separate app server per application" 
> before, but I'm curious about how many clients a server can really 
> handle.  Here's my scenario:
> 
> LTSP Servers (One for OpenOffice, One for Mozilla, One for LTSP itself)
> -Dual 3.2 Xeons with 2MB cache
> -6GB RAM
> -2x18 SCSI 320 drives in RAID 0 or 1 (whichever is mirrored, I forget)
> -Dual GigE network cards
>
> [snip]
> 
> Any Idea how well this will scale?  My network will be Gig fiber 
> backbone, with 100mbit switched at every port.  I'm starting next year 
> with about 75 thin clients booting to the setup, but would like to add 
> more by adding some to classrooms.  We have a total of around 65 
> classrooms, and although they won't all have 5 thin clients in them, a 
> bunch will want these "mini-labs"
> 
> [snip}
> 
> Anyway, I'm looking for some input, including input on the windows 
> server, since that's my weakest ability as an IT guy.  Oh, and read my 
> disclaimer, so I don't get in trouble.  ;)
> 
> Thanks much,
> -Shawn