[K12OSN] Servers, K12LTSP, and workstation numbers, etc.

[James P. Kinney III]

On Tue, 2006-07-25 at 10:18 -0500, Doug Simpson wrote:
> 25 clients per server. . . we'd need about 40 servers. . .They'd never go 
> for that. . . I was hoping to be able to serve hundreds per server. . .

You can do more than 25/server. You can do about 25/Gbit network
connection. So keep putting in more Nics until you run out of RAM :)

We are doing dual socket, dual core Opteron servers w/ 8GB RAM and 4
GBit NICs to serve 100 clients. The test run done with 4GB RAM and a
dual socket, single core with 2 NICs bonded ran OK loaded to 56 thin
clients. This was running  K12LTSP v.5 RC2 and using gnome for the
desktops. At that point the system was RAM limited. My test server can
take another 8GB RAM but the funds for testing aren't there.
> 
> Not a good deal, but. . .
> 
> Doug Simpson
> Technology Specialist
> DeQueen Public Schools
> DeQueen, AR 71832
> simpsond at leopards.k12.ar.us
> Tux for President!
> 
> On Mon, 24 Jul 2006, James P. Kinney III wrote:
> 
> > It really boils down to networking at the Enterprise model level. Tests
> > have show that a 1Gb data line can support 25 clients.
> > 
> > RAM is still king as each client will need 50-75 MB of RAM.
> > 
> > We had about 56 clients hanging from a dual Opteron (single core) server
> > w/4GB RAM and dual, bonded Gb NICs. The load level was getting heavy but
> > OK until firefox got loaded. At that point, swap got hit and the box
> > thrashed itself into oblivion. A hard reboot later (and turning OFF
> > swap) and it _could_ run 56 clients but it was dragging.
> > 
> > So for the "Bottom dollar" person: a single chip, dual core w/ 2GB RAM
> > and 2 NICs (one Gb for clients, the other 100Mb for Internet) and a
> > 120GB hard drive will serve 25+ clients very well. This a good model for
> > an "app server".
> > 
> > On Mon, 2006-07-24 at 10:15 -0500, Doug Simpson wrote:
> > > Hello.
> > > 
> > > I finally have got my Superintendent excited about being able to use older 
> > > hardware to save monty and use K12LTSP for thos older computers to make 
> > > them usable again in Internet/Research/Writing labs in our schools.
> > > 
> > > I have several servers that have K12LTSP installed and ready to go, 
> > > thinking I could run many workstations from them.
> > > 
> > > But when I read articles that say a district has 32 servers to deploy 
> > > K12LTSP, I am thninking I am missing something because where is the cost 
> > > savings in that, forst of all, and that means server updates and 
> > > everything will have to be done on all those servers.
> > > 
> > > Our Supt. is a "Bottom Dollar" kind of guy and he doesn't look at TCO so 
> > > much as what it will cost to "get it in the door".
> > > 
> > > Say I have a server with 12GB RAM, Almost a terabyte (sp?) of SCSI hard 
> > > drive in Raid5 and Gigabit NICs.  Realistically, how many workstations can 
> > > I hang off there using Gnome, Mozilla, OOo, and several other apps on 
> > > intermittent basis and see usable performance?
> > > 
> > > Also, I have one server, running FC1 with K12LTSP and it serves DHCP IP 
> > > addresses, but I want another server to handle the terminals.
> > > 
> > > I added the next-server line to dhcpd.conf, but it still looks to the FC1 
> > > server to boot from. The other (preferred server) is FC3, K12LTSP and I 
> > > think it is set up correctly.
> > > 
> > > What can I look for to make the workstations boot and run from the FC3 
> > > server with DHCP being handled by the FC1 server?
> > > 
> > > Thanks!
> > > 
> > > Doug Simpson
> > > Technology Specialist
> > > DeQueen Public Schools
> > > DeQueen, AR 71832
> > > simpsond at leopards.k12.ar.us
> > > Tux for President!
> > > 
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>
> > -- 
> > James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
> > CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
> > Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
> > 770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
> > http://www.localnetsolutions.com
> > 
> > GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
> > <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
> > Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
> > 
> 
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-- 
James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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