[K12OSN] Re: a little slow when 30+ workstations all load StarOffice 7 at the same time

[Sean Harbour]

> > They are a little slow when 30+ workstations all load StarOffice 7
> at
> > the same time, or when they log out.
> 
> Can't do much to speed up 30+ students all starting OOo at the SAME
> time. It's going to be slow on pretty much any server.
> 
> The trick is to get the students to start OOo at slightly different
> times. Like "okay this half of the class start now" then 1 min later
> "now the rest of you". Once the app is launched the load drops way
> down.

My first thought was perhaps a wrapper script around Star Office that
inserts a randomly weighted pause of up to 10 seconds before starting
up SOffice? This would be annoying, however, in normal use, so something
a little more sophisticated that could log how many apps were attempting
to startup in the last 5 or 10 seconds, and implement some sort of
waiting queue before starting additional copies, might be better. Has
anyone ever benchmarked how long it takes to start 30 sequential copies
of SOffice, vs just banging go on 30 machines at the same time?

A generic app queue control might be a really good thing for making a
K12LTSP server work better with low amounts of RAM. Or does one already
exist?

Sean Harbour
Northwest Regional ESD
503-614-1448
sharbour at nwresd.k12.or.us