[K12OSN] server sizing... again

[Petre Scheie]

Sudev Barar wrote:
> On 08/05/06, William Fragakis <william at fragakis.com> wrote:
>> The server will be in a K-5 environment and used to do a lot of graphics
>> intensive applications such as Flash-based web sites, TuxMath, etc. The
>> users won't be concurrent. But the performance has to be "snappy". If
>> this goes well, big things may come afterwards. So, we want to get it
>> right the first time.
>>
>> Can we go 60 or 80 clients without problems?
>>
>> Would going to two dual core CPUS help significantly? (Adds about $1000
>> to the cost)
> 
> KISS: Dual core dual Xeon CPU MoBo wih as much RAM and fastest SCSI's Raid5
> 
> That said recently we have tried setting up two servers with dhcpd
> load balancing on the same network. Things have been pretty good for
> last three days in office environment. Users have started feeling the
> difference and no longer chorus of system is soooo slow today is being
> heard. Head for LTSP wiki for details.
> 
> If the skunk works needs to be positive I would rather go with this
> approach and add number of servers based on thumb rule of one server
> per 10~20 people supported by a fast scsi raid5 server for NFS mounts
> for /home directory. Would further add a subnet of 1000mbps network
> for servers to talk to each other.
> Builds in a bit of redundancy also allowing for one server to be taken
> off for wahetever once in a while without users howling.
> 
You might also look into using application servers, where you dedicate a server to, say, 
OpenOffice.org.  With this approach, dedicating each app to its own server, the City of 
Largo, FL was supporting 240 users on a pair of 900mhz terminal servers five years ago. 
  No apps ran on the terminal servers, just the desktop.  That way, if you have a 
hoggish application, you can focus your dollars/hardware on that app, and either way it 
doesn't affect the performance of the other apps.

Petre