[K12OSN] Re: Networking a new school for K12LTSP?

["Terrell Prudé Jr."]

Pretty much all of the fiber ones, which is about all I use, are that
way.  One good one that I've found works well with Linux is Amer.com's
C1000SX.  It is available here:

http://www.amer.com/catalogue/ac1000sx.html

Another one is the Intel Pro/1000SX card, which is 64bit/66MHz.  These
have been around for a long time, and I have used them in many a
GNU/Linux box.  Just do a search on www.pricewatch.com, using the terms
"intel gigabit fiber", and I find them reasonably priced.

As for copper cards, those typically are integrated into the motherboard
nowadays, even on client box models.  That's a question that the
motherboard manufacturer should answer--on which bus, and at what
bit/speed rate, is their integrated 10/100/1000 network interface(s)? 
Tyan and MSI both are known to put the copper Gig-E interface either on
the PCI-32 bus (lower-end mobos) or, in Tyan's case, also on the PCI-X
bux (higher end, co$t$ more).  If it's the latter, you're in good
shape.  If it's the former, but you're running your other Gig-E cards on
the PCI-X bus, then other than IDE hard disk contention (also on the
PCI-32 bus, but not usually constant), you probably will be fine.  Of
course, I'd be looking at SATA or SCSI hardware raid on PCI-X if the
budget allows for it.

--TP
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Petre Scheie wrote:
>
>
> Terrell Prudé Jr. wrote:
>> Robert Arkiletian wrote:
>>> On 1/31/07, Robert Arkiletian <robark at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> On 1/31/07, Petre Scheie <petre at maltzen.net> wrote:
>>>>> Terrell Prudé Jr. wrote:
>>>>>> Robert Arkiletian wrote:
>>>>>>> On 1/29/07, Joseph Bishay <joseph.bishay at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I hope you are doing well.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Thank you all for the comprehensive reply!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Once I started reading your email, I realized that probably the
>>>> best
>>>>>>>> way to proceed was to work with the idea of NIC Bonding or port
>>>>>>>> trunking.  I have a surplus of Gigabit cards so I could put 3 in a
>>>>>>>> server (reading online I found that more than 3 wasn't going to
>>>> give
>>>>>>>> enough of an improvement due to the PCI bus limitations -- can
>>>> anyone
>>>>>>>> validate this?) and then send all 3 of those to the switch. I
>>>> could
>>>>>>>> then bond 3 ports from that switch to the next one (we'll probably
>>>>>>>> have 2 x48 gigabit switches for the whole building -- still
>>>> counting
>>>>>>>> the number of ports/computers required) so as to deal with the
>>>>>>>> bandwidth.  The cost of some of those fiber <-> copper converts
>>>> look
>>>>>>>> rather daunting.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I would VERY MUCH prefer to use only 1 server for the entire
>>>> building
>>>>>>>> -- I am still very much a novice at this and the complexities of
>>>>>>>> setting up multiple servers or splitting into application &
>>>> /home with
>>>>>>>> LAPD sounds rather daunting.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If your still set on one server also have a look at this
>>>>>>> http://k12ltsp.org/mediawiki/index.php/Technical:Subnetting
>>>>>>> Instead of port trunking I think this would be a better idea.
>>>>>>> Especially if you are going to have 2 48 port switches that
>>>> could be
>>>>>>> on different gigabit linked subnets.
>>>>>> Hmm...I hadn't thought of that particular application
>>>> myself--addressing
>>>>>> bandwidth bottlenecks--but you're right, that sure would do it! 
>>>> That
>>>>>> never even occurred to me...thanks!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --TP
>>>>> I recall reading somewhere that three gigabit cards is probably the
>>>> max that the PCI bus
>>>>> can handle.  Can anyone confirm or deny this?
>>>> No. A gigabit card is 1 Gibabit/s (that's 1 billion bits per second).
>>>> Each byte is 8 bits. So  it maxs out at 125MB/s. A simple PCI bus can
>>>> handle 133MB/s max. So 1 gigabit ethernet card can saturate a PCI bus
>>> Correction:
>>> PCI 2.2 spec is 32 bits at 66Mhz which equals 266MB/s.  So 2 gigabit
>>> nics should be able to saturate it. The original PCI bus was 32bits at
>>> 33Mhz which is 133MB/s.
>>>
>>
>> True, but if your PCI bus is 64-bits at 66MHz (i. e. PCI-X), then you're
>> fine, as you then have 532MB/s.  I've always been sure to buy 64-bit,
>> 66MHz NIC's for this reason.  Same with RAID cards; PCI-X whenever
>> possible.
>>
> What brand of 64-bit NIC are you buying for this purpose?  Where do
> you get them?
>
> Petre
>
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