[K12OSN] K12LTSP Server Specs

Thu Apr 3 07:30:06 UTC 2008

That's been discussed many times on this list, and plenty of folks have
their own opinions.  Here's mine, which assumes your 30 users will be
using a "fat / full-featured" desktop like GNOME or KDE.

- CPU:  At least two 64-bit cores, 2GHz each.  If you can afford a
quad-core CPU, then do so.  Either Intel or AMD is fine.

- DRAM:  Minimum 4GB, preferably 8GB.  DRAM is your best friend when it
comes to LTSP.

- NIC #1:  Gig-E on at least the thin client side.  If your 30 users are
all running TuxType or TuxMath simultaneously, make it two Gig-E NICs
ganged together in a MultiLink config.  Get decent managed switches that
support this if you don't already have them.  If DRAM is your best
friend, then network speed comes immediately after.

- NIC #2:  Since you're doing NFS mounts, then I'd go Gig-E on the
"school LAN" side as well.  Otherwise, 100Mbps is usually fine.

- Video:  Can be ye olde, slow cheap-o.  That said, your clients should
have modern video (Intel is good).

- Go with hardware RAID 1.  SCSI RAID is expensive, but "the bomb" if
you can afford it.  If not, then get a SATA RAID card, not that fake-y
"RAID" junk built into many motherboards (it's software based).  I use
hardware SATA RAID myself.

--TP
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Tim Nelson wrote:
> Hello! We're currently working with a school that will be implementing a new K12LTSP server. The server will be handling roughly 30 clients. The current LTSP servers they have are all Supermicro units with Xeon CPUs. Storage capacity is not incredibly important as all user data is stored on a separate fileserver and mounted via NFS. What would you recommend for specs of the hardware? It should be usable now and be scalable to support future K12LTSP setups. I appreciate any insight you can give. Thank you!
>
> Tim Nelson
> Systems/Network Support
> Rockbochs Inc.
>
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