[K12OSN] School Server

[Rob Owens]

Micha Silver wrote:
> Timothy Legge wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I am pricing some servers and it is amazing the hardware you can get
>> now.  I look after a Boy's and Girls club that might be similar to
>> some schools.  We have staff and kids; up to now we have separated the
>> kids from the staff by using separate servers with each having a
>> separate network using the same internet connection.
>>
>> However, since I am pricing a replacement server for the kids I
>> wondered whether the separation might not be necessary.  I could get
>> one server to do the 30 or so clients or just continue to break it up
>> with 10+ staff clients and 20+ kids clients.
>>
>> The security side of me says to keep the kids as far from the staff
>> server as possible but on the other hand, for the same money, I could
>> go with two server and have fail over/load balancing.
>>
>> Any thoughts?
>>
>>   
> Maybe virtualization? Put both servers on one XXL box...
> Micha

I've successfully done this using virtualbox-ose on Debian Lenny.  I've
been using it to test LTSP 5.

I also agree with Terrell that you don't necessarily need server
hardware.  I have a desktop-class whitebox computer that serves about 16
clients right now.  Here's my recommendation for a budget LTSP server:

4GB or more RAM
2x SATA drives, configured in software RAID 1
Gigabit NIC
Get the best CPU you can afford.  I usually pick a dual-core model just
below the big price jump, although I think if I was building one today
I'd be looking at a quad-core CPU.
Motherboard:  I usually try to find one with onboard video, to save a
couple buck by not buying a video card.  I also get at least 4 memory
slots and 4 SATA ports (sometimes 6 SATA ports).

You can easily build something like this for $800 or less if you buy the
parts on newegg.com or somewhere similar.

-Rob
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