On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 8:23 PM, John Summerfield < [email protected]> wrote:
> Andrew Wiley wrote: > > >> >>> Some questions: >>> 1. How many users do you anticipate? >>> >> >> >> I know that I expect to run, at most, about 20 VM's. That number may rise >> in >> the coming years, but I doubt it will ever get above 50. The users on >> those >> VM's will probably be about 30 to start out, and I doubt the total will >> pass >> 100 in the coming years. >> >> 2. How many simultaneous users? >> >> >> That will vary quite a bit, but I'm going to guess the peak with the 30 >> starting users will probably be around 20. >> > > Will they be using GUI tools? Nothing that would run on the mainframe that I can think of. > > > What kind of "terminal" equipment will they be using? Students would access their VM's through SSH. > > > 3. What would they be doing? >> >> Each VM will probably have a webserver hosting SVN and Trac, there will >> probably be some sort of build system as well, and students will be >> periodically running network server code to test stability and allow a >> centralized testing location for wider scale applications. >> > > Have you explored the use of virtual servers in Apache? It's possible to > host many websites on a single copy of a single OS on a single computer > using a single IP address. This is true, but I'm really wanting to have students' code isolated so if a prankster runs a forkbomb or some malicious code, everything else keeps working. There's also more educational value in giving each project a VM; hopefully it would at least teach basic linux shell commands. It's still debatable whether I should have multiple webservers or one though... I'll have to think about that. > > > Why is S/390 the right tool for the job? > Mostly the price, although I admit it's a poor justification. I'm also hoping that using it would bring more stability than our current solution. It would also (hopefully) scale better as the program grows, which is definitely happening. We need to upgrade somehow, and this offer came at the right time. There's also the benefit of exposing students to the idea that mainframes are still alive and useful (most textbooks these days cite mainframes as an example of obselete technology that existed before PC's, unfortunately), and, if possible, it would let me offer mainframe programming as an independent study course. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
