On Wednesday 05 March 2003 01:55 pm, Jarod Kernel wrote:
<<snip>>
> Hi,
> I'am building a LTSP lab in my school. I would like to know what kind of
> network device could I use for the server? Is there a powerfull device to
> use or this is not important? Thanks!
> Enrico
On my terminal server it made a big difference when we installed a gigabit
over copper cat 5 nic. and a 10/100/1000 switch, which had a gigabit uplink
port that was then sliced up into multiple 10/100 ports. Our terminals run on
the intel eepro100 nics, they do cost a little more but they include the pxe
bootrom stuff. You can get cheaper nics but by the time you mess around with
the boot roms, and programming them, the eepro100 with its pxe is the better
deal.
The biggest bennifit of going to gigabit on the server is reduced latency, to
the user on a terminal this is most noticable when they switch between
windopanes, such as having several apps running like konqueror, openoffice
and kmail. all very common apps that are heavily used when clickin on the
docked tray icon to switch between these apps they refresh alot quicker.
Gigabit over copper also significantly improved the typing response of the
terminals during periods of heavy traffic load, such as when someone else
boots an additional terminal on the network.
Gigabit over copper with a gigabit switch for uplink is definatly the way to
go, the additional expense is only marginal these days and the performance
difference well outweighs and amortizes the difference in cost.
Go Gigabit on the Server, you users will greatly appriciate it.
<<snip>>
That said on to your other questions, I would not be scared of AMD we run a
dual mp terminal server hear, in cost perfomance intel just cant touch AMD.
just go with copper heat sinks. and have a good case fan to move the air
through.
For computationally intense things the AMD rulz the roost right now, most of
the clusters being built are using AMD for just this reason, and the cost
savings.
About the hard drive, If possiable go scsi people will claim that scsi and ide
are neck and neck in performance but in real world multiuser, high I/O acess
use ide chokes quickly with its FIFO (first in first out). The first decision
is capacity or performance, for capacity it is hard to beat ide (use it for
your removeable backup drive) but if you want a responsive terminal server
that will be handling more than a handfull of terminals you would definatly
bennifit from the I/O speed of scsi. In just raw data transfer from the
media both technologies appear the same around 50 mb/sec per drive. However
with scsi you can significantly reduce your head acess time and rotational
latency. With ide the first user on your network to request a file (maby a
large one) will soak up all the I/O of the ide drive untill this request is
filled blocking or reducing acess requests in the FIFO from other users. SCSI
on the other hand has a tagged command que, and priortization. Beings that
the drive has a small computer built into it scsi can say oh I am passing the
read head past the latter requested data why dont I grab it on the way
sweeping the platter to the prior requested data. Not to mention the speed
and security of being able to run raid 5 or better in your terminal server.
we are running a 6 drive segate cheta 9 gig 10krpm with a hardware raid
controller, I have bench marked our hard drive array at 254 mb/ps but the raw
data acess speed is not the sweetest part of this array it is the I/O acess
speed with several terminals all making requests to read and write data`, for
the users things happen fast with littl latency, somthing all users
appriciate.
If you have further questions feel free to post them.
> Hi,
> I would like to use LTSP to build a lab in my school. I will buy a server
> to use with existing clients. Thoose are P75Mhz with something like 32Mb
> RAM 10/100 LAN, and an HD about 200Mb. The lab is already cabled.
> I would like to know what kind of hardware I must use to have a good
> server, to make load the client quick ad a local machine. The clients will
> use OO or Kylix. I was thinking about an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 512 or 1Gb
> RAM. Is better to have a SCSI HD? Thanks in advance for your help!
> Grendel
--
--
As we enjoy great advantages from inventions of others, we should be
glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and
this we should do freely and generously.
- Benjamin Franklin
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