On Thursday 06 March 2003 12:15 pm, pedro noticioso wrote: Right now we are running 18, we have tested it with 24 (the number of ports in our hub) by boot floppy in a few of our other server computers just to see how it handled additional terminals, it did just fine. As we increased the number of terminals beoyond 6 the gigabit became more and more noticiable. Our terminals run a resolution of 1024x768 16 bit color, I think this works out to be about a 2 MB image frame a 10/100 eithernet can only support about 13 mbps and operates at a frequency lower than gigabit. so above 6 terminals each consuming about 2MB per image frame refresh terminals displays are going to begin to have to wait on available bandwidth to have thier displays refreshed. Gigabit on the otherhand can handle about 130 mbps which theroetically would means about 60 terminals could be supported with minimal congestion. However there is another point of greater import, similar to the hard drive discussion, over and above mere bandwidth / throughput. LATENCY. With the higher frequency that gigabit uses the time slice between the terminals request and the servers response can be significantly reduced.
> how many workstations are on your server? > > --- Brent Hasty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > 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 > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Etnus, makers of > > TotalView, The debugger > > for complex code. Debugging C/C++ programs can leave > > you feeling lost and > > disoriented. TotalView can help you find your way. > > Available on major UNIX > > and Linux platforms. Try it free. www.etnus.com > > _____________________________________________________________________ > > > Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or > > change prefs, goto: > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss > > > For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on > > irc.freenode.net > > > __________________________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more > http://taxes.yahoo.com/ > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Etnus, makers of TotalView, The debugger > for complex code. Debugging C/C++ programs can leave you feeling lost and > disoriented. TotalView can help you find your way. Available on major UNIX > and Linux platforms. Try it free. www.etnus.com > _____________________________________________________________________ > Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss > For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.freenode.net -- -- 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 ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Etnus, makers of TotalView, The debugger for complex code. Debugging C/C++ programs can leave you feeling lost and disoriented. TotalView can help you find your way. Available on major UNIX and Linux platforms. Try it free. www.etnus.com _____________________________________________________________________ Ltsp-discuss mailing list. To un-subscribe, or change prefs, goto: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ltsp-discuss For additional LTSP help, try #ltsp channel on irc.freenode.net
