On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 11:29 AM, Xavier Brochard <xav...@alternatif.org> wrote: > Hi everyone > > I'm in the process to update the server of one of my customers. It is a small > non-profit company. > > Their current server is an old Intel 2,4GHz P4/Celeron (one core) with 512 Mb > of Ram and 3 IDE hard disks in Raid 6. It is setup with LTSP 5.1 on Debian > Lenny and a KDE 3.5.10 desktop. > There are 6 users on this server (it can grow to 10 users for short periodes), > using mainly kmail, konqueror, flash and OpenOffice.org. > Occasionally, they need to burn some CD and to play DVDs. They use the current > server to do that. > Thin clients are Artec ThinCan DBE62 (Atom CPU, 256 Mb Ram) and old PII > computers. > > And it works, though a bit slowly since last year. > > > This year, they have lots of money to spend in buying a new server (and some > other equipments). > > The server will run LTSP (Debian Squeeze) with KDE4 or Gnome > + a virtualized Windows 2003 (or 2008) with 3 applications accessed seamlessly > with rdesktop. > + a web proxy cache, because they have a very low ASDL line (squid ?) > > But I didn't followed the list since june and I need some advices: > > - I plan to buy a server with 2 CPUs (2 sockets) because of bandwith. I think > that multi-core CPUs are not sufficient. Am I wrong? in such a small company, > can a single 4 core CPU do the job? >
One thing to consider would be a xeon 56xx CPU which can be had in 6 core/12 thread versions. A lot cheaper than populating a whole second socket but 50% more horsepower than a 4 core CPU. 6 core also seems to fit nicely with your 6 users :) I just installed a new LTSP server this summer. It's a Dell T610 which the aforementioned 6 core CPU but it has a second socket if you're ever so inclined to add more cores. It is running ubuntu quite smoothly and I didn't have any hardware hiccups at all. RAM is cheap, get lots. I went for 12 GB and if I ever add a second CPU I'll add another 12. I have found with my new setup I'm more RAM limited than CPU and that's with 20+ clients. > - I want to use a SSD for the system and a NAS for homes directory and for > storage space of the proxy. Comments? > A SSD for the OS is nice but don't skimp here. Either get a nice one or don't bother. A NAS for the home dis would be fine but don't force squid to cache over the network, it will be a pretty big bottleneck. Just buy a dedicated disk for squid, with 1 TB drives for less then $100 it's hard to go wrong and you don't really care if it dies. Just drop another one in and wait for squid to re-populate. In fact the quid guys recommend NOT using a RAIDed disk. > - where should I put the virtualized Windows? SSD or NAS? > - same question with the /tmp partitions. > If I were you I'd put the windows virtual hard drive and on the SSD. /tmp should live there for sure. It gets hit pretty hard when you use LTSP. > - does anyone already tested LTSP with KDE4? > > regards > Xavier > xav...@alternatif.org - 09 54 06 16 26 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Achieve Improved Network Security with IP and DNS Reputation. > Defend against bad network traffic, including botnets, malware, > phishing sites, and compromised hosts - saving your company time, > money, and embarrassment. Learn More! > http://p.sf.net/sfu/hpdev2dev-nov > _____________________________________________________________________ > 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 > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Achieve Improved Network Security with IP and DNS Reputation. Defend against bad network traffic, including botnets, malware, phishing sites, and compromised hosts - saving your company time, money, and embarrassment. Learn More! http://p.sf.net/sfu/hpdev2dev-nov _____________________________________________________________________ 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
