Comments on: Building a modern IT infrastructure for a small company (10 clients) with a sub-$3,000 budget http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/ The Internet Startup Blog Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:07:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Stephanie http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-13636 Stephanie Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:33:24 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-13636 <strong>Stephanie...</strong> \"...These companies use engineering that can recover your lost data over ninety six percent of the time...\"... Stephanie…

\”…These companies use engineering that can recover your lost data over ninety six percent of the time…\”…

]]> By: matt http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-13613 matt Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:28:17 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-13613 WINE = WINE is not an emulator its an acronym, and not an emulator WINE = WINE is not an emulator

its an acronym, and not an emulator

]]> By: Michael http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-10383 Michael Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:15:31 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-10383 We implemented LTSP 4.1 on a CentOS-based server using existing CAT5 cabling that was not capable of gigabit. The server has a gigabit NIC and is hooked to a gigabit hub, but the thin-clients are all using 1000. One time as a test we ran CAT6 cable to one thin client and got a gigabit connection, but we saw no difference in speed. For the record, our server has 2 dual-core 3.2GHz Xeons and 6 GB RAM, and we are running almost 30 clients with little problem. We are running Windows Server 2003 with Terminal Services (on a second server - 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM) for our minimal Windows requirements, but we recently ran across XP Unlimited (xpunlimited.com) which offers Terminal Services on XP for a site license, and seems to work well with VMware Server or Xen in our testing, and could be quite a cost savings if you already have an XP license you can use. We implemented LTSP 4.1 on a CentOS-based server using existing CAT5 cabling that was not capable of gigabit. The server has a gigabit NIC and is hooked to a gigabit hub, but the thin-clients are all using 1000. One time as a test we ran CAT6 cable to one thin client and got a gigabit connection, but we saw no difference in speed. For the record, our server has 2 dual-core 3.2GHz Xeons and 6 GB RAM, and we are running almost 30 clients with little problem. We are running Windows Server 2003 with Terminal Services (on a second server – 1 GHz, 512 MB RAM) for our minimal Windows requirements, but we recently ran across XP Unlimited (xpunlimited.com) which offers Terminal Services on XP for a site license, and seems to work well with VMware Server or Xen in our testing, and could be quite a cost savings if you already have an XP license you can use.

]]> By: it2051229 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-10292 it2051229 Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:56:11 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-10292 way to go open source way to go open source

]]> By: Chimpfanzee http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-10261 Chimpfanzee Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:23:43 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-10261 You can also add ClamAV to the mix. Works well on my Edubuntu setup. You can also add ClamAV to the mix. Works well on my Edubuntu setup.

]]> By: Rudiger Wolf http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-10214 Rudiger Wolf Fri, 24 Aug 2007 06:10:39 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-10214 Here is a bit more about remote network booting that I found interesting. http://www.linux.com/feature/118636 Here is a bit more about remote network booting that I found interesting.
http://www.linux.com/feature/118636

]]> By: Michael Shigorin http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-10190 Michael Shigorin Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:56:08 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-10190 PS: assorted addendae Re-scanning the budget -- you could (can?) have TFTs by stretching it up a bit and dropping/downgrading those parts which are overkill or overpriced: GigE NICs (then 15x100+1x1000 switch), 500G disks and strangely expensive memory. BTW D-Link switches aren't exactly reliable, that is one might work flawlessly for years but you never know when you get ports failed. > As for the ergonomics I don’t think > this is an optimal setup. We went for compaq deskpro sff (small form factor), very nice and they do PXE booting with updated BIOS flashed in where needed. These include onboard ATI chip, ESS sound (with loudspeaker even), and CD/FDD. We've only added USB2 PCI cards in some of them. Ah, and client specs are OK with 64M RAM and something like PII up (probably PI too, didn't see working one for some year or so, ours are PIII-500). The worst that can hit the terminal is browser inflating X server pixmap cache (taking the whole thin client down) but you should really have networked swapping activated anyways. --- Re Windows, you might want to use translation tools to read syselegance.kiev.ua -- folks have implemented a custom terminal server solution employing a single WinXP Pro as a terminal server with Linux clients; it seems to have passed legal scrutiny for at least some of their wary customers. If you badly need win32 environment, going that way might be more cost efficient than struggling with vmware in the first place. PS: assorted addendae

Re-scanning the budget — you could (can?) have TFTs by stretching it up a bit and dropping/downgrading those parts which are overkill or overpriced: GigE NICs (then 15×100+1×1000 switch), 500G disks and strangely expensive memory.

BTW D-Link switches aren’t exactly reliable, that is one might work flawlessly for years but you never know when you get ports failed.

> As for the ergonomics I don’t think
> this is an optimal setup.
We went for compaq deskpro sff (small form factor), very nice and they do PXE booting with updated BIOS flashed in where needed. These include onboard ATI chip, ESS sound (with loudspeaker even), and CD/FDD. We’ve only added USB2 PCI cards in some of them.

Ah, and client specs are OK with 64M RAM and something like PII up (probably PI too, didn’t see working one for some year or so, ours are PIII-500). The worst that can hit the terminal is browser inflating X server pixmap cache (taking the whole thin client down) but you should really have networked swapping activated anyways.

—

Re Windows, you might want to use translation tools to read syselegance.kiev.ua — folks have implemented a custom terminal server solution employing a single WinXP Pro as a terminal server with Linux clients; it seems to have passed legal scrutiny for at least some of their wary customers. If you badly need win32 environment, going that way might be more cost efficient than struggling with vmware in the first place.

]]> By: Viktor Petersson http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-10188 Viktor Petersson Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:37:37 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-10188 Harley, Good point. I forgot that VMWare gives that one away for free. However, I'm not sure how well a virtual instance of Windows will work with multiple users. I would imagine that you would need one instance of windows (and license) for each active user. Harley,

Good point. I forgot that VMWare gives that one away for free. However, I’m not sure how well a virtual instance of Windows will work with multiple users. I would imagine that you would need one instance of windows (and license) for each active user.

]]> By: Viktor Petersson http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-10187 Viktor Petersson Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:29:15 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-10187 Christopher, Regarding gigabit and PCI...there's no problems finding Gigabit PCI NICs. There are two things to consider tough: 1) Make sure the NIC supports PXE-booting 2) Make sure it's a PCI card and not PCI Express. It's quite likely that your clients won't have PCI Express-slots. As for the ergonomics I don't think this is an optimal setup. It is however one of the cheapest setups possible. If you can extend the budget and add ergonomic hardware (better displays, keyboards, mice etc.) I think that's a great investment that's going to pay off in the long-run. Christopher,
Regarding gigabit and PCI…there’s no problems finding Gigabit PCI NICs. There are two things to consider tough: 1) Make sure the NIC supports PXE-booting 2) Make sure it’s a PCI card and not PCI Express. It’s quite likely that your clients won’t have PCI Express-slots.

As for the ergonomics I don’t think this is an optimal setup. It is however one of the cheapest setups possible. If you can extend the budget and add ergonomic hardware (better displays, keyboards, mice etc.) I think that’s a great investment that’s going to pay off in the long-run.

]]> By: Harley Stagner http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/comment-page-1/#comment-10175 Harley Stagner Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:30:13 +0000 http://www.playingwithwire.com/2007/08/building-a-modern-it-infrastructure-for-a-small-company-10-clients-with-a-sub-3000-budget/#comment-10175 Great Article. If you do have to use VMWare you don't need to buy VMWare Workstation, you can download VMWare Server for free. I run it at home and at work with no trouble. Great Article.

If you do have to use VMWare you don’t need to buy VMWare Workstation, you can download VMWare Server for free. I run it at home and at work with no trouble.

]]>