Posted-Date: Sun, 03 Jan 93 23:03 EST
X-Vers: CCMail to SMTP translator by Alan Marshall vers 2.71 12/16/92
Organization: Proteon, Inc., Westborough, MA  01581  [(508)898-2800]
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.novell
Date:         Sun, 3 Jan 1993 22:54:00 EST
Reply-To:     Novell LAN Interest Group <NOVELL@SUVM.BITNET>
From:         Fund@RELAY.PROTEON.COM
Subject:      Re: SystemPro questions...

>We are planning to implement an FDDI campus-
>wide backbone using a central router to connect several segments of fiber.  Now
>our hope is that we can get as many users as possible on one server before we
>have to buy another one.  Currently, we have 8 386/25 servers running NetWare
>3.11.  Each server has about 50 users on it.  What we are hoping to do is put
>in maybe 4 SystemPros to accomodate these users.  The usage is currently pretty
>light, meaning mostly there is some minor application sharing and mail, but
>there isn't really any database activity or anything of that nature.  Of course
>that will change in the next year or so.  At any rate, my question is whether
>or not we could get by with Compaq ProSignia servers or if we would need to
>get some monster like a SystemPro/XL.  The only differences between the two
>boxes seem to be the TriFlex architecture of the XL, amount of storage they can
>accomodate and maximum physical RAM.  The price difference is about twice as
>much for an XL.  Do you think that the XL is worth that difference?  If so,
>what makes you think that.  Well, I would really appreciate any coments you
>would care to make about this and I thank you very much for your time and
>advice.  Thanks.

>Mark Boyd
>Pepperdine University
>boyd@pepvax.pepperdine.edu

   OK.  First my recommendation.  For 400 users, I would buy 2 Systempro/XL
   machines each with 250 user licenses of NetWare.  The machines would
   each be configured with the 486/33 processor.  The 486/50 is overkill. You
   would almost never be processor bound.  I would not anticipate that you
   would ever be.  As far as disk storage, I would recommend  8 of the
   Conner 510MB IDE drives.  I would be sure to buy the drives from
   Conner, not from Compaq and you will save $$$.  I would service
   the drives using 2 of the newer IDE controllers (4 drives each), and
   configure them as RAID drives with 1 of the 4 drives being dedicated as the
   parity drive.  You will then be protected in the event of a single drive
   failure.  This will yield you 3 GB of usable storage per server.  I would
   go with the standard 8 MB memory moducle and then add a third party
   (we use Pinceon) 32 MB memory module for a total of 40MB RAM.  Take
   your pick and use any of the 32 bit busmaster network cards.  We use
   Ethernet, and go with the NE3200's.  Our reasoning is that anything
   Novell releases is definitely going to be compatible with this board.  So
   far we've been right on that one.

   This gives you plenty of room for future expansion with memory, available
   slots and full compatibility with the pentium processor should that ever
   be a requirement.  To tell you the truth, I would feel very  comfortable
   putting 600 users on the two servers I have recommended.  With people
   out and others not using their machines each day, I do not anticipate that
   you would run out of connections on either of the servers.

   The ProSignia would be fine if you were going to put in 4 of these machines
   to service your user population.  I would bet that the purchase cost would
   be greater and the administrtation load greater as well.  The ProSignia
   would be certainly adequate to handle 100 users with almost anything that
   they could throw at the server.  You just give up some future expandabilty
   options, which might never be an issue with a limited user population.

   When you are figuring costs, remember to calculate the complete costs with
   external disk subsystem, as would be the case with the ProSignia.

   Hope this helps in your evaluation process.

     Glenn Fund                           Internet:   Fund@Relay.proteon.com
     Principal Research Specialist        CompuServe: 75170,1060
     Lockheed Sanders                     cc:Mail     Fund at Proteonwebo
     DW Highway South                     Phone:      (603) 885-6242
     MS NHQ4-0405                         President of The Greater Boston Area
     Nashua, NH  03061                    Novell Users Group.
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