[ok-mail] [K12OSN] Suggestions on Server Deployment

[John Hansknecht]

On Sunday 26 March 2006 03:00, David Ackerman wrote:
> We have been using K12ltsp for 4 clients for a few months, with no major
> problems.  We want to expand things now and need some advice.
>
> 1)       We want to provide email for our students.
>
> 2)       We want to provide network folders for students.
>
> 3)       We want to filter internet traffic to the student network (which
> will mostly be Windows computers).
>
> We have very little money, so K12ltsp is a nice option.  We are also
> looking at doing some of the above with an additional Ubuntu server, but
> this would be mean two servers and the problem of network folders,
> filtering and backup.
>
> Can we do all of the above with one K12LTSP server?  What potential
> problems are there of having an email server and LTSP on the same computer?
>  Can the clients cause the whole system to hang, thus email is not working?
>  Can K12 also filter Windows machines hooked up to it?  How effective will
> K12 be as an email server and LTSP server?

Hi David,

There is a lot of detail missing here for anyone to provide feedback. Please 
provide some details on the hardware in your server, how many email accounts, 
how many Windows PC's will be routed through the server, how many terminals 
do you intend to use.

Please note however as a general statement anytime you add multiple 
applications/uses to a single server you increase the risk of what you lose 
when an outage occurs. So while the hardware of your server may support 
loading all of these applications, you still increase your risks of the cost 
of an outage. These risks can be counter by building a hardware reliable 
server (RAID, dual power supplies, etc.)

Peace,

John Hansknecht