[Server-devel] Latest on capacity of the school server

[David Leeming]

Hi from a small island in the north Pacific - Kosrae (FSM). Here they are
going for a complete programme with all graders 1 to 8 . That takes in six
Elementary Schools (the US system is used here) the largest has 3 streams,
24 classes and about 500 students. The school is arranged in a large U plan
form in two floors/storeys. 

 

What experience do we have on the latest thinking about the capacity of a
single server? Here in Kosrae they have good 24/7 power availability and
air-conditioned offices in five of the schools. We can therefore specify
powerful machines, even dedicated server models if need be.  If we segregate
off each of the 24 class groups, would a single powerful machine server be
able to handle 500 students in 24 classes (courses) simultaneously? (of
course in practice that maximum load will rarely occur). 

 

I suspect we don't have a definitive answer and I would like to develop a
strategy with the ICT people here. Perhaps to plan for multiple servers in
such a school and then progressively introduce them in response to the way
they perform.

 

Any feedback on good techniques or references/guidance on the wireless
infrastructure would also be appreciated. In the larger school, we have two
floors, 12 classrooms per floor, in U-shape layout. I would place one AP per
classroom spread evenly around the school - that would be about 20 students
per AP. The APs set up all on eth1 LAN with the same SSID. If we use
multiple servers, we'd use different SSIDs for each. I have not deployed
such a large site before so any comments on this would be appreciated.   

 

(2)

 

In PNG SDP's project in North Fly, PNG, we are using small "eboxes" because
of the need to run on solar power. We have deployed one full-campus
wireless/server installation, quite a small school (160 total, 80 users in
the first roll out). These users are divided into 3 class groups, as Moodle
courses. So they are segregated. We have had feedback that it still gets
slow / congested when all users are on simultaneously (80 users in 3
separate courses). I don't have an opportunity to visit the school and
quickly inspect the servers logs etc, so I am not sure of the cauase, i.e.
the small capacity of the "ebox" or other cause. Any comments as to what to
check would be appreciated

 

David Leeming

 

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