Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!panix!alexis
From: alexis@panix.UUCP (Alexis Rosen)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: Increasing RAM on AppleShare Server
Message-ID: <117@panix.UUCP>
Date: 12 Oct 89 09:25:02 GMT
References: <1989Oct11.022443.25922@paris.ics.uci.edu> <8910111605.AA03949@aquarium.ecn.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: alexis@panix.UUCP (Alexis Rosen)
Organization: PANIX - Public Access Computer Systems of NY
Lines: 39

In article <8910111605.AA03949@aquarium.ecn.purdue.edu> moyman@AQUARIUM.ECN.PURDUE.EDU (James M Moya) writes:
>   zz1he@sdcc19.ucsd.EDU (Heather Ebey) writes:
>
>   >Each server services six workstations and 
>   >and ImageWriter II.  All software is on the server and is shared
>   >and accessed simultaneously from six Mac Pluses.
>
>I think the bandwidth can certainly be a problem, but not with 6 
>Mac +'s and a server(also a Mac +). I think scott summed it all up 
>when he discused the throughput for the different Mac machines being
>used as file servers.  

Correct, in general. It constantly amazes me how people want to spend the
right money in all the wrong places...

> [...] This fall I added another server (a headless IIcx) and 
>split the network (physically) in two (20 mac's and a LaserWriter per) [...]

Not a great move, generally speaking. It's cheaper and much easier, and
*faster*, to use an SE/30 as a server. Especially if you are using Ethernet.
I suspect a headless IIci would be faster than an SE/30 but perhaps not by
nearly as much as you'd like. That's because throughput for LocalTalk will be
limited by the wire and for EtherTalk, by the NIC. Since Nubus is slower than
PDS, the IIci's NIC will be slower than an equivalent NIC in an SE/30 (which
is why the SE/30 wins over the IIcx, BTW). On the other hand, SCSI on the IIci
may run considerably faster than on the SE/30 (and IIcx), and that might make
the IIci faster again. I guess I'll know more when my IIci shows up. (I feel
like St. Joan- "How long, god, how long?" :-)

>With that number of machines(6) I think your server is the major drawback...
>
>If you want to increase your performance, buy a headless Mac II family
>machine (a ci..:-) for a server and a couple copies of timbuktu...

No, buy an SE/30 and save yourself the trouble. It's more horsepower than
a IIcx and more than any six-Mac network needs.

Alexis Rosen
{rutgers,harvard,ucbvax,philabs,most-other-places}!cmcl2!panix!alexis