GNOME Server Load, Project Updates

The new GNOME server project has continued since the last blog. We had a slight setback in that the server was reporting ECC errors, which indicates failure of memory, but possibly caused by memory, backplane, motherboard or CPU. The server never failed or halted, but we held off adding more users until it can be resolved. We have been replacing pieces. Motherboard was swapped out yesterday and so far the error has not returned. When we get past a burn in period with no problems,we'll start adding more users.

So the always interesting issue of how well GNOME scales. One is always concerned that a certain feature or function of the desktop will chew up a lot of CPU and slow the performance of the other users. Many software applications are designed with the perception that they will be run from a stand alone computer with little regard for chewing CPU, disk or leaking memory. The shot below is 'top' running for 90 concurrent users. The server runs about .5% to 4% busy, and normally sits around 1-2%. This is excellent and should scale nicely. I would think we could get 300 users on the server with no problems.



I have continued testing Groupwise 2012 and its web interface in Firefox and then on iPads and the result so far have been quite good. I'll post a more thorough blog concerning the testing and results. I also have been teaching myself how to use the Groupwise server as an LDAP server to allow the iPad tablets to get complete address books of all City employees. It's an area that I have never done before, so I have been reading lots of examples and documentation. I'll figure it out. Groupwise 2012 also has a feature that allows you to publish your calendars to the Internet as ics/iCal files and I've been working on getting that working and tested. Cool stuff.

The City is buying new recreation software that runs a front end from Microsoft Windows. Using the local RDP/Rdesktop client from the thin clients it's working well. We had an unforeseen issue where the software requires the client (dhcp) names to be used as part of the cash register groups. In the past, all thin clients in the City were generically named and addressed because it never mattered. This meant we had to do a complete reorganize of IPs into logical groups. This change was implemented Tuesday morning and after a few hiccups is now complete.

I have been pondering again the prospects of a Largo Hackfest for 2012. It sure would be nice to meet all of you and show everyone how Linux can and is being used in the enterprise. Maybe we can make that work.