SNS Release 2 Candidate 3

Shadow netWorkspace Release 2 Candidate 3 is now available. Like the previous candidate, this version allows upgrading for SNS 1 and previous SNS 2 installations. Detailed instructions are provided for installing SNS 2 on RedHat Linux 7.3 and on Mac OS X client! SNS 2 supports a wide range of Unix, Linux 7.x and BSD variants. Although we have supplied detailed instructions for RedHat Linux 7.3 and Mac OS X client, you should be able to install SNS 2 on any Unix, Linux 7.x or BSD server. Unfortunately, this version cannot be installed on RedHat Linux versions prior to 7.x.

Note: you may be wondering how well the installer works with RedHat 8. The answer is that there has been some reports from users that there are problems. One of them is that RH 8 comes with MySQL RPM...or so I am told. Our installer is based on the MySQL tar gz install. We have to compile DBI and it needs to know where the header files are. The RPM and the tar.gz don't agree on the placement of files. So, you might try to uninstall (or not install) the MySQL RPM, install the tar.gz and try the install. We have not yet ourselves tried installing SNS under RH 8. Sometime we will do so and we will report our results, update the installer, provide instructors or whatever is needed to let you install under RH 8.

A guide to securing your RedHat Linux 7.3 server has been created and is available from the SNS 2 Candidate 3 page. Security is very important, so please do what you need to do to secure your server from attacks.

The system requirements for installing the SNS software highly depend on what you want to do with the software. If you only want to get it up and operating or want to use it with a small group of users under low load conditions, then the requirements are less than if you want to use it with a large number of users under high load conditions.

The following are some system requirement guidelines:

Shadow netWorkspace 1

Minimum Config: 400 Mhz PIII, 128 MB RAM, 5 GB IDE HD
Low/Moderate Load Config: 800 Mhz PIII, 256-512 MB RAM, 10 GB IDE HD
High Load Config: Dual 800 Mhz PIII, 1 GB RAM, 36+ GB SCSI RAID 5

Shadow netWorkspace 2

Minimum Config: 500 Mhz PIII, 256 MB RAM, 5 GB IDE HD
Low Load Config: 800 Mhz PIII, 512 MB RAM, 10 GB IDE HD
Moderate Load Config: Dual 1 Ghz, 2 GB RAM, 36+ GB SCSI RAID 5

Minimum Config is defined as a configuration that will allow you get the system operating and will allow you to experiment with it. It will support a couple of simulatenous users.

Low Load Config is the configuration that you can use where you have a small number (10) of simulatenous users. The total number of users with accounts is not the issue (except for disk space). The total number of simultaneous users *is* the issue that determines the level of resource needed.

Moderate Load Config is the configuration that you can use with approximately 50 simultaneous users. If you want to put 50 people in front of computers at the same time to access SNS and want it to work without performance problems, you want a Moderate Load Config.

High Load Config is for more than 50 simultaneous users.

At this point in time we don't have information on what is required for SNS 2 to be used with more than 50 simultaneous users. We have done tests with 50 workstations hitting the server at the same time on a Dual 1 Ghz PIII server with 2 GB of RAM and RAID 5 with no problems. How it scales is not yet know...the biggest lab we have to test with is 50 workstations. Anyone who can provide good information on how SNS 2 scales and what system resources are needed for levels of usage will receive our utmost gratitude. :)

Most of our experience with using SNS has been under low to moderate load conditions. Even with instances where there are 1000 accounts on the server, the usage patterns have been such that low loads have resulted. Users come to the server on a somewhat random basis yielding few simulatenous hits. Where loads start to increase is when training occurs (get 50 teachers or students in a lab using the system simultaneously) or when a teacher directs a class of students to simultenously access SNS. Our biggest training sessions have been 50 users. And, most schools we are working with are using SNS in way that has the students accessing it from home after school. So, all we can say right now is if you expect a lot of simultaneous activity on the server, then you will need as much server as you can get.