CompuServe Thread

I haven't gotten my upgrade to version 3 yet. I just put a message on the forum to ADESK about a product that might help you if they think it will work. A dedicated server really doesn't do much work other than routing and disk management. With the network rendering available in 3Dstudio for instance it shouldn't be working hard at all other than to move the needed data in and out of the server disk. Your workstations will be the ones doing the sweating. The server does need to have enough RAM though to adequately handle the number of users and the size and complexity of the disk you are using. Novell has a clear formula for calculating that amount. I have a server with 47 potential workstations, a 1.2GB drive and I need roughly 20MB of RAM forthe system to operate comfortably with that. I don't know how Lantastic caluclates its requirements. My server is a 486 33 and so far as speed goes it handles everything just fine. It is a dedicated server. A non dedicated server (I believe Lantastic can be setup either way) must work much harder because it is dividing its time between the processing needs of whatever application you are running on it and the need to keep up its role as server. Ordinarily this doesn't cause problems in a small system because the application running is a word processor or Email or some other non processor intensive appication. If you are running 3D studio on it though and start rendering or redrawing a complex wire frame I could see a real competition for the machines resources occurring. The folks at Adesk should be able to tell you what kind of load this is placing on the system. I would assume they tested this network rendering on both a "full" network like Novell 3.11 or 4, and on a peer to peer like Lantastic and have an idea as to what is needed. My own preference is not to use non dedicated servers. I have to approach this with the thought of reliability though. I have 47 workstations out there and if one of them is also a server the likelyhood of the application being run on it crashing and requiring a hard reset is unacceptable to me. That hard reset takes out the server as well. In a system where your primary purpose is to have several machines cooperate on a network render a non dedicated server may be just fine, provided it has the capacity to handle both the demands of its duties as server and its position as a component in a multi processor render. The cable bandwidth issue I talked about plays a role too. Keep in mind that your workstation in a network is bearing the processing load and anything that moves from the server to the workstation is eating up that bandwidth. This includes dowloading the program code if that is located on the servers drive, as well as the data that is being shunted back and forth. Even a 10mps cable like Ethernet can be swamped by a few heavy duty users. I have seen that here using a protocal analyzer to monitor cable traffic. I forgot if I mentioned this in the first half of this message (sigh), but look for a message I just posted to the ADESK folks about a multi processor card I use in my server. If they think it has potential it might be of use to you.

John, keep in mind that Gary told me Tom Hudson coded the net rendering bit of R3 on a 4 node Lantastic 5.0 network (peer to peer) and it is GUARANTEED to work. Gary insists that my problems are hardware/software related, and since I have not had a chance to try a different SCSI controller or motherboard (latter is a VERY unlikely candidate – AMI Enterprise III), I can't disagree.

The 386-40 should work ok with only 3 workstations on the network. I your server is going to be a dedicated server then the most important aspect to its performance is the disk systems throughput. I would not set server up as a print server also. Any excess interrupts (printer ports) will slow the system down. I ran Novell 3.11 on a Compaq 386-25 serving 5 486-66 Autocad stations, for about 2 months. It worked ok. I have since upgraded the server to a 486-66 with 2 EISA bus network cards. This server is now serving 7 486-66 running Acad r12 for win. There was a definately a performance improvement, but much is due to the localbus HD controller and disk Array. I would definately set up the 386-40 and use for now.