[SunRescue] Sparc 10 cover plates

[Michael C. Vergallen]

On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, paul pries wrote:
 
> > I don't think so...we have a small network 16 systems here on Two SMC Hubs
> > and we get local trafic at 8.8 - 9.1 Mbit/sec on ordenary 10Mb/s network.
> 
> As you say, it's a small network. There are also
> traffic patterns to take
> into the calculation. I base my figures on what
> I've seen in practical
> life, sitting at customer sites with a sniffer.
Yes shure ...if the design of your network is no good ...then your
performance will suffer. I know that the day that I'll see performance
suffer on my network I will redesign the whole thing ... Some poeple
however don't take the time  to properly design the network the first time
arround.

> > The worst case I've ever seen is a saturation  point of 3.8 Mbit/s. But 
> then again, this is exceptional. Lots of koax
> segments, mulitport repeaters, some hubs with their TP segments. No
> switching at all, just
> one logical segment with a lot of traffic...
That was asking for trouble in the first place... You should in practice
not extend a network indefinatly..I used to have a coax network here but
I've replaced it... because this was cousing the most problems here.. I've
got the 8 servers on a hub..the 8 workstations are on a second hub. The
workstations all mount their home directory's from a server. Inbetween
the two hubs I will install a switch when I have to upgrade the network to
add more workstations ...so the performance stays the same.

> No one had ever thought of doing a proper design, > no one had thought
> of traffic patterns or what protocols they had
> running.
> It really was a mess.
> 
> What I'm saying is that with a good design,
> understanding users and a small enough network, 
> you get good througput.
It's not the size of the network that counts ...its the design ... IMHO
you should allways overdesign a network. And not go beyond it's
limitations. Users will be users and they allways need double of what you
can give them so take this abord as a design requirement. ( if you need 16 
concurent users plan for 32)..My first network I built was a mess but the
one I use now is okey for the task...however I' allready planning the
upgrade from 16 to 32 systems..and I make shure that every component will
be able to handle the task. 
Michael