Setting up a diskless computer network

[Deus Regum]

Im looking into starting up my own cyber cafe. with the theme being esports. and i need help on the networking side.

I want to use a diskless setup where all the game files are stored in a server. i going to use my personal PC for this server. then the client terminals won't have a hdd but instead would boot up from the server. im planning on starting with 20 terminals/units. 

what kind of internet bandwidth should i get?

what configuration of modem/router/switch should i go with?

any more suggestions and advice is much appreciated. 

)

[costacis21]

i think you would better go with an hdd for each system bcs in order to have ~5 people getting files from 1 server you would need SSDs in raid 0. that's because you will need a low enough response time + high bandwidth.

 

 

EDIT: if you decide to go with your network setup,some pics of the final project would be greatly appreciated

[C0LL0SS0S]

Wow for that kind of Data I would atleast get a NAS, also bandwith should be as high as possible.
Just get 500GB HDDs per PC

[Deus Regum]

i think you would better go with an hdd for each system bcs in order to have ~5 people getting files from 1 server you would need SSDs in raid 0. that's because you will need a low enough response time + high bandwidth.

 

 

EDIT: if you decide to go with your network setup,some pics of the final project would be greatly appreciated

 

 

Wow for that kind of Data I would atleast get a NAS, also bandwith should be as high as possible.

Just get 500GB HDDs per PC

well. im willing to spend the extra mile because going diskless would mean i only need to update the games/software on one pc and it will be updated on all pc's. plus i would have higher control over each terminal. ) iguess(?)

[C0LL0SS0S]

Well I bet there are programs that handle that stuffs

[Deus Regum]

Well I bet there are programs that handle that stuffs

so okay. well i guess thats a given on the server side. 

i'm just asking on what i might need on the network infrastructure. 

 

[costacis21]

if you insist on going diskless, my advice would be to have a 10gbit switch + a 10gbit network card on each computer so the response time would be as minimal as possible, and on the server i would recommend using SSDs in raid 0 or 10(if you want redundancy) and another 1 or 2 10gigabit nics in it. Also do some research on projects similar to yours.

[dzonidev]

Interesting idea... Honestly I don't see this idea(bird) making it off the ground. Call me a passimist but let's get the facts here:

 

  - You need a 10Gbps network, even if it's overkill you need to make sure the network is not the bottleneck.
  - Latency plays a big role.

  - You need a lot of ram in the client, somewhere to cache the data loaded up from the NAS.

  - You would still need to buy a game/licence per PC and

  - You would need a BIG uplink from the NAS to the 10G Switch. Port Teaming most likely.

  - NAS, must run SSD-s or some crazy RAID to achieve speeds of like 1GB/s.

 

If the technicall stuff doesn't make it impossible, an investment like this would set you back tens of thousands of dollars. You might not even break even with such investment. Not to mention the amount of time and money you need to spend maintaining this system...

[Deus Regum]

Interesting idea... Honestly I don't see this idea(bird) making it off the ground. Call me a passimist but let's get the facts here:

 

  - You need a 10Gbps network, even if it's overkill you need to make sure the network is not the bottleneck.

  - Latency plays a big role.

  - You need a lot of ram in the client, somewhere to cache the data loaded up from the NAS.

  - You would still need to buy a game/licence per PC and

  - You would need a BIG uplink from the NAS to the 10G Switch. Port Teaming most likely.

  - NAS, must run SSD-s or some crazy RAID to achieve speeds of like 1GB/s.

 

If the technicall stuff doesn't make it impossible, an investment like this would set you back tens of thousands of dollars. You might not even break even with such investment. Not to mention the amount of time and money you need to spend maintaining this system...

well, i mainly based this idea on the cyber cafes around here in my country. 

laws and regulations around digital goods is kinda lenient here so 1 license is good for triple AAA games. but what im aiming for are mainly Dota2, LoL, Starcraft and some other Free RTS,MMORPGs popular here. so game license isn't really the issue. 

 

[unijab]

look into PXE booting

[mineblaster]

you maybe able to set up an iscsi target drive (virtual drive) and boot off that. i havent done it myself but it can be done

 

 

 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/255668/how_to_speed_up_your_nas_with_iscsi.html

[adhisakti]

I prefer local hdd storage because running games from NAS will impact your network bandwidth and you need a high performance NAS. For game updates, you can set up a proxy server that cache the files needed for updating. Try IPFire with Update Accelerator, it's free and not difficult to setup if you have a basic network and routing knowledge.

[softstone]

Hi,

 

Firstoff, your idea could work in theory, but is not executable in a profitable manner, anyway:

 

The answers to your questions:

1. What kind of internet bandwidth should i get?
2. What configuration of modem/router/switch should i go with?
3. Any more suggestions and advice is much appreciated.

--

1. I guess you mean WAN bandwith, get a professional contract with an ISP and get the highest bandwith you can get.
2. You shoud invest a lot of money in quality equipment. Your desktop PC will not be able to manage 20 clients. I would recommend getting the 'modem'(gateway) that your ISP recommends. Get a good firewall like the Zyxel USG60, hook it up to a switch like the HP Procurve V1910-48G. 
3. Execute the games locally on the client, build simple systems with an i3, 4gb ram and a good gpu. Install windows, manage the clients with a windows server (Dell PowerEdge R220)with an active directory and all the other good windows client management stuff. Get proper CAT5e 24 awg 100% Cu cable. Mount everything in a 19'' rack.

[dzonidev]

 

Hi,

 

Firstoff, your idea could work in theory, but is not executable in a profitable manner, anyway:

 

The answers to your questions:

1. What kind of internet bandwidth should i get?
2. What configuration of modem/router/switch should i go with?
3. Any more suggestions and advice is much appreciated.

--

1. I guess you mean WAN bandwith, get a professional contract with an ISP and get the highest bandwith you can get.
2. You shoud invest a lot of money in quality equipment. Your desktop PC will not be able to manage 20 clients. I would recommend getting the 'modem'(gateway) that your ISP recommends. Get a good firewall like the Zyxel USG60, hook it up to a switch like the HP Procurve V1910-48G. 
3. Execute the games locally on the client, build simple systems with an i3, 4gb ram and a good gpu. Install windows, manage the clients with a windows server (Dell PowerEdge R220)with an active directory and all the other good windows client management stuff. Get proper CAT5e 24 awg 100% Cu cable. Mount everything in a 19'' rack.

 

 

 

Good idea except, we are talking about a LAN network. The OP explicitly wants a over the network setup.

Which reminds me, something like SAN could very well be the best solution, however as many posters suggested this is a very expensive setup.

[dalekphalm]

 

Hi,

 

Firstoff, your idea could work in theory, but is not executable in a profitable manner, anyway:

 

The answers to your questions:

1. What kind of internet bandwidth should i get?
2. What configuration of modem/router/switch should i go with?
3. Any more suggestions and advice is much appreciated.

--

1. I guess you mean WAN bandwith, get a professional contract with an ISP and get the highest bandwith you can get.
2. You shoud invest a lot of money in quality equipment. Your desktop PC will not be able to manage 20 clients. I would recommend getting the 'modem'(gateway) that your ISP recommends. Get a good firewall like the Zyxel USG60, hook it up to a switch like the HP Procurve V1910-48G. 
3. Execute the games locally on the client, build simple systems with an i3, 4gb ram and a good gpu. Install windows, manage the clients with a windows server (Dell PowerEdge R220)with an active directory and all the other good windows client management stuff. Get proper CAT5e 24 awg 100% Cu cable. Mount everything in a 19'' rack.

 

 

 

Good idea except, we are talking about a LAN network. The OP explicitly wants a over the network setup.

Which reminds me, something like SAN could very well be the best solution, however as many posters suggested this is a very expensive setup.

 

In addition to these suggestions, I highly recommend installing and configuring a system state management software suite, such as Deep Freeze:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Freeze_%28software%29

 

The purpose behind this software is to configure the client PC in the state you desire, then "freezing" the computer in said state. What that means is that, a user can use it, even be given local Admin access (though you'd likely want to team this with Active Directory to lock down a lot of settings). The user then uses the PC as they would, playing games, downloading software, messing around, etc.

 

And when the PC is rebooted, all settings, changes, downloads, even viruses, get wiped and the system is restored from the "frozen" template state.

 

We use Deep Freeze here at my work to manage about 40-ish public computers. It works really well to make sure that each new user gets a good user experience, and no matter what the user does, it won't mess up the computer for the next user.

 

You'd likely want to team this with some sort of Reservation/login management software, that will reboot the computer automatically after each person is done using it (Usually with a time-limit like 1 hour or 2 hours, etc - with the ability to extend the session time easily). We use "PC Reservation" by Envisionware for this function. It works, but there are alternatives for this too.