Re: Two buildings: Citrix or synchronized file servers?

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Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 16:29:11 -0400

If the buildings are relatively close together, and you have the hardware to
support it, why not run fiber lines from one building to the other? All you
would need to connect the 2 buildings (much like what we do here at my
place) is a module in a switch to support fiber connections. We use gigabit
fiber, but I believe there is a form of it that's rated for 100mbit.

If you don't have the hardware already that'll support it, you could get 2
switches and fiber gigabit modules, then would only have to worry about
running fiber underground. Depending on how far apart the buildings are,
and what's gotta be crossed (asphalt, dirt/grass, concrete, etc.) you could
probably have that done for cheaper than it would cost to build an extra
server, licenses, and the un priceable user agony, and of course your own
agony for having to listen to them complain about how slow the network is.

My situation is a little different from your's... I have about 50 feet
between my buildings, and have fiber running underground from the phone
closet of one building underground, to a corner of the other building, then
up into the rafters, down to the closet in the other building, with HP
Procurve switches (sorry for the plug!) and fiber modules installed on each
side.

Less to manage with my set up, and we don't keep any servers in the other
building, save for a VERY low end DC just to eliminate a single point of
failure. If that DC went down, no big deal--it was a pentium 200. Fast in
its hay-day, but that's L O N G gone ;)

HTH

Ken

"Andrew J. Brehm" <ajbrehm@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1glvkpf.9u4rgt19qnrcwN%ajbrehm@gmail.com...
>I have a problem with a strategic deployment decision and was wondering
> whether anybody here was ever in the same situation and/or can provide
> some information or opinion.
>
> The situation is as follows.
>
> My company have moved one department into another building in the same
> general area as the main building. The buildings are currently connected
> with a 20 Mbit/s connection but this will be scaled down to 2 Mbit/s
> (for data and internal telephone).
>
> The users in the building use mainly Microsoft Office, Citrix clients to
> connect to a terminal server in the main building, the Web, and a
> database client to connect to a database in the main building. They also
> use Outlook to access a mail server in the main building.
>
> There are about 40 users there tops.
>
> The setup seems very slow at the moment (using 20 Mbit/s) but works. I'm
> afraid it might not work as well with less than 2 Mbit/s.
>
> We have come up with two plans so far.
>
> 1. Install a mail server (Exchange) in the new building and forward
> mails to it or keep it synchronized with the main mail server (how?);
> install a local file server in the new building and synchronize it with
> one directory on the main file server every night.
>
> This would bring down network traffic to emails sent and received (as
> opposed to any mailbox access) and database access.
>
> The alternative is:
>
> 2. Keep everything in the main building, install several terminal
> servers (Citrix?), let 30 people work on terminals servers via the 2
> Mbit/s link while the rest use laptops (they are not always in that
> office).
>
> This would reduce network traffic to the ICA or RDC connections, but I
> am not sure whether this is really a reduction.
>
> I have no idea whether 30-35 Citrix connections will work via a 2 Mbit/s
> link.
>
> So considering the two alternatives, what other alternatives are there
> or which one makes more sense. Considering administration workload I
> tend to prefer the second one, but can it work at all?
>
>
>
> --
> Andrew J. Brehm
> Marx Brothers Fan
> PowerPC User
> Supporter of Chicken Pizza

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