Not directly related to Linux, but hopefully the feedback you give might help me to persuade this school I am working with to explore the Linux server route.
At present this school has some 200 oe so XP-Pro based workstations that have a modest but not inadequate spec. At the server end they are running three well speced Xenon based Raid-5 systems. The server software is RM CC3 (Community Connect Three), which is based on Windows Server 2000 with RM's ageing proprietary management / security overlay.
Now here's the problem: Workstations take about 2.5 minutes to boot up to the Login prompt -- apparently the CC3 workstation overlay does loads of checking with the server to implement security settings etc before the user can log in. Now when I say 2.5 minutes to reach a Login prompt ...well that's on a good day. On a bad day this can take a good ten minutes or even longer.
As for the time it takes to get from logging in to being presented with a usable XP 'Start' menu, well this takes at least another two minutes ...again on a good day. In practice it sometimes takes between a quarter-of-an-hour and twenty minutes to get from 'power on' to a usable 'Start' menu.
OK. So the two managed service providers involved in supporting this school's site are playing 'pass the buck'. Meanwhile the school management is gradually waking up to the fact this level of performance isn't actually normal!
So what I want to know from the good members of this list is how long in practice does it take you to boot a networked XP workstation to Logon and thereafter to a usable menu ...talking to either a Linux (Samba) server or a Windows 2000 / 2003 server? Note that all users of this school network use 'roaming profiles'.
Also if anyone on this list can get access to a RM CC3 based network, what sort of boot / logon / Start Menu times are you commonly achieving with this setup in practice?
Thanks in advance.
David Bowles
Just curious... what is the need for CC3 on their network? Surely anything that can be done in RM software can be done through properly set up user and group policies? Win 2k and XP can be locked down very tightly if someone is willing to spare the half hour or so to think logically through all the settings. As part of our upgrade last summer to 2k we created new profiles from scratch and spent most of a morning deciding what to lock down, though mainly that was deciding on policy issues rather than whether we thought it'd stop the machine from working. We went from the basis of deny all, allow grudgingly. The result is nicely locked down workstations throughout the building with only a couple of complaints about certain restrictions (soon fixed), and very little in the way of issues in comparison to previous years spent forever fixing things students messed up under Windows 95/98. I just timed a Celeron 700 box with 256mb RAM here, booting up into XP and onto our Novell network, 28seconds to log in prompt 20 seconds to start menu. Paul Graydon Network Technician mailto:graydpau@hhc.ac.uk ; http://www.hhc.ac.uk The human mind is like an umbrella, it functions best when open.