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Server Hardware Requirements

2019/03/07 17:35

Here is the recommended server hardware for diskless boot with CCBoot.

CPU:

Intel Quad Core Processor (i3 or higher)

Motherboard:

Server motherboard that supports 16GB or more RAM, 6 to 8 or more SATA Ports.

RAM:

No. Of Clients

Server RAM

10 - 30

16 GB

30 -70

32 GB

70 - 100

64+ GB

For 100+ client PCs, We recommend to use 2 or more Servers with load balance.

Hard Disk: 

Before we go in details about the hard disk need for server, let’s know the different hard disk types in CCBoot.

Image disk: the hard disk that stores the client OS boot data. We call it as "image".

Game disk: the hard disks that store the game data.

Writeback disk: the hard disks that store the client write data. In diskless booting, all data are read and written to/from the server. So we need writeback disk to save the client's write data. Other products are also named it as "write cache".

SSD Disk: the hard disk that is used to cache game disk data. Caching game disk data in SSD Disk give client quicker access to game files as SSD is much faster than traditional HDD.

Required Hard Disks:

1) One SATA HDD is used for server OS (C:\) and CCBoot Server install (D:\).

2) One SSD for image disk - 256GB

3) Only 2x1 TB SSD raid 0 for gamedisk.

We recommend to use Windows 2008 disk manager to setup RAID0 instead of hardware RAID in BIOS. We recommend to set SATA mode as AHCI in BIOS. Because AHCI is better for writeback disks' write performance. For more information, please refer to AHCI on wiki. In the BIOS, SATA mode can only be one of AHCI and RAID. If we set it as AHCI, the RAID function of the motherboard will be invalid. So we use Windows 2008 disk manager to setup RAID0. The performance is same as hardware RAID0

Note: If you skip RAID 0, the read speed of the game may become slow. But if the clients are less than 50 with SSD cache, it is OK to skip RAID 0.


3) Two SSD for write-back disk (256+ GB)

Note: For 25 - 30 users, 1 Write Back disk is enough, for 30+ users, use 2 Write Back disk.

We do NOT recommend to use RAID for write-back disks. If one disk is broken, we can use the other one. If you use RAID for writeback disk, then, one disk breaks then it will cause all clients stop working. On the other hand, CCBoot will auto balance the writeback disk when you have more than one disks. Using two disks the write performance is better than using RAID. Using SSD as writeback disk is better than harddisk as SSD has good IOPS.

Raid 0 from SSD for writeback do not improve performance because for random read/write IOPS will not increase, raid 0 on ssd increase only sequential read/write speed.

4) One SSD disk for SSD cache (256+ GB).

Note: Do not use cheap SSD for writeback and SSD disk as they are unreliable and may cause clients to hang when the SSD gets corrupt. Also, do not use SSD for few roles because it will reduce the performance. Choose a SSD with high read/write speed. Faster SSD for writeback results in better performance for clients. We recommed to use SSD with IOPS for random read/write more than 90K (for example : Samsung EVO series).

Note: Format all hard disk with 32K allocation unit except windows partition/disk , as it provides you the best performance. - Do Not skip this

Conclusion: You need to prepare 7 disks for the server normally. They are 1 SATA HDD and 6 SSD . 1 SATA for system OS, 2 SSD for game disks, 1 SSD for Image disk, 2 SSD for writeback disks and 1 SSD for cache.

Network:

1 Gigabit Ethernet or 2 x 1 Gigabit Ethernet team network. We recommend Intel and Realtek 1 GbE Series. 

For 10-15 PCs, use 1 GbE on server and  for 20-30 PCs, use  2 x 1 GbE  on server.

Use CAT 6 Cable for best performance, can use CAT 5e for smaller deployment of 10-20 PCs.

For network switch, please use 1 GbE unmanaged switch.

Important: Do not use PCI gigabit ethernet card on the server if you are planning to add NICs to give more bandwidth to client

If you want to add more NIC then find PCIe gigabit ethernet cards as they provide better bandwidth than PCI cards.


Sample 1:

Motherboard   : Asrock Z370 Extreme4 
Processor       : Intel Core i7-8700 
Memory          : 32 GB DDR4 RAM 
SSD                : 4 pcs 256GB Samsung EVO 
SATA HDD      : 1 500gb seagate HDD for Server OS/Back Up Files 
SATA HDD      : 2* 1 Terabyte Western Digital Caviar Black 
Casing            : Any Model (Full tower for much better ventilation) 
Power Supply : Any Model/Brand of True rated 650 Watts 
UPS                : Any Brand 


If you want to use only 1 server for more than 100 PCs up to 200 PCs then refer the following hardware requirements.

1. Server OS: 1 x 250 GB SSD
2. Image Disk: 1 x m.2 250GB or higher SSD
3. Writeback disk: 8 x 250 GB SSD 
4. Game disk: 4 x 500GB in RAID 0
5. LAN: 2 x 10 gigabit network cards 
6. RAM: 64-128 GB ram 


Related:

Client Hardware Requirements