Deployment Guide/School Server

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6. School Server

Part of our deployment model is to utilize school servers. A School server is designed to provide a gateway to the Internet, a local content repository, back-up, school management, etc. As important as all of these services, their most critical role is to scale the local-area network. Without a school server, the largest network that can be maintained is approximately 20 laptops. Each school server can maintain a network of approximately 120 laptops, so in environments with more devices you can put in place multiple schoolservers.

The reasons for this difference include:

• Without the schoolserver, the XO laptops use multicast to communicate with each other which puts a heavy load on the network. The school server eliminates the need for much of the multicast traffic.
• The school server can unify up to three separate mesh channels.

We are working towards allowing a laptop to serve the role of the School Server for small schools; but that goal has not been reached yet and so it is not currently an option. Your schoolserver should be a basic PC and the specifications and instructions for setting up a schoolserver is on the Schoolserver page.

Note: the numbers of machines supported in each network configuration are in flux at the moment. You will need to experiment with the technology a little. Look for documentation from other teams to help you.

Please consider the table below when making your deployment plans.

<20	<40	<80	<120	>120
no server	server + 1 access point	server + 2 access points	server + 3 access points	server + many access points

A number of computers may act as a school server, but it must be a Fedora-capable computer. Recommended minimum specifications for a school server are as follows:

Server	Laptops Supported	Processor	RAM	Storage
Small	<20-25	466 MHz	256 MB	40-60 GB
Large	<150	1 GHz	1 GB	320-400 GB