Description: AppleShare: Apple II Practical Node Limits
Header: AppleShare: Apple II Practical Node Limits


 This article last reviewed: 28 February 1990

 TOPIC -----------------------------------------

 How many Apple IIs can be started up from an Macintosh SE/30 AppleShare File
 Server?  Theoretically, 50 nodes can be logged on to an AppleShare file server
 at a time, but what is the practical limit?  I've never seen an Apple II
 network larger than about 30 nodes, so I can't really estimate the degradation
 in performance.  Do you know of any sites running 40 or more Apple IIe or
 Apple
 IIGS systems off of one file server?

 DISCUSSION ------------------------------------

 With 1MB RAM, a Macintosh SE/30 allows 25 Apple II workstations to start up
 from the server at the same time.  With 2MB RAM, the limit is increased to 50
 Apple II workstations.

 The practical limit for booting depends on the user's situation.  For example,
 20 Apple IIGS systems starting up at same time from the same server takes
 approximately 10 minutes, whereas 20 Apple IIe systems take about 4 minutes.
 The reason is that the Apple IIGS has more than 120K to load across the
 network, compared to about 20K for the Apple IIe.

 The practical limit for workstations logged on to one server depends on the
 amount of activity taking place on the network.  With low traffic, 50 users
 logged on at one time may be acceptable.  As traffic becomes heavier, it is
 probable that the practical maximum number of active users will decrease.
 Copyright 1989 Apple Computer, Inc.
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