This article provides recommendations for selecting server components and configuring network equipment for the diskless SENET Boot system. Specifically, such components as:
- Server PC OS
- Motherboard
- CPU
- RAM
- OS drive
- Writeback drive
- Image drive
- Game drive
- Network card
- Network switch
- RAID
📌 Keep in mind that the system requirements for a server PC depend on the number of client workstations. SENET Boot's stability correlates with the server and client PC specs, the total number of client PCs, and the stability of the Internet connection.
*The tables show the optimal requirements for components. The specifications of your hardware for the given number of PCs may be higher than the suggested ones.
Server PC OS requirements
The PC that will serve as the SENET Boot server must be running Windows 10x64 Pro or Windows Server (2019 or more recent). In some cases, antivirus may affect the stability of the system, so installing such a program on this PC is not recommended.
🔎 If you want to use the aggregation, i.e. set up multiple network connections from the server to the switch to balance the load, we recommend installing Windows Server.
Motherboard
Recommendations for motherboard selection are based on the number of ports that will be used for:
- RAM;
- network cards;
- hard drives.
Important! When choosing M.2 drives, check if the M.2 ports share a channel with SATA on the controller and count the total number of drives you can install. This information can be found in the motherboard specification notes on the manufacturer's official website.
CPU
|
Number of client PCs |
Specifications |
|
Up to 39 PCs |
4 cores/8 threads, 2 GHz or higher |
|
40–150 PCs |
8 cores/16 threads, 2 GHz or higher |
RAM
|
Number of client PCs |
Specifications |
Examples |
|
Up to 39 PCs |
up to 16 GB | (2 X 8 GB) DDR4 |
|
40-150 PCs |
up to 32 GB | (2 x 16 GB) DDR4 |
Important! RAM for up to 150 PCs might range from 16 to 32 GB, depending on the extra tasks performed by the server. The extra memory can be used for the RAM Cache feature, which speeds up access to data on drives where content and images are stored. This approach helps to reduce the load on the disks and, as a result, increases the speed of the system.
-
📌 Choose an ECC (error-corrected memory) RAM module, as there may be situations where the data on the disk may become corrupted due to errors in the RAM module.
OS drive
The system drive does not require a lot of memory because it is used only to load the operating system and related files. The disk does not affect the performance of SENET Boot.
|
Number of client PCs |
Specifications |
Examples |
|
Up to 150 PCs |
500 GB |
Samsung 870 EVO SATA 500 GB or Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro 500 GB |
-
📌We recommend using solid-state drives (SSD) rather than QLC or classic hard drives (HDD), as those are much slower. Also, it is desirable to have SSDs with a PLP (Power Loss Protection) option because it prevents data loss during power failure. Do not use cheap SSDs, as they are unreliable and can cause client PCs to freeze in case of SSD damage. Also, do not use one SSD for multiple purposes, as this will affect performance. Choose the SSD with high read/write speed. A faster SSD for the writeback process gives better performance. We recommend using the SSD with IOPS for random writing/reading data of 90K and more (for example Samsung EVO series).
-
🔎 If your hard drive is larger than 2 TB, you need to initialize the disk using the GPT method. You can also format the hard drive with a 32 KB allocation block (except for the Windows partition/drive) to improve performance. To improve performance and extend the life of your drives, always leave at least 15% free space on them.
Writeback drive
Writeback drives are used to store temporary data. At the beginning of a user session, a writeback file is created and then deleted after restarting the PC. A new session is started with an empty file for writing writebacks.
When choosing a disk for writebacks, keep in mind that 50 GB of space should be allocated for 1 client PC. Choose a drive based on the number of PCs that will be running on a diskless system in your venue.
Important! You can purchase an alternative to the specified models that has the same or superior characteristics.
-
📌 You can use multiple drives for writebacks, and the system will automatically distribute the load between them. By default, the "Most empty" algorithm is used, which focuses on the disk with the most free memory to store data. However, a problem may arise if one of the drives has a significantly larger capacity, as it will be prioritized until it is equal in size to the other one.
There is an alternative algorithm, "Round robin", which can be activated through a local configuration file.
|
Number of client PCs |
Specifications |
Examples |
| Up to 10 PCs | 500 GB |
Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro 500 GB |
|
11–20 PCs |
1 TB |
Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro 1 TB |
|
21–49 PCs |
2 TB |
Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro 2 TB |
|
50–59 PCs |
3 TB |
Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro 2 TB + Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro 1 TB |
|
60–89 PCs |
4 TB |
Kingston KC3000 M2 NVMe 4 TB |
|
90–100 PCs |
5 TB | Kingston KC3000 M2 NVMe 4 TB (1 un.) + Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro 2 TB (1 unit) |
|
101–150 PCs |
8 TB |
Kingston KC3000 M2 NVMe 4 TB (2 units) |
📌The system shows a warning when the writeback drive is almost full. If it gets completely full, the system will automatically delete the biggest writeback file. This prevents the system from stopping entirely. Only the PCs with the largest writebacks will restart to keep everything running smoothly.
🔎 The system shows a warning when writebacks start growing rapidly. If at least two writebacks in the venue are larger than 30 GB, a warning appears in the admin panel. These alerts help quickly detect when a writeback is getting too big, so the administrator can check the system and run any necessary updates.
Image drive
The image is a copy of the OS data that will be available to all venue visitors on client PCs.
|
Number of client PCs |
Specifications |
Examples |
| Up to 30 PCs | 500 GB |
Samsung 870 EVO SATA |
| 31-99 PCs | 500 GB |
Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro 500 GB |
|
100-150 PCs |
1 TB |
Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro 1 TB |
Important! We do not recommend using images created based on other diskless systems. To do this, use the built-in Windows Installation function on Senet Boot.
Game drive
The Content Drive is used to store games and programs that will be available to clients. This drive can be viewed and edited by all users. Changes made by any clients are available to them only and will be deleted when the PC is restarted.
For optimal system performance, it is important to choose the right drives to prevent system slowdowns. One of the key aspects is the disk read speed. For example, if the disk read speed is 1000 MB/s and the venue has 10 PCs, then each of these PCs receives data at 100 MB/s. However, the limitations in this case will be determined by the drive, even if the network channel has a bandwidth of up to 1 GB/s.
To avoid overloading the drive subsystem, we recommend considering the following options:
- Install a drive with a higher file reading speed, which will significantly speed up the system.
- Implement the RAID technology on the server to increase performance. RAID allows you to combine several physical disks into a single logical device, which provides enhanced data access speed and ensures data safety in case of failure of one of the disks.
|
Number of client PCs |
Specifications |
Examples |
| Up to 70 PCs | Depending on the amount of content that will be uploaded |
Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro
|
|
70-150 PCs |
2 TB Raid (optional) |
Kingston KC3000 M2 NVMe
or
Samsung Nvme M2 990 Pro
|
Network card
|
Number of client PCs |
Specifications |
Examples |
|
Up to 39 PCs |
10 GbE | Asus XG-C100F 10G |
|
40–79 PCs |
20 GbE (10 GbE x 2) | Intel X520-2 SFP+ (10GB/s) |
|
80–119 PCs |
30 GbE (10 GbE x 3) |
2x Intel X520-2 SFP+ (10GB/s) or 1x Intel X710-DA4 Quad (10GB/s) |
|
120–150 PCs |
40 GbE (10 GbE x 4) |
2x Intel X520-2 SFP+ (10GB/s) or 1x Intel X710-DA4 Quad (10GB/s) |
📌 If you plan on using multiple network cards to increase your bandwidth, choose cards with a PCIe interface.
Network switch
|
Number of client PCs |
Specifications |
Examples |
|
Up to 39 PCs |
1x 48-port gigabit switch, minimum two 10 GB SFP+ ports |
HP ION 1930 48G 4SFP+ or TP-LINK TL-SG3452X 48XGE 4X10GE/SFP+ L2 JETSTREAM 19" 1U |
|
40–79 PCs |
2x 48-port gigabit switch, minimum two 10 GB SFP+ ports |
HP ION 1930 48G 4SFP+ or TP-LINK TL-SG3452X 48XGE 4X10GE/SFP+ L2 JETSTREAM 19" 1U |
|
80–119 PCs |
3x 48-port gigabit switch, minimum two 10 GB SFP+ ports |
HP ION 1930 48G 4SFP+ or TP-LINK TL-SG3452X 48XGE 4X10GE/SFP+ L2 JETSTREAM 19" 1U |
|
120–150 PCs |
4x 48-port gigabit switch, minimum two 10 GB SFP+ ports |
HP ION 1930 48G 4SFP+ or TP-LINK TL-SG3452X 48XGE 4X10GE/SFP+ L2 JETSTREAM 19" 1U |
RAID
It is recommended to use this technology for RAID10 and RAID1 levels for data protection. RAID5 / RAID6 and their variants are generally not recommended because they have inferior performance. If you selected RAID 0, we recommend using Windows Disk Manager to configure RAID0 instead of hardware RAID in BIOS. To do this, you need to enable AHCI mode for SATA in the BIOS. This mode promotes better disk performance. In BIOS, SATA mode can only be AHCI or RAID. If set to AHCI, the motherboard RAID function will be inactive. Therefore, use the Windows Disk Manager to configure RAID0. The performance will be the same as the hardware RAID0.
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