Hi all. I'd add an extra point - we developed Koha on the Katipo development server, which is a Pentium II 233 with 256Mb of RAM, that does a bunch of other stuff as well (hosts ~60 other websites, runs mail, usual ISP type stuff), and it works fine on that. Sizing is likely to be dependant largely upon how many concurrent users you're going to have, and how heavily they're going to be using the system - for only a couple of users, you could easily get away with a Pentium with 64-96Mb RAM, with > 50 users you would probably want to go to a bigger box, with plenty of RAM. It's also relatively modular, so that you can run the web server, telnet clients and database on different machines, if you need to. In a real sense, it's just a standard dynamic website with a database backend, so a lot of the material on the 'net about sizing servers with apache and mysql is probably applicable here as well. I should also add that the config below supports about 30 concurrent clients - about 7 opacs, and the rest staff machines and circulation. Cheers Si On Thu, 13 Jul 2000, Rachel Hamilton-Williams wrote:
hi Sue - I hope you don't mind, but I forward your questions and reply to the mailing list so everyone could see the answers - I'm sure it's what everyone wants to know :-)
.... just about 'everything' but for a start....
What hardware is required to run it?
Horowhenua have 2 linux boxes that comprise Koha.
One is an AMDK6/500 with 256 Mb of Ram and 2 x 15GB hard drive - it runs the OPACs and Issue and Returns machines which at horowhenua are dumb diskless 486's, so this machine is running lots of copies of Netscape and telnet. Cost was approx $2000 (without screen or keyboard). This machine is also the HLT server for staff to use - so it has all the usual mail and home directories etc, and it functions as a dial in server for the branches - so there are a couple of modems in it for them to use.
The second machine is running the actual database, and webserver - it is an Athlon 650, 256 MB Ram, 2x 15GB hard drive - running MYSQl and Apache. Cost was Approx $2100 (without screen or keyboard). The double hard drives are so that the main disk can be mirrored nightly for backup.
The actual database is only about 80mb on disk, (15 GB were cheep that week :-)
If all your clients are "real" PC's that have enough ram etc to run interent explorer you don't actually need to have the first machine. However if you have a lot of old gear, then spending $2000 in an extra server is probably cheeper than buying a lot of new pc's for the public to use.
The Hardware at the "client" end, ranges from some very old 486 machines that function as terminals through to Pentium and higher PC's.
How many branches does Horowhenua have?
Main library in Levin and 2 staffed branches in Foxton and shannon, and one in tokamaru that I don't think has paid staff.
I'd like to see the acquisitions / cataloguing module....
Hmm - something odd was going on there but is all fixed now - http://hlt.katipo.co.nz/
We have taken out peoples last names and addresses - for privacy - so if you're doing member searches unfortunatly you can only go on first names.
Hope that's enough to be going on with.
Cheers Rachel
_____________________________________________________________
Rachel Hamilton-Williams Katipo Communications WEBMISTRESS ph 025 300 825 or +64 04 389 1285 mailto:rachel@katipo.co.nz PO Box 7039, Wellington http://www.katipo.co.nz New Zealand
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