AppleShare: Apple II Practical Node Limits


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?

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.


Published Date: Feb 18, 2012