How do I set up an application server?

[marsdenprimary]

Hi,

We have a breakfast club here at school and the children like to play games. We have a few network games, single player games etc... In order for the children to access them I used to store them on our 'public' partition on our server (2003).

Now due to the size of it and recent space issues I moved it to another PC and shared the folder on the network- redirecting the shortcuts in the profile folder to the new PC.

The only trouble is it's my office PC as I'm not sure what the best thing is to do.

Would setting up an Application Server be the best thing? We have an old Dell desktop with Dual core and 1Gb RAM that I thought could be suitable.

If so- how do i do it and what's the best way to do it?

[Jamman960]

It'd depend on the apps you'll be running - if its just a matter of providing storage space for them then any pc will do pretty much. Also if you have less than 10 pc's in use for the club then you could just host it from a windows xp/vista/7 machine or just use one of the club pc's for it.

If the apps require sql databases or server side applications to be run then you may need a beefier machine but I'd imagine the dual core machine you've mentioned would be ok to run 2k3 server if needs be - just add a little extra ram for comfort

[CyberNerd]

Would setting up an Application Server be the best thing? We have an old Dell desktop with Dual core and 1Gb RAM that I thought could be suitable.

Probably not (in an application server as in terminal server PoV)

Do you have a decent filtering system such as smoothwall? You could unblock certain approved web games at different times of day.

[marsdenprimary]

It'd depend on the apps you'll be running - if its just a matter of providing storage space for them then any pc will do pretty much. Also if you have less than 10 pc's in use for the club then you could just host it from a windows xp/vista/7 machine or just use one of the club pc's for it.

If the apps require sql databases or server side applications to be run then you may need a beefier machine but I'd imagine the dual core machine you've mentioned would be ok to run 2k3 server if needs be - just add a little extra ram for comfort

What I do at the moment is have the games on the PC in my office and the children access them from there. No program data is stored locally on the machines. It seems to run pretty well. Also, I'd like to store MSI packages on there for any new builds that I put in as I have automatic software installation setup on our server.

[marsdenprimary]

Probably not (in an application server as in terminal server PoV)

Do you have a decent filtering system such as smoothwall? You could unblock certain approved web games at different times of day.

We let them go on Friv for those games but I've downloaded some freeware stuff for them that they absolutely love.