User:Hamedog/athena

The Athena Libary Catalog System is currently used by the Scotch College Bunning Resource Centre. This report will cover the hardware and software required to run a database. It will also cover the database itself and the ethics and ergonomics of running it.

Hardware

Hardware is the physical componets of each work station. The offical Athena website recomends using work stations on a server with Pentium Processors, a 166MHz bus speed and atleast 128 MB of RAM. It also recommends atleast 20% of free disk space.

Because the school runs on a Novell 6 server, it is more preferable for the school to use a faster processor and to have more RAM on each work station. The Network speed also needs to be fast, with 10MB minimum and speeds of atleast 100MB recommended. These will be explored in more detail below.

Network

Server

The school uses servers to host files. This can be accessed through the Novell 6 Network via user name and password. The IBM xSeries 232 RAID 5, which boasts 3 36 GB harddrives with 'hot swap' capabilities. This allows one harddrive to be pulled out will running, and leaving the other two operational. The RAM of the server is 2 GB.

Cabling

A simple diagram of a Star network

The school uses ethernet cabling to connect each component to the server. These are colour coded so that workstations are blue. Other periherals, such as printers, have there own ethernet cable colour.

To run Athena, it is recommened that cables have atleast 10 MB of speed. 100 MB is preferable.

Cabling can be set up in a varitity of formations. Star, Bus, Ring, Tree and hypertree and Mesh are all common types of networks. The school uses a Star network, in which the server is centeral. A diagram is displayed on the left.

Networking Components

An ethernet hub

Hubs, Routers and ethernet switches are all networking componets.

Hubs

A Hub is a device that connects mulitple ethernet devices together, sending out a single recieved at one port at every other port.

For the school network and the BRC, a hub could be used. However, all the ethernet cables directly connect to the server, meaning a hub is not required.

Switches

Switches are used to form a "transperant bridge", at full speed. They are compatable with hubs.

mackim@scotch.wa.edu.au