Planning for Shared Installations

This section summarizes some technical issues related to shared installations of Windows 95.

Technical issues for all network clients on shared installations.

Network logon is required before running Windows 95 on shared installations, because network connectivity is required before Windows 95 can run across the network. This can be a generic logon, rather than specific user logon. For more information, see "Configuring Shared Installations."

Technical issues for Microsoft protected-mode clients.

These issues are important in your planning for shared installations that use Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks or Client for Microsoft Networks:

Technical issues for other network clients.

Client computers can run a shared copy of Windows 95 from a server using real-mode network software other than the Microsoft real-mode networking software used for system startup. However, computers that don't use the Microsoft real-mode network software for system startup cannot use protected-mode network clients (such as Client for Microsoft Networks or Client for NetWare Networks).

Shared installation requirements.

Server-based Setup operates on one server at a time. You specify a particular server where Windows 95 files are to be installed and where related machine directories will be created for shared installations.

However, the machine directories do not need to be created on the same server where the Windows 95 files are installed. In fact, to balance the network load, you might prefer to designate specific servers to maintain the Windows 95 source files, and other servers to contain the machine directories and login scripts. Typically, you need to make Windows 95 source files available from multiple servers, both to provide fault tolerance and to reduce network traffic.

On the server, 90 MB of hard disk space is required for the Windows 95 source files. The following summarizes the disk space required for each machine directory on a shared installation, not including the swap file space requirements.

Startup type

Server space required for machine directory

Hard disk

1.5 MB (machine directories are optional)

Floppy

2 MB

Remote boot

2 MB


The following table summarizes the disk space and memory requirements for client computers running Windows 95.

Recommended Client System Configuration for Windows 95

Windows 95 location

Disk space

Memory

Protected-mode1

Real-mode2

Local hard-disk startup, local Windows 95

20 MB

8 MB (4 MB)3

8 MB (4 MB)

Local hard-disk startup, Windows 95 on a server

2 MB (1 MB4)

8 MB (4 MB)

8 MB (4 MB)

Floppy-disk startup, Windows 95 on a server

1.2 MB floppy drive

8 MB (4 MB)

8 MB (4 MB)

Remote-boot startup, Windows 95 on a server

0

8 MB (6 MB)

8 MB (4 MB)


1 Microsoft Client for NetWare Networks or Client for Microsoft Networks.

2 For example, Novell NetWare NETX real-mode client.

3 The first number indicates recommended memory; the second value is the minimum requirement.

4 If this configuration uses a machine directory on a server, only the Registry and basic files are local.

Swap file requirements for shared installations.

By default, the swap file for a shared installation is stored in the machine directory. For floppy-disk and remote-boot computers, this means that all paging occurs across the network. If computers configured for floppy-disk or remote-boot startup have hard disks, you will see noticeable performance improvements is the swap file is placed on the hard disk.

To change the location for the swap file, add the entry pagingfile=c:\win386.swp in the [386Enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file stored in the machine directory. You can add this setting automatically using an [Install] section in the setup script, as described in Appendix D, "MSBATCH.INF Parameters."

The swap file size requirements vary, depending on the amount of RAM in the client computer, the number and kinds of applications that are run, and other factors. For guidelines on swap file size, see Chapter 17, "Performance Tuning."