Rebirth of the big era of online games

Chapter 125 "Diskless Workstations"

Those who have used the Internet in Internet cafes in future generations will know that Internet cafes have the black technology of "diskless workstations".

And Fang Jie's plan is to bring out this black technology in advance.

In fact, it is not considered black technology. Microsoft tried diskless workstations when it was WIN95, and it even existed when it was a DOS operating system, but it was not very popular, and it was generally only used for online teaching.

The principle of the diskless workstation, simply put, is to separate the hard disk from the host computer, the client side of the diskless workstation only performs operations but not storage, and the storage is all on the server side of the diskless workstation.

To put it more simply, its principle is like an online game. Players enter the game through the client and can read the data of the game server to play online games, but they cannot rewrite the data of the server. All data processing is done on the server.

Reducing its size to an Internet cafe is the same.

Every ordinary computer is a client. Whether it is surfing the Internet, playing games, or watching movies, it does not read the hard disk data on this computer, but reads the hard disk data on the server host.

In this way, the benefits of establishing a diskless workstation are many.

The bottom line: save money.

Each computer saves the hard disk money, and the money saved by 100 computers is 10,000+.

Then the performance of each computer does not need to be too high, and the cost of replacement is greatly reduced. Even if it is a computer with a 586 chip, as long as it is connected to a diskless workstation, its performance may not be worse than that of the Pentium system.

The second is to save a lot of update and maintenance costs.

For example, the current mode of Internet cafes is that if a game comes out, the responsible Internet cafe owner will go to the computer city to buy the game CD, and then install the game on each computer.

It can be imagined that if it is an Internet cafe with a scale of 100 computers, just installing games, one by one, even if you don’t sleep for 24 hours, you can’t do it without 3 or 4 days.

If it is an irresponsible Internet cafe, then the player should bring their own CD to install, which is really easy, but just like when Li Yi went to the Telecom Internet cafe, he immediately lost interest when he saw that there was no CS, and he might change to another Internet cafe. .

This is just a game, and an online game or stand-alone game will pop up every now and then. If the Internet cafe does not have a diskless workstation, it is estimated that the network administrators will not be able to install all the games even if they are open all year round.

With a diskless workstation, you only need to install the game once on the server, and all client computers of the diskless workstation can share and run the game.

The same is true for game updates, you only need to complete the update on the server. In his previous life, Fang Jie encountered this kind of cheating situation. After logging into the game online, he found that the game has been updated, and he often has to wait two hours for the update to complete. into the game.

What's more, this is equivalent to saving a lot of money, because in addition to the server, CD-ROM and floppy drives do not need to be installed.

In addition, there are many other benefits.

For example, when you turn on the computer, you can enter the system desktop in about 10-15 seconds, which is unimaginable for non-diskless workstations.

For example, for system security, there is no need to be afraid of someone surfing the Internet randomly changing the system settings, because his computer does not have a hard disk and cannot rewrite the data stored on the server.

Another example is that system maintenance is more convenient, and there is almost no need for maintenance. As long as the server is well maintained and all security patches are applied, there is no fear of various malicious attacks.

There is also watching movies. The total size of a separate computer hard disk is only so large. Even in later generations, hundreds of gigabytes can’t hold many movies, but a diskless workstation can hold thousands or even tens of thousands of gigabytes of movies and stand-alone games, which is huge. Enriched entertainment options for everyone.

The only disadvantage of a diskless workstation is that it costs a hard disk, and once the hard disk is scrapped, the entire Internet cafe will collapse.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, a diskless workstation will have at least two servers, one for operation and one for backup.

There is no need to buy another server. In addition to the dozens of servers "gifted" to Tencent, Fang Jie now has 15 server hosts on hand.

Due to the decline in the number of MUD game players, 10 are more than enough for game servers, and the remaining 5 are just right for diskless workstation servers in Internet cafes.

Under normal circumstances, if a computer with ordinary configuration is used as a diskless workstation server, it will be enough to drive 30 client computers, but these servers are not ordinary configuration.

Coupled with some optimization technologies he has mastered, it is no problem for each server to drive 80-100 terminals.

But there is no need to be so picky, each server can carry 50 terminal computers, 4 servers can carry 200, and the remaining one server is used as a backup, and it is placed at the bar as a cashier management computer.

perfect!

Of course, the game server is not a diskless workstation server after all, and some adjustments need to be made on some configurations.

For example, hard disks have to be repartitioned, and all hard disks have to be reassembled to form a disk array.

Whether it is a server or a terminal, a network card needs to be configured, and it is not an ordinary network card, at least a 100M or even a 1000M network card. This thing is a rare item at the moment, and computer merchants have to find suppliers to transfer goods, and it is not yet fully equipped. .

There are also various supporting hardware such as routers and switches.

In addition, the operating system of the server must be made into WIN2000.

No way, although Fang Jie doesn't like the WIN2000 operating system very much, but the diskless workstation can only be installed on WIN2000, and WIN98 does not have the network installation command Netsetup, and does not provide the diskless workstation function.

Speaking of the operating system, in fact, Fang Jie is fully capable of adapting the Windows operating system by himself. Even if there are enough coders under his command, and then give him a certain amount of time, it is not a problem to create an operating system by himself.

Because in the previous life, the core source code of the WIN2000 operating system was leaked, and Fang Jie studied it for a period of time because of eating melons.

As for the WINXP operating system, Microsoft itself is working on open source. Although this kind of open source is a bit hidden, it is indeed open source and easier to carry.

But then again, this is a systematic project, so let's forget it for now, because we don't have the time, energy, or conditions to do it.

The first task now is to get the relevant configuration of the diskless workstation and the Internet cafe management system ready before the Internet cafe opens.

The so-called Internet cafe management system...

In fact, in essence, it is a Trojan horse program.

This is not alarmist talk, it is the truth.

Know the common functions of Trojan horse programs, remote monitoring, remote control, remote reading and storage of data, remote locking of the mouse desktop...

The basic functions of the Internet cafe management system are also these, and it is nothing more than legitimate use.

But is the Trojan horse program difficult for Fang Jie?
Emmmmmm…

It's still a bit difficult, after all, he only has a little understanding of this aspect...

(End of this chapter)