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I want to setup a Windows Server 2008 machine and use it as Terminal Server.

I want to setup 25 clients (max) that will usually run applications like office apps, IDE's, or sometimes even applications like Photoshop. Right now I have a Quad core Xeon server @ 2 GHz with 4 GB RAM, how much ram should I add? Is the one processor okay? (it has one more processor slot, should I add a second one?)

Please give me your recommendations,
thank you in advance.

splattne
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Spiros Souliotis
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    I recommend you get a consultant in to discuss your requirements and provide you with your system. Server Fault is not the place to do this. – ITHedgeHog Jul 28 '11 at 14:02
  • Don't see why he needs a consultant for hardware based question like this. This question is often asked and is as legit as it can get. Experience from people who have this in their work, tested it and support it daily is worth more then all the specifications etc. And I doubt that just "any" consultant will do. It's easier to find one "experienced" here who can roughly say it will or will not work, and say what the OP needs to make it better. – MadBoy Aug 01 '11 at 21:10

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Not even with all the RAM in the world is this a good idea. Photoshop and similar heavy-weight applications don't perform well over Terminal Services. You might be OK with Word, but you'll probably run into MS Word's "Can't run under TS" problem.

The best way around this is something like Citrix's Application Virtualisation - I think they're calling it XenApp now. Used to be Metaframe, and is designed for this kind of sharing.

You're gonna need lots of RAM either way, so I suggest you buy as much as you can possibly afford, and shove it all in.

Tom O'Connor
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  • I run at my client all Office applications without any problem. But you need have Volume License version or alike. OEM/BOX won't work (unless it was the problem you were referring to). – MadBoy Aug 01 '11 at 21:08
  • That might've been the problem. I can't remember what we did in the end. I think we abandoned it as being "Stupid Microsoft Licensing" – Tom O'Connor Aug 02 '11 at 08:46
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BS. I've been running terminal server 2003 for about 6 years for our organization of about 300 people, and about 50 of those people use our terminal server in daily basis.. we use it for Outlook, Excel, word, PowerPoint, etc. and shared drives access.

I never heard of anyone complaining about its performance, nor I have ever heard Microsoft office giving out errors.

you need to install the applications for terminal server usage.

I wouldn't put Photoshop on terminal server though, photoshop is a resource hogger, and couple with a crazy designer is even worst. keep it off of terminal server.. is my humble 7 years of experience recommendation.

Nelson Amaya
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  • I agree. I have Photoshop is not great IDEA, but other then that normal day to day use should be OK. Not sure about IDE, as it depends on the IDE. Multiple people working on Visual Studio 2010 on machine like that isn't great idea either. Having one per machine is enough, with 10 people using it I imagine it could be problematic :-) But smaller IDE's should be ok. – MadBoy Aug 01 '11 at 21:12
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I agree more with Nelson on this one. processing and RAM today is certainly able to handle that kind of usage. 25 clients is on the high end though, you might want to load balance with 2 or 3 servers (that will help in many ways including running maintenance). but you'll want ~16 GB RAM. More CPUs will help during user logon and application launching, More RAM will help most with general usage as more concurrent users logon and open more apps. I try to keep it to 10-15 users per server.

Jordan W.
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