As mentioned in Determining Whether to Order a Hard Drive or Compact Flash Model, it is strongly recommended that the Thin Server feature (TSF) be run on a hard drive model of the IBM 2212.
Thin Server is designed to be compatible with other manufacturers' master servers that have Network File System (NFS) support. The Thin Server NFS support has been tested with the following master file servers:
The AS/400 supports the Thin Server's Remote File System (RFS) protocol. The Thin Server RFS support has been tested with the following master file servers:
However, once the network station is booted and the user has logged on to the network, then the user can connect to other servers in the network.
Thin Server is also designed to be compatible with other manufacturers' network stations running TFTP or NFS. The Thin Server has been tested with IBM Network Stations.
The number of sessions supported by the Thin Server depends on the network load, the desired performance characteristics of the Network Station, and the protocols being used. If the master file server protocol is NFS then there is no maximum number of Network Stations that can be connected. If the master file server protocol is RFS then no more than 200 Network Stations can be connected at any one time. The desired performance and network load are more dependent on individual network considerations and individual perceptions of acceptable performance. In general, no more than 30 Network Stations should be active at any given time.
Thin Server can be managed using SNMP management tools.
For more information about using the IBM Network Station, see the following Web sites and documents:
http://www.pc.ibm.com/networkstation/station/
http://www.ibm.com/nc/pubs