[THIN] Re: How many users will go on my server
- From: "Bernd Harzog" <Bernd.Harzog@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 08:36:27 -0500
A word of warning on the Citrix test kit and anything else that uses =
scripts. Unless you know (or can find out) what the mix of usage is for =
each application (what is the distribution and intensity of activities =
within Notes), and the mix of usage is across Notes, the Office =
applications and SAP, it is going to be very hard to use a test tool to =
accurately simulate what is going to happen in your production =
environment.
A word of warning about sizing tools offered by any vendor that is =
selling anything except for a sizing tool. They are designed to show =
their own products in the best light possible. The scripts in the Citrix =
test kit exercise a minimum set of functionality across Word, Excel, and =
Notepad. A heavy user is defined as someone who types a lot - which =
leaves out the question of what happens when someone fires off a report =
in a line of business application. The same thing goes for any sizing =
tool offered by a server vendor - remember the objective of the tool is =
to help that vendor sell servers - not tell you the truth about how many =
users their server can support.
There are others here (like Ron and Brian) who have huge amounts of =
field experience answering this question - but my answer is to put a =
subset of the farm in production with real production users. Only =
through this method can you KNOW what is going to happen.
Finally, with respect to how you know when a server is at capacity, let =
me issue one other cautionary note. You (IMHO) cannot tell when a server =
is at capacity by looking at any utilization metrics (like CPU %). The =
reason for this is that (again IMHO) you cannot model degradation in =
responsiveness to users from utilization metrics. You can have a fully =
responsive server with a CPU utilization of 100%, and one that is =
totally unusable with a CPU utilization of 20%.
Cheers,
Bernd Harzog
CEO
RTO Software, Inc.
bernd.harzog@xxxxxxxxxxx
678-455-5506 x701
www.rtosoft.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Kenzig http://thethin.net [mailto:jimkenz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]=20
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 7:55 AM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] Re: How many users will go on my server
The citrix server test kit from http://www.citrix.com/cdn and the =
Terminal
server capacity tools at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/hotfixes/tscpt=
-o.
asp
Claudio Rodriquez wrote a little utility for a Pocket/Palm PC at
http://www.cewindows.net/applications/tssizer.htm
Here is an article for 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3Da2ae95da-be56-=
4495-
9fb5-e4b7170b33d9&DisplayLang=3Den
(will probably wrap, copy it all)
See the MS FAQ
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/community/centers/terminal/ter=
min
al_faq.mspx
Article on Thinclient.net by Steve and Christa
http://www.thinclient.net/technology/Server_Sizing.htm
If it is HP servers and you are registered with Active answers HP has a =
tool
to size with their servers on a link on
http://activeanswers.compaq.com/ActiveAnswers/Render/1,1027,4825-6-100-22=
5-1
,00.htm
Older white paper on sizing NT 4.0 and Compaq servers with some =
relevence
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/partners/microsoft/infolib/ecg0680698.pdf
Brian Madden had a paper too (and also writes about it in his book I
believe) at brianmadden.com And he wrote a performance tuning one to use
once your server is set up to increase amount of users at
http://www.rtosoft.com/pages/whitepaper_ts_fbm.asp
Regards,
Jim Kenzig
http://thin.net
-----Original Message-----
From: thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:thin-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On
Behalf Of Thomas, Jeremy
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 6:32 AM
To: thin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [THIN] How many users will go on my server
Problem:
I have 2000 users. How many terminal servers do I need.
Servers are W2003, XPe, dual Xeon 2.8, 4Gb RAM
All users receive a published desktop. Standard applications are MS =
Offic=3D
e & Lotus Notes, other applications include SAP.
I need to simulate a typical user load - users using applications in a =
"t=3D
ypical" way, and automate this. Then, I need to test various =
applications=3D
like Appsense or TScale to see what sort of improvement they make on =
per=3D
formance.
So:
What can I use to simulate userload of between 40 and 200 users making =
ty=3D
pical use of our application set?
What criteria should I use to determine that the server is running at =
"fu=3D
ll" capacity?
What other criteria might I use to fine tune these servers?
How did you do it?
What were your experiences?
What applications might I consider to get the servers running more =
effici=3D
ently?
Regards,
Jeremy Thomas
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