Hi,
Anybody can help to recommend the minimum specs/sizing required for running DWA(or iNotes8 8.5.1) for about 700 inotes users, with about 300 concurrent users?
Also, is it recommended to run 32-bit OS and Domino or 64-bit versions?
And, if I am runnning 32-bits OS and Domino 8.5.1, is it true the the server will only utilise only up to 4GB of memory size available?
Appreciate anyone advise, thanks in advanced!
Matt
Subject: IBM Hardware?
If you are puchasing new hardware from IBM you can make use of their Techline service. In the past, this service was ‘free’ when you were looking into buying IBM hardware so it’s an option you may want to look at.
IBM will work with you to review your intended usage of the system and then give you their recommended hardware suggestion. Quite often it is necessary to vette and validate their suggestion through a few iterations before you end up with your final recommendation.
You mentioned 700 users with 300 concurrent. That’s a good start. Now would you say these users are light, medium or heavy iNotes users? Their usage patterns are important. For example, this blog entry ( http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/dotdomino/entry/notes_8_5_1_helps_break_box_office_record?lang=en_us ) shows how a company of less than 200 users handles 2.25GB/day of e-mail.
iNotes is CPU intensive and the level is directly proportional to your user load. Have you considerred something like VMware ESX that gives you the ability to adjust the amount of CPU and RAM as you get more familiar with the product? Being able to dynamically increase your server resources is helpful for tuning but it also helps cut down on IBM software licensing costs (see sub-capacity licensing). Why pay for more cores than you need?
Lastly, don’t overlook disk I/O. Usually a bottleneck of mail servers is not the RAM or CPU but the amount of disk I/O. At 700 users, I suspect you’ll be fine with a low or medium SAN or if you’re going with DASD you may want to give your disk plan some thought.
Subject: It depends
Sizing depends on mail file size, avaergae attachment size, etc.
32 bit OS and 32 bit Domino is limited to 2 GB for Domino
64 bit OS and 32 bit Domino is limited to 4 GB for Domino
64 bit OS and 64 bit Domino has a much higher limit depending on OS, etc.
Subject: Sizing
Hi,
Thank you for responding.
So does that means for a server to support 700 webmail(inotes) users, 32bits OS and 32bits domino is not recommended?
Matt
Subject: Once again - it depends
I have had servers with 1200 mixed use (Notes/iNotes) users on a 32 bit Domino and 32 bit OS but barely acceptable performance. The server could have had better performance with less users or 64 bit OS/Domino.
A server will be able to handle more users and have better performance with more memory and/or 64 bit OS/Domino.
You need to find out what your average mail file size is, what the average volume of mail is, what your SLA would be if any, and what you budget would be. Once you get those numbers you can start caclulating the best size. For example if you have an average mail file size of say 800 MB per user then you may be able to get away with 32 bit OS/Domino. If on the other hand the average mail file size is over 1 GB and they have a rather high volume of email use then 64 bit OS/Domino may be the way to go to get better performance. Keep in mind you have to be sure all 3rd party products will work in 64 bit OS/Domino.
Subject: 32-bit vs 4gb ram
Hi James,
But for 32-bit OS and 32-bit domino, the max physical memory the 32-bit windows os can recognise is only 4gb, in this case will it still be able to support 700 inotes users?