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.   Server Hardware 		Server Hardware Requirements

Specific server hardware requirements, depend heavily on the number of concurrent users, the mix of activities they will be performing, the overall hardware architecture and many other factors. Each implementation needs to be considered individually before firm recommendations can be made but for guidance, the server specifications for an example scenario are given.

Example Server Scenario

Business Scenario Details

In this scenario, the number of concurrent users connected to a single centralised database is:
  • Thick Client Modules: 25
  • Thin Client Modules: 15
There are several regions and many sites, but communications links are not dealt with here.

Server specifications

In this case we would recommend that initially three physical servers are used:
  • Database server
  • Business rules server
  • Web application server
This will provide the greatest flexibility from the outset and allow for great expansion to take place if the number of users increases at a later time.

Database server specification

  • Pentium 3 2GHz processor with 512KB cache
  • Motherboard that supports dual processors (for future expansion)
  • 512MB Memory with space for further expansion in the future
  • Disk space of 9 GB would be adequate if the machine is just running SQL Server and hosting the database.

Business rules server

  • Pentium 3 2GHz processor with 512KB cache
  • 512MB of Memory with space for further expansion in the future
  • The smallest disk commonly available in a new server would be adequate (probably 9 GB or similar).

Web application server

  • Pentium 3 2.4GHz processor with 512KB cache
  • 512MB of Memory with space for further expansion in the future
  • Disk space of 9 GB would be more than sufficient

Expansion options

The database server can be expanded by adding more processors, memory and/or faster hard disks. The other servers have some room to do this (if more memory is required, for instance), but can also be scaled by creating a group of load-balanced servers (a server farm).


Connectivity

In a preferred installation, all servers would be connected via a fast network connection - this is because the traffic between the clients and the business rules server (for thick clients) or web server (for thin clients) has been more heavily optimised than server to server communication. The primary reason for this is to ensure that the system performs adequately in low bandwidth conditions.

Therefore, in a typical installation, with clients at site or regional level, the business rules server(s), web server(s) and database server would all be at head office level, connected by a Local Area Network (LAN).

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