Hardware recommendations for PS 4.0

[bmquiroz]

Hi all,

I am working on a PS 3.0 Advanced to 4.0 Enterprise upgrade and and have a question about hardware requirements. The PS 4.0 server will support 30 concurrent users, although there will probably only be about 10 users connecting concurrently. The applications that we are going to publish are Office 2003, QuickBooks, reporting tool for QuickBooks, Microsoft CRM, and some RDP and IE shortcuts. My question is, can I use the server below or will I need something a little more powerful? Any comments or help would be appreciated.

HP DL360 G4
Dual Xeon 3.4GHz
2GB RAM
2x36.4GB (36.4GB=RAID1+0)

Thanks.

-B

 

[enigma99]

bmquiroz,
Those hardware spec's are pretty darn good.
The only component that I would adjust is the memory.
You might want to bump the memory up to 4GB.

Other than that it looks like a solid hardware configuration.
Hope that helps.

 

[bmquiroz]

enigma,

Thanks for the reply.

Why 4GB? Does Citrix consume a lot of memory?

-B

 

[enigma99]

bmquiroz,
The Citrix core services do not consume that many resources. My only concerns would be some of these reporting applications and some of the other apps like CRM and Quickbooks.

As a matter of fact, Citrix MPS 4.0 gives you the ability to do memory optimization and CPU throttling.

With the Office 2k3, you can generaly can get 60-65 users per box. I wouldn't know how many resources the other applications would take up.

Here is the pdf for the Office 2k3 server.
They ran it with older dell hardware so I know you should be good.

http://support.citrix.com/servlet/K...02-10818/Office 2003 Scalability Analysis.pdf

Hope that helps.

 

[ascotta]

I wouldn't be bothering with the raid.

Three drive yes. 1 OS , 1 Apps, 1 page file.



[blue] A perspective from the other side!![/blue]

Cheers
Scott

 

[bmquiroz]

Scott,

Are you saying that Citrix does not require a RAID configuration?

-B

 

[enigma99]

bmquiroz,
Citrix does not require RAID.
But I would use a RAID1 for the simple fact that I wouldn't want to rebuild that server because 1 drive failed. Unless you like rebuilding servers all the time =)

 

[bmquiroz]

enigma,

Thanks. Would it be wise to break up the OS, apps, and page file onto 3 separate disks as Scott recommended?

-B

 

[enigma99]

I would create just 2 logical drives.
Put all of your apps on the c: drive and then put your swap file on the d: drive.

Remember...if your OS blows up...you still have to reinstall the OS and all of your applications so it doesn't matter if you have them on the c: or create a seperate logical drive for them. You still have to reinstall it on your new OS.

I would make your c drive pretty big so you can install all of your apps and have room for Windows updates, any temp files on roaming profiles, any tmp files that applications create (example...crystal reports creates very large temp files when compiling data but then deletes it when it gets done) stuff like that.

Hope that helps.

 

[ascotta]

I cannot really disagree there. In a load balanced environment, I would not RAID, if it is stand alone then yes I probably would for the C drive. I wouldnt partition disks, I just really hate that. (pet hate) With Citrix you are looking for performance, not security, therefore if you partition you are asking th heads to do more work than is necessary.

However enigma99's posts are equally valid.

[blue] A perspective from the other side!![/blue]

Cheers
Scott

 

[patrickrouse]

RAID1 and RAID10 can significantly increase performance. If looking at new 1U servers w/ 6 x SAS hot plug drives, i.e. HP ProLiant DL360 G5, I'd either use 4 drives at RAID10, or 2 x RAID1 arrays, i.e. one RAID1 for OS & Apps and the other for pagefile.

As for the memory requirements, you need enough RAM for the totality of the applications being used, plus the user profiles, plus the OS. 4GB is standard for a terminal server.

http://www.sessioncomputing.com/scaling.htm

Patrick Rouse
Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server

http://www.sessioncomputing.com