Where Should EXE's Launch From- Server or User's Local Hard Drive? 1

[drosenkranz]

Hello,

We're having a philosophical discussion in terms of performance on where the EXE should be launched from, the server or the local user's hard drive.

Option #1 says that the EXE should be launched from the user's local hard drive. An update program on the user's machine checks the server for an updated version of the EXE. If the EXE on the server is newer (an update), then the file is first copied down to the local user's hard drive and then launched from their own hard drive. Whether an update occurs or not, the EXE is always launched from the local user's hard drive.

Option #2 says the EXE should reside on and be launched from the server.

All databases reside on the server for both options. We have 650+ users that may need to run one or more applications at a time.

Which option is the better choice in terms of performance & network resource usage?

Thank You For Both Your Time And Input,

Dave The 2nd mouse gets the cheese.

 

[JockMullin]

Hi, Dave.

In general I vote for #1.

If the exe resides on the server then every time a W/S loads it the .EXE comes down the wire.

If the .exe is 1 meg (including support .dll's or whatever) then on a 10 mbps network that will take 1 second, minimum.

Add to that the overhead on the server whereby it may have to be reloaded from disk if not already in the cache.

Even on 100 mbps networks, if it is atall busy it will result in a noticeable delay compared to loading locally.
As a rule of dumb a 100 mbps network is only twice as fast as 10 mbps, practically speaking (provocative statement alert).

If it's a low usage situation or if the .exe only gets loaded once or twice a day then an additional sec or so won't matter. In that case having the .exe reside on the server would be better since it eliminates the overhead of checking the local version against the server.

The final consideration is an occasional sharing violation may happen when loading the exe from the server if another w/s is loading it at the same time. But that is just another argument for loading locally if the .exe is accessed frequently. Also some apps keep the .EXE file open when running which will increase the number of open files on the network if server resident and will make updating the server image an administration nuisance.

Best regards
Jock

 

[AnanthaP]

To add further, we actually did it. Also, we used Xcopy with the /D option. This copied the exe only if the source was newer than the destination.

HTH.

End