Sizing Guidelines

"How should I size my ELM Server?"

Because of the dynamic nature inherent in monitoring computers, it is difficult to provide specific recommendations for hardware specifications. Such recommendations depend on the number of Agents, the number and frequency of Monitor Items, the amount of data collected or received, how frequently it is collected, etc.

Given those caveats, we offer the following guidelines, observations, and general recommendations for sizing an ELM Server.

Note
This guide covers only the sizing requirements for the ELM Server component. It does not include sizing for the ELM Server database or any other component, including the operating system. Generally, running the ELM Server on a multi-purpose computer is acceptable.

The factors that would indicate a dedicated server is required would be:

•Is Monitoring Mission Critical?
If the systems to be monitored are mission critical and the fastest possible notification of failures is required, you should consider a dedicated server.

•How many events per day are being collected?
The number of Events Per Day can be estimated using the Elm Sizing Tool utility located in the ELM start menu.

 Small Deployment of ELM

 < 50000 Events Per Day

 SQL Server on the ELM Server.

 Only ELM DB’s are being used on the SQL server.

 ELM_Primary /ELM Failover DB/ ELM Archive DB’s  are local to the ELM server.

 Medium Deployment of ELM

 50000-1000000 Events Per Day

 SQL Server on a separate server.

 Multiple DB’s to include ELM_Primary and ELM Archive DB’s on the same SQL server.

 ELM Failover DB is local to the ELM server.  (SQL 2008 R2 Express if needed)

 Large Deployment of ELM

 >1000000 Events Per Day

 SQL Server on a separate server than ELM.

 ELM Archive DB’s and ELM Failover DB is on a different SQL server than the Primary DB.

 Ideal configuration:

 SQL Server on Physical Hardware on different physical I/O controllers and disk subsystems.

All 15K RPM disks, All Hardware RAID:

 5 Separate Partitions:

 Operating System Raid 1 (mirror)

 SQL Server exe Raid 1 (mirror)

 Database Data Raid 10 (mirror, stripe)

 Database Transaction Logs Raid 1 (mirror)

 Temp database Raid 10 (mirror, stripe)

If you have any questions or comments about this guide, or if you would like assistance sizing your ELM Server or architecting your ELM-based solution, please contact TNT Software's Product Support Group.