Can we run a medium sized EPM implementation on one BIG server ?

[RickH]

Hi,

I have an EPM configuration that is starting to show signs of strain. It is
a fairly standard 2 server config (see detail below) where the SQL Server is
under some strain, mainly down to the overly complex and poorly structured
nature of some of the plans.

My original plan was to get the SQL Server upgraded and add on a second web
server so that we can install WSS and possibly cluster the front end as well,
however we have been offered the use of a very large server connected to the
corporate SAN; 4x Xeon 3mhz hyper threaded processors, 18gb memory and lots
of storage. Is it worth moving the whole implementation to this new server
ie: running all the components on the one large machine ? or should I stick
with the original plan and just use the new server as an oversize database
server ?

Apologies for the long winded posting ........

Many thanks

Richard


Some basic figures are .....

Current config ......
Server 1 - 2x1.5ghz processors, 2gb RAM running Win 2000, SQL Server and
Analysis Services.
Server 2 - 2x1.5ghz processors, 1gb RAM running Win 2000, IIS and Project
Server 2003 SP1. No WSS at the moment.

We are running managed time periods with timesheet input from about 350 team
members with 35 PMs and 10 heavy users of Portfolio Analyzer. There are about
80 active plans with another 80 inactive, but still in the db. There is an
even split between small (30 tasks), medium (150 task) and large (500+ tasks)
plans. This usage will double in the next 2 years.

We don't currently have WSS set up, but would like to introduce this as
well, so will need to have at least one server with Win 2003.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Rick:

How many users, how many resources, how many plans?

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Oops, didn't see the post script at first glance. I think a lot of your
suffering with your current system is related to your use of Win2000. Server
2003 is much faster. I like the big single server for you at this point. You
might try using a virtual server arrangement for future flexibility.
Definitively upgrade to Server 2003 during this migration.

 

[RickH]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for the help.

Another issue is that we don't have a real test environment, only a
standalone machine running Virtual PC. I was intending to re-cycle the old
SQL Server machine as a test environment to at least give us somewhere to
de-bug OLAP Cubes against a copy of our current data, even if the hardware is
nothing like the new production server. If we ran virtual server on the new
machine could we easliy clone the live environment to use for testing and
also limit the resources the test system used ?

Many thanks

Richard