Solaris PC NetLink Sizing Tool V12
==================================

This file accompanies the Solaris(TM) PC NetLink Sizing Tool spreadsheet
described in Chapter 5 of the Sun BluePrint publication "Solaris(TM) PC Netlink: 
Performance Sizing and Deployment".

A detailed methodology for the how this spreadsheet was developed can be found in
Chapter 5 of the Blueprint.

The spreadsheet is in the form of an Microsoft(TM) Excel Spreadsheet that is 
readable by Microsoft Excel 97 or later. The spreadsheet can also be imported into
Star Office 5.1 or later. 

The spreadsheet is protected so that the user can only enter data into 4 cells of
the spreadsheet. These input cells are:
 
INPUTS:  

(1) Number of concurrent users - number of PC clients using Windows  95, 98 or NT
which are simultaneously accessing data from the Sun server running Solaris PC Netlink. The
maximum number allowed for this spreadsheet is 1000. This is the current maximum number of users 
supported Solaris PC Netlink 1.0 - 1.1. 

(2) Mbytes of IN/OUT traffic caused by each user during the peak period - amount of file
throughout (i.e. files coming from or going to a file server from the client) during the peak
periods. This file traffic is defined by the Ziff Davis Netbench benchmark.

(3) Peak period in minutes - peak period is defined as the time of the day when there is
greatest demand upon the server. For instance, if most users in a company log on in a short
period of time (e.g. 8:00 AM) then the peak period is very small when a lot of file traffic is
occurring. The number here should be set very small (e.g. 30 minutes) if traffic is highly
concentrated and can be larger (e.g. 120 minutes) if traffic is more normalized (e.g. company
like Sun which has users who are logging in over a much more dispersed period of time. The
default used in the example is 60 minutes.

(4) Average disk requirements per user - average total amount of MB required per user for
files. The default is 100MB/user and should be adjusted higher or lower depending upon the
type and number of files the average user has. This value is used to determine if that the
recommended disk subsystem configuration meets the requirements of capacity as well as performance.

This Spreadsheet defines a recommended starting point for sizing a Solaris SPARC NetLink
Software File & Print server that will meet the demands of a peak loading period. It does not
take into consideration other applications that may be running on the same server. The
additional resources for supporting these non Solaris(TM) PC NetLink related applications 
or services and require additional processors, memory, and disk should be added if needed.

The outputs are:

#1 Number of 250, 300, or 400 Mhz Processors needed to support the peak load.

#2 Megabytes of memory recommended to support the peak load.

#3 Number of Full Duplex, load balanced 100 Mbit Ethernet connections.	

#4 Number of 8 disk PCI Hardware RAID 5 volumes recommended	.				

It should be noted that there are a number of factors which can affect Solaris PC Netlink
performance.  Network infrastructure, files sizes, and server resource conflicts with 
other applications are just a few of the factors that can impact performance.

** Note !! **
 Any blind adherence to this data without considering the assumptions, without 
prototyping, or applying local policies and infrastructure is not advisable.  

Before using the PC NetLink Sizing Tool it is important to understand the assumptions
by which the sizing tool was created. Please read Chapter 5 of the Solaris PC NetLink
Blueprint closely.  

Solaris PC NetLink Sizing Tool assumptions:

#1 The spreadsheet attempts to define a conservative  "baseline" configuration 
   that handles a user load during the peek period. The "baseline" configuration
   is a starting point only.

#2 The sizing tool assumes the PC Clients for the users will be Microsoft Windows
   NT 4.0 Workstations or Microsoft Windows 98 workstations.

#3 The sizing tool defines a "baseline" configuration for the PC NetLink file and
   print services only. Any additional functionality the server is expected
   to provide(Web services, Mail, etc.) must be sized and configured separately.

#4 The "baseline" configuration, defined by the sizing tool, in some cases defines
   configuration requirements that must be rounded up to obtain a standard configuration
   Customers will still need to work with a Sun Sales Representative or Sales Engineer to 
   determine a supportable server configuration that can be ordered. Example: The spreadsheet 
   tool recommends memory configurations that are not sold as part of a standard configuration.
   The customer will need to round these memory configuration up to the next possible
   memory option size.
   
#5 No guarantees of performance are expressed or implied.

#6 An assumption is made that the characteristic of the load, comes close to the load
   produced by the Ziff Davis  Netbench(R) benchmark. This benchmark attempts
   to produce a load that mimics the file operations of office productivity tools.
   For a full explanation of the benchmark see the Ziff Davis(R) WebSite at:

	http://www1.zdnet.com/zdbop/netbench/netbench.html
 

   For a full disclosure of the Network Lab environment used to benchmark Solaris
   PC NetLink with Netbench, please see Appendix A of the Blueprint

#7 The IN/OUT throughput traffic entered into the spreadsheet, will be evenly
   distributed across the defined peek period.

#8 The sizing tool defines disk subsystems in the form of 8 disk SRC/P RAID 5
   disk subsystems. RAID 5 volumes using a smaller number of drives is possible
   but are not currently handled by the tool.

#9 The sizing tool takes in account both capacity and throughput
   when determining the number of volumes required.

#10 With the exception of the disk subsystem, the sizing tool does not take into account
    other Redundancy, Availability, & Serviceability (RAS) requirements. Any RAS capable 
    machine should have as few single points of failure as possible. 
    This means every server should have:

	#1 At least two processors
	#2 1 more power supply than what you need.
	#3 At least 2 network connections

This tool is expected to be changed from time to time. Periodically check the Sun 
Blueprints WebSite (http://www.sun.com/software/solutions/blueprints/tools/index.html)
to see if a newer version is available.

Please send feedback on this tool to pcnltool@sushi.east.sun.com

 

