Server sizing

u0206397

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Note: on hindsight, this thread probably belongs more to Hardware Clinic. Please move the thread if necessary. Thanks.

Usually how do IT professionals figure out how many servers they need, how much RAM for each server, how many CPU cores, which CPU, and how much storage they need before they actually run a system for some time and monitor the system load and storage usage in a production environment?

My previous project managers usually told me they just made a wild guess. Usually they end up over provisioning number of servers, or encounter network or disk I/O bottleneck after going production.
 
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davidktw

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Note: on hindsight, this thread probably belongs more to Hardware Clinic. Please move the thread if necessary. Thanks.

Usually how do IT professionals figure out how many servers they need, how much RAM for each server, how many CPU cores, which CPU, and how much storage they need before they actually run a system for some time and monitor the system load and storage usage in a production environment?

My previous project managers usually told me they just made a wild guess. Usually they end up over provisioning number of servers, or encounter network or disk I/O bottleneck after going production.

Definitely this is not a hardware issue. Well I must say your project managers are indeed *RIGHT*, if you are applying it on bespoke software, that is most likely the case, an over provisioned guesstimate. Some make better guesses, some make worse, depends on experiences, which you can say so.

For well known software such as a dedicated system for a database of a particular make and model, you can make much better estimation for the same software version. That is why if you are reselling 3rd party applications such as the RED/BLUE products, you will want their pre-sales to provide the sizing, which they can because their software has been run across numerous setup and customers globally. But to say they are accurate, only they can tell you honestly.


For custom development, it will be silly to think it is possible. The mere choice of deciding the frequency of an ajax polling in a high load environment, can radically change the web application behaviour all the way from the web to app to database tiers. Hence to even provide a sizing before you even start on the development during pre-sales is nothing more than an educated guess based on past project cost and sizing. As shrewd pre-sales, you will want to over provisioned for that extra requirements from your clients, but during execution, the project manager will need to manage very carefully.

This is why working in the recent cloud computing is the real value of how customers' can really be paying for what they need. But even so, unfortunately, those that are in power to control the budget doesn't work in agility. This will be another topic to discuss, nothing exactly to do with sizing. :)
 
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