2849 Paces Ferry Road * Suite 350 * Atlanta, GA 30339 * 678-569-1150 * www.decisionfirst.

com
Copyright 2005 Decision First Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Fast Facts
Promote, resell, and implement software products focused in the
Business Intelligence market Founded in 2001 spin off from Starbase Corporation/Technology Builders, Inc. Privately held Over 500 customers Offices: Headquartered in Atlanta; Birmingham, AL and Baltimore, MD 25+ employees Business Objects Platinum Level Reseller and Consulting Partner since 1996 Certified Business Objects Training Partner Most notably, named 2004 VAR Partner of the Year

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DFTs Dashboard ExpressTM

Get on the Fast Track! Decision Firsts Dashboard Express is the fastest, easiest way to enter the world of business intelligence dashboarding. Accelerate your BI initiatives...business intelligence implementation meets your need for speed!

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Whats included in Dashboard Express?

10 licenses of BusinessObjects Dashboard Manager TM

10 licenses of Webi TM
Annual Maintenance Three full weeks of professional services, including:
Installation Customized dashboard interface design, including KPIs Hands-on mentoring

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Capacity Planning
for

Business Objects 6.5

Patrick NeSmith
Consulting Manager, Business Intelligence patrick.nesmith@decisionfirst.com

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What is Capacity Planning?

How much processing power do I need now and in the future? How many servers? How many CPUs? How much RAM? The answer is

It Depends!!!

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Capacity needs depend on

Performance Needs Usage Load Security Requirements Failover Stability Expense Ease of implementation
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The key is
We want to support current and future growth without over building and over complicating our system

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What are the components?

Databases (Data sources; Repository) Web Server Application Server Cluster Nodes (Primary/Secondary)
Run the various services that comprise Business Objects system

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Simple 1-Server Installation

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Multiple Nodes

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Multiple Clusters: Load Balancing

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Windows vs UNIX
Windows
Lower H/W Cost Some tasks only available on Windows
VB Procedures Personal Data Files Macros for BCA tasks SP processing Free hand SQL processing

Unix
Scalability Stability Security More processing power on a single server Multiple cluster per server Connecting to SQL server more difficult

1st tested & released

Heterogeneous clusters ARE supported

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Heterogeneous Cluster

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Calculations

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Repository
Security Domain
( 4 KB + (1.5 * # constraints) + (0.4 * # documents) + (1.5 * # tasks) ) * # registered users

Universe Domain
Number of Universes * 1 MB

Document Domain
Depends on # reports, amount of data BO recommends starting with 150 MB
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Repository
Consider 1000 users, 100 docs, 5 universes
Security Domain: 400MB Universe Domain: 5 MB Document Domain: 150 MB Total Recommended Repository size is just 555 MB

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Additional Repository Considerations

Are your users and data geographically dispersed? Do you need separate repositories or domains for development and testing

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Estimating Usage
Identify Peak Number of Users
Typically 15%-40% of registered users are logged in 15% of those logged in are actually using system resources Consider your companys peak usage; is a specific time of day? week? Month?

Who are your users and what are they doing?

Viewing, refreshing, or creating? WebIntelligence and/or Business Objects? Other (XLS, Word, etc.) Analysis (drilling,ranking, etc.)
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Estimating Usage
User Types
Can indicate which services will be consumed and in what quantity Typical user types are readers, interactive (refresh), analysts (drill, rank, etc), power users (create)

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Estimating Usage

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Estimating Usage
User Activity
Registered
All users who have access to log into the system

Active
Any user who is logged into the system May be viewing reports Potentially using RAM but not CPU

Concurrent
Logged into the system and performing an action
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Estimating Usage
Activities that utilize system resouces
Login Opening a report. Refresh reports Drilldown reports Maximize and minimize reports Edit Create Save Documents Send Publish Logout
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Estimating Usage
Registered:Active ratio
Indicates total number of users system can support The smaller the ratio the more total users can be supported with fewer servers 10:1 means that 10% of all users are active; thus, a server that can handle 100 active users can support 1000 total users

Concurrent:Active ratio
Indicates CPU usage The fewer concurrent users to total active users, the more users supported per CPU
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Estimating Document Overhead

Type & Complexity
Business Objects Documents
More complex Require more resources

WebIntelligence Reports
Less complex Require fewer resources Allow for larger deployments

Size of docs affects memory and network usage

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Processes
WIQT
1 per login Size increases when viewing, refreshing, creating a WebIntelligence Report

Busobj/bolight
Typically requires more RAM & CPU than WIQT Same exe used for full client application New instance created for refreshing, creating You can control: max loaded processes; min loaded processes; max busy processes
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Processes (contd)
BOMgr wiade WIAdminServer Wiapibroker WIBCAManager WIDispatcher WIImpactAnalysis WILoginServer Winotify WIOGenerator WIProcessManager WIReportServer WIService WISessionManager WISiteLog WISPTIS WIStorageManager

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Processes (contd)
Additional processes for
Application Foundation Broadcast Agent Auditor

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Auditor
Some affect on processing but negligible Database size is a major consideration Due to high amount of I/O, should be on a different physical server from BO Repository

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Broadcast Agent
Minimal CPU usage for BCA process Resource usage depends on reports being processed Typically reports are schedule to run during non-peak hours and therefore do not require dedicated resources

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Dashboard Manager
Uses a great deal of RAM but not a lot of CPU Dashboard with reports use wiqt or busobj processes Affects Application Server requirements (lots of JSP)

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Web Server/Application Server

Combined if running IIS; can be separated otherwise Dashboard Manager affects Application Server requirements (lots of JSP) 1 Web Server will be sufficient; use 2 for failover

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Adding Processing Power

Adding a secondary nodes Adding a primary node (second cluster) Adding a client node (Webserver) Additional processing power added by a new node decreases as the number of nodes increases BO recommends no more than 4-5 nodes per cluster on windows With Unix it is often best to add additional primary node rather than secondary nodes
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When to use multiple clusters

To provide failover When users are geographically dispersed When using multiple repositories

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BO Deployment Guide States:

There are so many variables in this type of system fine-tuning that you can determine what server configuration best supports your end-user population only by trial and error.

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Tools
Deploying the Business Objects System
PDF distributed with Business Objects

Recommended Settings for Business Objects Deployments

PDF available on BO Tech Support Website

Auditor
Monitor user activity and determine expansion needs

Load Testing BO Capacity Planning Spreadsheet

Guideline Best for large implementations Very Conservative

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Demonstration
Capacity Planning Spreadsheet

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Business Objects XI
Crystal Enterprise server based architecture Even easier to scale Central Management Console Capacity Planning XLS available

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Real World Examples

MortgageRamp
F5 Load balancer 2 Webservers Dual XEON; 1 GB RAM; Windows Server 2003 2 Primary Nodes Dual Xeon; 4 GB RAM; Windows Server 2003 Passed load test for 100 concurrent Webi user

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Real World Examples

Typical client:
< 100 active users < 20 concurrent users

We recommend:
1 Server 2 CPUs 2 GB RAM

If Failover is a requirement, then duplicate and add load balancing

Copyright 2005 Decision First Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Patrick NeSmith Consulting Manager, Business Intelligence patrick.nesmith@decisionfirst.com

2849 Paces Ferry Road * Suite 350 * Atlanta, GA 30339 * 678-569-1150 * www.decisionfirst.com
Copyright 2005 Decision First Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved.