Re: Help w/ specs 4 App Server

Scott Felten wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> We are creating a web enabled oracle app using designer/developer and
> Oracle 8. We researched the specs for Oracle's NT app server and they
> were really minimum.... 486 processor with 64 meg ram...
>
> I was hoping to get some input as to what is realistic. We will have
> the database and application server in Virginia with users in Ohio. I
> know that this is a general and wide open question, but can anyone be
> more accurate than a 486 processor with 64 meg ram...
>
> We were going to spec a 400mhz PII with 512 or 1024 meg ram and 6Gig
> HD....
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Scott Felten

There are three resources that have to be considered when dimensioning an Oracle web app server (let alone DBMS server):

The memory resources on an NT server itself is afaik documented in the Oracle docs. You have to look up the memory requirements for one standalone Forms runtime session (which is quite a lot) and multiply that figure with the expected number of simultaneous sessions. Than add the requirements of the web server and the (small) forms listener. (If you use the cartridge version of WebForms, use the corresponding values instead). Add OS and general overhead to give the final miminum real memory.

The number of processors and/or servers should be adequate to your application. I'd recommend you try using one processor or server during testing/development and grade up until you have exeptable performance. I don't know of a rule of thumb that says how many Forms sessions you can run on one processor, but I'd expect a limit of 12-16 simultaneous sessions on a single one-processor node, depending on the application complexity.

Finally, have a look at the network performance. Some earlier measures we made indicated that the Dev/2k applet (an old version) sends a TCP/IP packet on every single keystroke to the server and the server returns at least one packet, causing at least one TCP/IP roundtrip overhead for every keystroke. As server functionality moves to the client, we can expect reduced network traffic in future versions. But until then, we have to adjust network bandwith (information rate per workstation) and latency parameters to your type of application - extensive online functionality might lead to an extremely long response time for your app.

Marcus Reichardt Received on Sat Aug 22 1998 - 10:21:24 CDT