Re: Developer 2000 runtime with winframe

For those interested, I received the following info from Spencer Blank, spencer_blank_at_csufresno.edu, he's the sys admin who is setting up and testing WinFrame here.

Steve Cosner

>What sort of bandwidth do your Winframe users have at their disposal
>(ISDN, 56K...), and how do you rate performance?

The ICA protocol takes up very little bandwidth, and running the WF client *always* creates less traffic than a comparable client/server lan installation. We have run clients from 14.4 modems to 10mb lan connections. Our client platforms have ranged from a 386SX16 w/4mb RAM and WFW3.11 to a Pentium 200 with '95. We do not have benchmark numbers at this point, and have depended upon perceived responsiveness by the user.

There are several parameters which affect the "responsiveness" of the system: Client connection speed Server CPU/RAM WF server-database server connection speed (Client CPU/RAM is almost a non-issue for practical purposes)

I feel that 14.4 is too slow a connection. 28.8 is a practical "workhorse" speed. I have run Autocad 13, Office '95, and a suite of apps that utilize the Oracle client very handily. At this speed, the one thing I found that it *won't* do well is a powerpoint presentation that uses builds. That makes sense, however, because the whole screen has to be constantly redrawn pixel by pixel. Non-build Powerpoint or other graphic operations (like inserting a graphic in Word) are responsive. Anything above 28.8 is that much better, but you get a smaller perceived return for the investment... e.g. ISDN at the client side probably wouldn't be worth it.

I have not stressed the server with a max load of users running Oracle apps (or any other, for that matter). I'm scheduled to do that this coming month. I want to find the point at which the server starts to process the sessions more slowly than the ICA client can handle. That will be my floor for server CPU/RAM per user.

I have a feeling that WFserver<->Database server traffic will become an issue and I'll probably have a separate 100mb NIC in the server to isolate that from the client sessions.

If you are not very familiar with the WinFrame product and how it works, try http://www.citrix.com and click on the WinFrame enabled banner. They have a demo server up and free clients to test. You can see for yourself how responsive it is if you dial into an ISP and run the session through your modem. That's what sold me.

Deployment considerations? My off-the-cuff observations so far: The ICA client is drop-dead easy to install. For an example, you can check out our instructions on:
http://www.craig.csufresno.edu/dprtmnt/labinfo/wftop.htm It is very non-invasive to the machine and requires almost no configuring.

The server software in its current rev. is NT 3.51. Basically, if the software you have runs on NT 3.51, it runs on WinFrame. Obviously, 32 bit software runs better than 16.

We've determined that if a user is running an Oracle (or any other high-end app) 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.. e.g. a dedicated user.. the cost of a workstation for that user vs. a piece of the WF server is about a wash. Of course, that sets aside the issue that the ICA client requires almost no client desktop support and that the ICA client requires less bandwidth and can be done through a modem. The real cost savings is having a pool of users (say a 10 to one ratio.. 10 users per concurrent logon) have access to the server. Then the cost is reduced by whatever ratio you can serve without maxing your connections at peak times. BTW, this month Citrix is releasing a load balancing option to their basic product which allows users to log into a *pool* of servers; you always get the least busy machine. By October I hope to have that tested.

Hope that answers some questions.

In article <33FD36E4.FAA946F6_at_iname.com>,   Dan Schultz <schultd_at_iname.com> wrote:
>
> Steve,
>
> What sort of bandwidth do your Winframe users have at their disposal
> (ISDN, 56K...), and how do you rate performance?
>
> Thx,
>
> Daniel
>
> Steve Cosner wrote:
>
> > In article <33FA3166.41C6_at_prpi.com>,
> > Dinar Dhond <ddhond_at_prpi.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Has anybody deployed Dev 200 applications in a Citrix winframe
> > > environment? If so, any advice?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > Dinar
> >
> > We have tested it, and it seems to be pretty solid.

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