Server sizing: tools or info

Hello. New to the whole client/server arena myself, but responsible for determining what kind of machines to use for applications. I've been a LAN admin (PCs and Macs) for 10 years, so I was the obvious(?) choice for this task.

Are there any general guidelines to follow to figure out how big of a machine one needs for a specific application? I know that a lot depends on number of users, types and size of transactions, size of database, network connections, etc. What I would like to find is some sort of "decision making tree" (tool?) that makes sure you consider all the important criteria involved in choosing servers and configurations.

We currently have a couple of production applications running on an IBM RS/6000 (model 590?) running AiX 4.1 and SyBase SQL Server. The clients are mostly Macs running SyBase OpenClient and Uniface or Omnis 7. We will be starting on developement of several more applications very soon. Some of them may use Oracle instead of SyBase.

Since we are Motorola, we've been looking at Motorola's Unix boxes. We're interested in their PowerStack Series MP601s (symmetric MultiProcessing) for some of the larger/demanding apps and their DT604s for smaller ones.

If there isn't any such thing as a decision-making tool out there, can someone recommend some good books that deal with this matter.

Appreciatations in advance,
Curtis Received on Tue Mar 28 1995 - 01:20:18 CEST