Transcript Database

Designing and Deploying
a Scalable EPM Solution
Ken Toole
Platform Test Manager
MS Project
Microsoft
Agenda
Top 5 reasons a deployment doesn’t
scale
Understanding the EPM Design
process
Build the implementation team
Logical Design of Project Server
Key architecture factors for Scalability
Top 5 Scalability Killers
1. Inadequate network
infrastructure
2. Inadequate database hardware
3. No Pilot
4. Undefined project management
practices
5. Unrestricted access to data
EPM Initiative Development
Develop vision for EPM
Stake-holder identification and buy-in
Collect Business Requirements
EPM strategy development
THEN …
EPM solution design
EPM Design and Planning
Implementation Team
Large scale Project Server
deployments are complex and require
varied expertise
System Administrator
Server Install, Clustering, Network
Configuration, Shared Storage, Active
Directory, Domain Name Resolution,
Security
Database Administrator
DBMS installation, Drive Configuration,
Tuning, Backup and Recovery,
Security
Implementation Team
Network Engineer
Router and LAN configuration, loadbalancing hardware, Firewall
configuration, security
Project Server Deployment Specialist?
New training and certification exam
Capacity Planning
Metrics
Scalability Factors
Configuration Options
Scalability Metrics
Users per hour
Max number of times a specified set of user
operations (workflow) can be completed per
hour.
Focus on peak times like weekly time reporting.
Size and complexity of data will effect this metric.
Not a generalized or generic metric
Cube Build Time
Views Publishing throughput
Key Scalability Factors
Network performance
Database server performance
Project Server security usage
Project Server data usage
Network Performance
Most frequent bottleneck for most
installations
Indicated by poor performance or
throughput with low cpu utilization on
all tiers of the application
Primarily the result of latency rather
than bandwidth, and the overhead
associated with each network “roundtrip”
Network Performance
corrective actions
Network infrastructure
100mb minimum between servers
1Gb Ethernet or fiber between server
components option.
Network Interface Card settings
Avoid ‘hardware default’
On some systems consider 100mb/full setting
instead of ‘auto-detect’
Test and consult your hardware vendor
Hardware Options
‘NIC Teaming’ configurations
Unisys style ‘virtual machine’ configuration
(only suitable on very large hardware platforms)
DB Server Performance
Typical DB server performance
analysis and tuning.
Often will present as a bottleneck after
resolving any network issues
Solutions are simple but can be costly
in terms of hardware.
DB Server Performance
corrective actions
Data file configuration
Separate transaction log and data files on separate
logical drives
Use db optimization scripts to separate Project Server
data and indexes into multiple file groups
Place index and views file groups on separate logical
drives than other Project Server file groups
Disk I/O hardware
Use a larger number of physical disks per logical drive to
ensure disk read/write activity is not bottlenecked on few
physical drives
Use hardware RAID controllers instead of Software RAID
controllers
Consult you hardware vendor
DB Server Performance
corrective actions
Server hardware
Carefully test hyper-threading
configurations and SQL Server settings
related to threading and fibers
Consider faster processors and increased
number of processors
Partition Project Server data onto multiple
DB Servers
Project Server Security
What data a given user has access to
impacts the amount of data retrieved
and transported throughout the system
Use of restrictive permissions to limit
the amount of data available to Project
Professional users is recommended.
RBS based security is optimal
Project Server Data Usage
Project Management process and standards impact
the way data is grouped in the system.
Find a balance between the number and size of
projects.
When project sizes exceed ~ 2000 tasks consider
phasing these into separate projects.
Use ‘View in MS Project Professional’ feature from
Project Center and enterprise outline codes to work
with ‘partitioned’ projects efficiently.
Avoid PM Practices that require a large number of
project baseline saves.
Consolidate non-project or Administrative tasks into
a small number of projects
Front-End Configuration
Clustering Options
No Cluster
Single Cluster
Project Server
WSS
Dual Clusters
WSS
Project Server
WSS
PS
Project Server
WSS
WSS
WSS
Project Server
Project Server
Clustering Factors
WSS and Project usage balance
Availability requirements
Future Growth
Front-End Hardware
RAM and Network
1 GB of RAM recommended
2 GB if using Portfolio Modeling features
2 to 4 processor commodity web
servers
Hyper-threading is ok
HW accelerator cards can help in SSL
implementations
Middle-Tier Configuration
View Processing Options
All on One
Dedicated
Project Server
Views Processor
DB-Based
Project Server
Views Processor
Project Server
DB Server
Views Processor
View Processing Factors
Size of typical projects
Number of Project Managers
Frequency of Publish
Frequency of OLAP Cube Build
View Processing Hardware
CPU and Network
Fast single processor speed
Disable Hyper-threading
High-speed link to DB server
Session Manager Options
All on One
Dedicated
Project Server
Session Mgr
Multiple
Project Server
Session Mgr
Project Server
Session Mgr
Session Mgr
Session Manager Factors
Number of concurrent users
Front-end clustering
Availability
Session Manager Hardware
RAM
1 GB + recommended
Minor impact on processor utilization
Database Configuration
Database Options (Split)
All on One
Two-Way Split
PS Database
Three-Way Split
PS Core
Database
PS Views
Database
PS Web
Database
PS Views
Database
PS Projects
Database
Database - Factors
Size of typical project
Number of project managers
Frequency of publish and cube build
LOB or Custom Integration
Database Hardware
Typical SQL Server behavior
CPU, RAM, Disk I/O speed
1 GB RAM per CPU for rule of thumb
Hyper-threading is ok
Memory configuration
Maximize memory available to SQL
Avoid large amount of memory configured
for fail-over
© 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.