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Conference decwet::networker

Title:NetWorker
Notice:kits - 12-14, problem reporting - 41.*, basics 1-100
Moderator:DECWET::RANDALL.com::lenox
Created:Thu Oct 10 1996
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:750
Total number of notes:3361

677.0. "Scalability against network interface" by NUBABA::FRACCHIA (System Wide Notes Browser) Tue May 13 1997 10:50

Hello,

one of my customer has 3 Ethernet trunks with about 100 PCs and Workstations
connected to each of them.

They are going to put an Intel server on each trunk for doing backups using
Networker.

I'm trying to sell them a unique Windows-NT Alpha Server with 3 Ethernet board
for doing the same job.

They have some concern about my proposal regarding the scalability of the
Networker software against the network card.
They tested this kind of solution on a Sun server and they saw that using 3
Ethernet board they couldn't get 3 times the throughput they got with one.

Can I assure them that my configuration based on 1 AlphaServer with 3 Ethernet
board can do the same job as 3 Intel Server with 1 board each ?

Thanks in advance,

best regards.


Luigi Fracchia
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
677.1insufficient informationmontlake.zso.dec.com::lenoxDigital's suing Intel, best brand marketing there isTue May 13 1997 11:3114
Well, this really depends.... 

e.g. if one compares a 4cpu 8400 with 2GB of memory with
three single cpu pentiums with 64MB of memory then I will
assure you that the 8400 is better.  But since there are no
details about the systems involved, I would not hazard to
guess.

Amy

reply to
decwet::lenox
lenox@zso.dec.com
677.2AlphaServer 4000 5/400 is enough ?NUBABA::FRACCHIASystem Wide Notes BrowserTue May 13 1997 22:2918
According to the sizing guidelines I got from the internal Web, stating you
need 1/3 of a EV5 CPU running at 300 MHz, I was thinking to propose an
AlphaServer 4000 5/400 with 1 CPU and 512 MB of memory running Windows-NT, with
2 disks for the index files.

We expect to run 3 backup streams (1 or each Ethernet board) writing to a TL894
at the maximum speed allowed by Ethernet (800 KB/sec ?).

Is it possible ?

I hope the information I supplied would be enough.

Thanks in advance,
regards.

Luigi
677.3DECWET::ONOSoftware doesn't break-it comes brokenWed May 14 1997 08:4825
>According to the sizing guidelines I got from the internal Web, stating you
>need 1/3 of a EV5 CPU running at 300 MHz, I was thinking to propose an
>AlphaServer 4000 5/400 with 1 CPU and 512 MB of memory running Windows-NT, with
>2 disks for the index files.
>
>We expect to run 3 backup streams (1 or each Ethernet board) writing to a TL894
>at the maximum speed allowed by Ethernet (800 KB/sec ?).

  Note that this totals about 2.5 MB/sec, which is unlikely to keep 
  even one TZ89 streaming.  I assume that you're proposing a TL894
  for capacity rather than for tape throughput, correct?

  In this situation, I would direct the backup streams to one or
  two drives (set NetWorker's active device count to 1 or 2).  If 
  you try to drive all four, then you will end up wasting CPU on
  interprocess communication (1 or 2 tape processes vs. 4), but you 
  won't get any additional throughput because the network is a 
  bottleneck.

>Is it possible ?

  I think so, but we haven't done much testing with multiple 
  Ethernets.

Wes