ServiceDesk

Is it okay or recommend to consolidate CMS, AMS and Service Desk onto the same hardware if given enough power?

Example... 2x 6core and 64gb ram?

Any real life suggestions or ideas would be great.

Thanks

It's not recommended to install ServiceDesk on the same server as the SMP. ServiceDesk is already resource-intensive as it is... adding an SMP with other solutions to the same server would push a server to the edge.

We are getting ready to upgrade our Altiris 6x environment to 7.1. We are going with a three server setup where one server will be used as the off-box SQL server (dual hex core, 48GB RAM), the second will serve as the ServiceDesk server (dual hex core, 32GB RAM), and the third server will be our SMP, CMS, SMS, and AMS server (dual hex core, 32GB RAM). By the way, we are implementing the entire Total Management Suite solution. We will also be using at least 2 task/site/package servers in our environment to offload alot of the tasks off the SMP server (non server hardware, but i7 core PCs). As reecardo states, you do not want to install ServiceDesk on your SMP server. I believe it even states that you cannot install them on the same server in the TMS implementation guide.

In addition to what reecardo said, it's simply not supported to have a ServiceDesk on the same server with SMP (or CMS, AMS, ITMS). It is not meant to be installed on the SMP server and won't really install on one in a simple way.

Regarding ServiceDesk hardware, I have a document that is not official ServiceDesk documentation, but one that does describe the hardware requirements rather well. I'll quote a large part of it:

ServiceDesk 7.1 Server Hardware Requirements

1. Minimum Hardware Requirements

•    64 –bit Multi-core processor(s)
• 4GB RAM minimum
• 50GB Disk minimum

   2. Load/Performance Hardware Requirements

• 4-8, 64 –bit Multi-core processor(s)
• 24GB RAM minimum
• 200 GB Disk minimum – Configured as a RAID 1+0 array

ServiceDesk 7.1 SQL Server System Requirements

1. Minimum SQL Hardware Requirements

• Multi-core processor(s)
• 4GB RAM minimum
• 100GB Disk minimum

2. Load/Performance SQL Hardware Requirements

• Dedicated SQL Server
• 4-8, 64 –bit Multi-core processor(s)
• 20-30 GB RAM minimum
• Storage - 3 Separate, Dedicated Channels (Disk Controllers) for Different Database Components:
- Servicedesk Database Channel – RAID 1+0 (Minimum 100GB)
- Servicedesk Transaction Log Channel – RAID 1+0 (Minimum 20-30GB)
- SQL Server TEMPDB Channel – Mirror Set (Minimum 20 GB)

Load/Performance Requirements Justification

Based on the metrics that the current environment shows (Disk Usage, memory and processor consumption performance counters), and an understanding of the usage and consumption of SQL resources by Servicedesk, these recommendations have been made, and included growth considerations as well.

Servicedesk has some very large memory and processor consumption statistics, that have proven to overwhelm the minimum configurations in all but the most minimal usage. And the constant transfer of data from the Servicedesk Server to the SQL Server overtaxes most basic SQL server configurations. All of the Symantec Endpoint Management solutions, such as the SMP, coupled with Patch Management, Software Management, or Recovery Solution, or Deployment Solution are all large SQL resource consumers. MS SQL Server performs best when it has dedicated hardware, both for the server, and dedicated disk configuration for the three key elements of each database. While there may be other applications that can share SQL resources, Servicedesk’s usage of the TEMPDB in particular, make it hard to share with other applications, thus enhancing the requirement of a SQL server, with the appropriate disk configuration, dedicated for Servicedesk. In all heavy load environments, this becomes an absolute requirement. It also almost completely excludes the possibility of using virtual machines as well.

While not removing the ability to use virtualization, it has been our observation that most medium to large customers using virtualized Servicedesk environments frequently experience a higher level of erratic behavior and performance-related problems than those of equal size, configured to use physical hardware. Virtual hardware can be used, but VM’s should be associated with disk configurations as listed above if connected to a SAN or NFS type device, or in an equivalent RAW format. VMDK files are not as efficient, especially for SQL.