Symantec Management Platform (Notification Server)

Hi there.

We currently have Notification Server 6.9 and we're using Deployment Console and the Altiris Software Delivery Solution. 

Our company has 300 clients in total. These are spread over 1 head office location and about 40 small satellite offices each having 1 - 3 clients.

Now we wish to upgrade to Management suite 7.1. We will be using the Deployment Solution, the Client Management suite and pcanywhere.

I am proposing to build the new solution on a single VMWare server with the following spec.

4 cores

16GB RAM

Windows Server 2008 R2

SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard

Can you let me know if having the Notification Server, SQL Server, Task Server, Package Server, Boot Server all on one box is ok for an environment our size?

Thanks.

For our ~400 client environment, it was recommended that we go with 4 Core 16GB RAM for VM for the NS/MP with DS, NOT including SQL 2008. 

For a standalone SQL box (on VM), 8-16GB RAM and 4 core was recommended for our environment.

Also, dedicated hardware for the VM's was recommended (no resource sharing). 

Is it possible for your to have a separate SQL VM?  If not, you may need to be prepared to allocate more resources to the NS if you see performance degradation.  Also, it could help to have a second server that acts as a site server to take off some of the package server/task server load if you find that the NS can't keep up.

Symantec stressed separate controllers for SQL drives on VM's as an important factor for NS peformance since disk I/O is very high for this product w/regard to SQL.  Also, VM for SQL in an NS environment is not recommended but is supported.  Given this, I think it is really compelling to have a separate VM for it.  Moving the DB off after the fact could be very troublesome.

In the end, though, I think it really depends on how much you do w/Altiris.  If you do some imaging on occasion and minimal software deployments/policies, I'm willing to bet you'd probably be alright for the most part.  If you automate a lot of things through altiris, do a high frequency of inventories, etc. then you could run into issues.

You're right, we don't do too much with Altiris. Some imaging on occassion and some software deployment. Thank you for the advice.

Yes, it's possible for us to use a separate SQL VM.

However in the Implementation Guide I read the following:

"In a local CMDB server configuration, you install the CMDB on the same

computer as Notification Server. This configuration is acceptable for the

environments that have 1,000 to 5,000 endpoints. In these environments there

is minimal contention of resources between Notification Server services and

the CMDB services"

We have only 300 endpoints so I did not think it would be necessary to use a remote CMDB server.

Also from the guide it says:

Symantec recommends at least one task server per Notification Server.

I wonder does this mean I need to have a separate task server?

Yeah, having a task server that can handle the client connections while the notification server does its thing can be beneficial.  We've got multiple locations, so we have a task server at each site but in our main office, we have the NS and a task/package server as well.  Thankfully tasks servers don't have to have anything too special as far as RAM/CPU goes, just need to have IIS w/IE6 compatibility, etc.  and some disk space if you are also going to make it a package server.

With regard to the local SQL install, it is a supported configuration but on the phone w/Symantec they recommended separating SQL and the NS for our 400 machine environment, especially because we are using virtual servers instead of physical.  We don't do a lot with Altiris at this point, but it has been slowly ramping up and we intend to do more and more automation so maybe that is why they made that recommendation, along with the whole VM thing. 

SQL installed on the same box as ITMS can work if you have it configured correctly.  

1. Make sure SQL data files are on a physical disk (attached SAN, for example) and that the SQL log files are on a SEPARATE physical disk.  If the data and log files are placed on the same disk (physical or virtual), you will see poor performance.

2. Make sure to limit the Max Memory for SQL.  Somewhere 8 - 10GB of the total 16GB should be fine.

Again, your biggest concern will be the I/O.  If you can "splurge" there, you will definitely appreciate the investment.

We always have our logs and data on separate drives and on separate datastores and it is a very fast SAN, so this should be ok.  

Would it be possible to have all the site services on the same box too? Or is it an absolute requirement to separate the task service?

You could allow the ITMS box to be the sole site server but I wouldn't recommend it.  Especially since you will be using DS to image.  DS imaging is very heavily dependent on site servers as this is where the images are captured and deployed.  So, your small satellite-linked offices will be pulling an image from the ITMS server.  If you have a site server at each location, then you can limit bandwidth usage by storing images on the site servers and then all clients pull from there...

All the imaging will take place at the head office, so should be ok.

A helpful HOWTO if there is any plan to implement task server in future:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO47804

This design is fine, with SQL on-box your main concern is limiting RAM.  Symantec's recommendations for 100-1000 are 4 cores, 16GB, so you're doing fine there.  I would plan a contingency for a site server, and if you end up not needing it, then you don't need to deploy it.  But I would be upfront with yourself and with management and plan for it as a possibility depending on performance.  Work closely with your DBA to ensure SQL gets the care and feeding it needs, as SQL and IOPS will be the most important performance consideration.

Thank you all for the adivce.