Detailed System Requirements
Abstract
Customer would like to create a brand-new Controller system. What are the approximate hardware specifications (CPU cores, RAM) that they should use for their servers?
Content
Disclaimer:
- This Technote is based on general customer-feedback to IBM Cognos Support over the lifetime of the various Controller versions. It is not based on in-depth performance analysis or testing. It also is a ‘general’ guide, which is not targeted towards the specific database/system/working-pattern of an individual customer. Therefore the server specification advice/recommendation must be taken only as a general guide, not exact recommendations.
- Although this Technote gives typical sizes suitable for most environments, it is not necessarily perfect for all environments. There are an infinite variety of possible customer I.T. environments, many different ways to install/configure Controller, and therefore the advice in this document may have to be modified by the reader to fit in with their needs/environment.
- This document is only intended to be a basic guide. Customers are recommended to always employ an experienced IBM Services or IBM Partner technical consultant to analyse their exact requirements. Your consultant will produce an architecture which best fits for your exact requirements.
- Simple/standard usage of Controller
- No need for master/slave application server configuration (see separate IBM Technote #1677206)
- Cognos Analytics being used only for Controller use (not for large Cognos BI reports)
- Cognos Analytics installed on 'main' Controller application server (providing 'standard report' and optional 'CAM authentication' functions only)
- If used, Controller Web installed entirely on the 'main' Controller application server
- If used, FAP server ('FAP Service') installed entirely on the 'main' Controller application server
- Very simplistic hardware estimations, based purely on the maximum number of concurrent users.
| Concurrent users | CPU cores (total) | RAM (Gb) |
|---|---|---|
| 40 or fewer (small) | 4 (minimum) to 8 (recommended) | 8 (minimum) to 16 (recommended) |
| 50 to 100 (medium) | 8 to 16 | 12 to 24 |
| 100+ (large) | 16 to 24 | 24 to 36 (or more) |
- As a general ballpark guide, assuming you are using Microsoft SQL then each of your Controller databases will typically be between approximately 10Gb and 200Gb in size. Therefore, make sure that you have enough hard drive space to store several copies of approximately that size.
- It is possible that the SQL server will not be able to 'see' (or utilise) all the hardware (CPU cores/RAM) on it's host server. To check this, you can run a SQL query, to ask the SQL server what hardware it thinks it is running on. For details, see separate IBM Technote #482067.
| Concurrent users | CPU cores (total) | RAM (Gb) |
|---|---|---|
| 15 or fewer | 4 (minimum) | 12 (minimum) to 16 (recommended) |
| 15 to 40 | 6 to 8 | 16 to 20 |
| 40 to 75 | 8 to 12 | 20 to 28 |
| 75 to 150 | 12 to 16 | 28 to 36 |
| over 150 (specialised) | Refer to your IBM Technical consultant | Refer to your IBM Technical consultant |
| CPU cores (total) | RAM (Gb) | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic/standard usage | 8 | 16 (minimum) |
Related Information
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1677206 - How to configure Controller 10.2.713 (or later) to have multiple appl…
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Document Information
Modified date:
13 July 2020
UID
ibm10871602