Re: Application Server Design for .Net

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: William Stacey [MVP] (staceywREMOVE_at_mvps.org)
Date: 01/17/05 

Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:28:10 -0500

The machine sounds good. I would get from a good vendor (i.e. Dell) and not
try to put pieces together to save a few bucks. That support really can
come in handy. RAID 5 is always good. Get the dual channel failover too
and internal failover power supplies. Rack mount *everthing IMO (even the
dog). Buy the rack(s) from the same vendor and get one of the 2U slide out
Keyboard/Monitor rack units with a KVM. Naturally, get a good UPS. Two
things normally fail - power supplies and hard disks. With RAID5 (hot-spare
drive), dual power supplies and UPS, you should have a good start on HW.
The CPUs will depend on your needs. You also did not mention backups. That
is the most import thing. Buy the fastest and best backup drives you can
get your hands on (e.g. DLTs) and good bkup software. Another reason to pick
a good vender as, these days, they all sell OEM solutions configured for the
machine/SAN they sell you. Only way to tell is by perf testing your own
needs or extrapolating from current machine perf. Make sure all the HW is
on the MS supported list or there is a good reason it is not. Management is
also key. Include good management sofware (i.e. ms mom, etc.) in the budget
upfront (don't think you will add it on latter - as you probably will not).
As far as clusters go, I still have a bad taste in my mouth back in the day
using LifeKeeper. They are probably better now, but you may not need for
web stuff. Your ASP and WS apps are stateless, so your client should be
able to fail over to a working server (the SQL cluster is probably required
however but have never did one.) The options here are far and wide. 

-- 
William Stacey, MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
"Chris Gatto" <cgatto@nbnet.nb.ca@removeme> wrote in message
news:utGex$M$EHA.2104@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Hello,
>
> My organization is currently considering the purchase of a new intranet
> application server and we are looking for opinions from those who have
been
> down this road before.  In brief the server must support the following:
> - 600+ users using various ASP.Net based applications, only 2 currently
but
> growing over time as old legacy apps are converted;
> - Some applications are mission critical, others not so much;
> - DB back-end is a seperate SQL-Server 2000 failover cluster (2 machines)
> with a shared RAIDed disk array;
> - Service must be available 24/7/365;
> - App server will act as combo web server (IIS) and application server
(.Net
> Framework);
>
> We are considering the following specs:
> - A 2-machine fail-over cluster with a shared RAIDed disk array (same as
our
> db design);
> - Duel processor machines (2+ GHz cpu's);
> - 4 to 8 Gb RAM;
>
> I'd be interested in hearing what others have done for thier setups (pros,
> cons, experiences).
>
> Thanks in advance,
> C Gatto
>
>

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