If you were getting a new Deployment Server...

I'm suppossed to get specs on a new deployment server again. I did this a while back but then it was put on hold. It looks like the MTRs on the website leave all this out now and they want you to contact "hardware representatives" to determine the sizing (???).

We currently have a dual Pentium II, 400Mhz box with 640MB Ram, six 18.2 Gig drives, total 109gig.

User base and developer base would pretty much stay the same. Currently have no space problems.

1. What would you you go to?
2. Any advantages in going beyond two processors or higher than 2gig of Ram. I know more is always better but is it worth it?

I'm thinking minimum of Dual Pentium Zeons, 2Gig Ram, and same drive space.

Any comments appreciated, thanks, Grant.

Hi Grant,
One thing to consider on drive space: are you considering using RAID to mirror any drives? You can divide the number of drives by 2 or 4 depending on how you configure RAID.

Individual drives of only 18GB might be too small. Maybe you could convince them that you need at least one fairly large drive. The problem is that whe you start having a fair number of packages, especially full packages, you might run out of room. A full package is about 3GB, and you will need at least one if not two full packages per environment. If you make packages for DV, PY, and PD, that's 9GB just in full packages, or 18GB if you have two fulls per environment.

Maybe you can find some way of storing the packages on a separate disk. I don't know how to do this.

I'm currently running two clients with 36GB on a disk on the Deployment Server, and I wish I had a lot more. We periodically get within 5% of full on the Deployment Server, and we aren't doing anything really intensive-- just package builds.

HTH.

Thanks for the information. I found out we are using the Raid5 on the current DS.

We got preliminary specs and the new drives are going to be 36GB (minimum of 4 drives, Raid5 also) instead of the 18GB drives so we should be good shape.

Grant.

Re: processor x memory

We recently replaced our DS with a 4x4. It screams! I can get a full client package in 4.5 hours. It comes with a price. I was supposed to get a 2x2 but I think somebody goofed on the order. Goody for me.

What sort of build times are you getting now?

I don't think we can swing a 4X4. That would be nice! We don't have the new DS yet, just getting specs at this point so I can't give build times.

gm