Determine how many servers you need
Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2
Determine how many servers you need
Every time a user logs on, the Phone Book Service (PBS) server is "hit" with an HTTP query, initiating the phone-book update process. Along with hardware throughput and update (.cab) file size, the number of hits and the processor speed are important factors in determining how many servers you may need.
The following table details how many hits the listed processors are capable of handling on a dedicated server with 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM.
| Processor | Hits/sec | Hits/hour | Hits/day |
|---|---|---|---|
Pentium III 600 MHz |
275 |
990,000 |
23,760,000 |
Pentium III 500 MHz (dual processors) |
250 |
900,000 |
21,600,000 |
Celeron 400 MHz |
125 |
450,000 |
10,800,000 |
Pentium II 300 MHz |
125 |
450,000 |
10,800,000 |
To get an accurate data pool to determine if an additional server is needed, take an average of the number of logons your network receives during peak hours for a week.
Notes
The maximum number of hits per second depends on the size of the update (.cab) file. Larger update files can slow performance by as much as 25 percent. The numbers in the table assume small update files of about 5 kilobytes (KB).
Your server performance might increase if you run PBS in the Internet Information Services (IIS) process.