TABLE OF CONTENTS Hardware planning is the process of selecting and testing the actual computer hardware from which our Windows Server 2003-based Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Servers will operate. Hardware planning is a cyclical operation. Typically, the process involves selecting hardware that is compatible with the operating system, estimating the size of the servers required and then performing adequate load testing. Load testing, or stress testing, involves loading the server with sessions until a bottleneck is reached. Correct the bottleneck and then retest. Repeat this process as necessary until the desired number of connections per server is reached or you have exhausted the capacity of the hardware. The last step would be to plan for future growth, so scale your hardware with an eye on what would be expected of this solution six months, 12 months, and two years from today. We are going to look at hardware planning from an architect s viewpoint. We will look at the big picture pieces such as horizontal vs. vertical scaling and platform deployment options.
The argument as to whether it is better to scale up or scale out our Citrix Presentation Server farms is nearly as old as the concept of server-based computing itself. Scaling up is the process of servicing more user sessions on the same hardware or increasing session density within the server through internal upgrades, such as four processors instead of two. Scaling out is the process of servicing more user sessions by adding more physically or logically...
