We just purchased A bunch of SW products, looking for advice on building the server to run it.

laplaya

We purchased Network PM, 500 elements

APP Per Mon 150 Elements

NetFlow Traffic analyzer SL500

Virt Manager up to 100 VM's

I have to build the server to run it, any reccomendations? We are a small shop , only four people will use this app.

Any experience with SQL running on the same box? Sql Express? Server 2K3 or 2k8?

I can put it on a brand new Dell box or a 2950 thats a few years old. How big can I expect my SQL DB to get ?

Any comments are appreciated. Hopefully I will like these products. Have not touched it yet.

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Accepted answers

mcbridea

There are a couple of things to avoid. Don't use SQL express in production, especially with NTA. Use Standard SQL Server. Don't install SQL on the same box as you Orion products. Virtual Manager installs on a VMware server as a virtual machine, so that install is seperate. You can install NPM, APM/SAM and NTA on the same server. (NTA only runs on an NPM server as an NPM module. The recommended standard architecture is as shown below. You can run NPM, APM/SAM and NTA on a virtual server. SQL on a virtual server can be problematic. Use Raid 10 storage for the database. The end size of you db depends how many NetFlow exporters you configure. You will probably not exceed 200GB though. You will not need the additional poller shown. This refrence will be helpful as well.

http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/Orion/docs/OrionPerformance.pdf

BR - Andy

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All comments

danielleh

Hi laplaya--

Here are the Orion Requirements from the Admin Guide to get you started.

http://www.solarwinds.com/NetPerfMon/SolarWinds/OrionIPAMAdministratorGuide.11.008.htm

mcbridea

http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/Orion/docs/OrionPerformance.pdf

BR - Andy

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netlogix

As the load increases, the disks on the SQL server becomes *!VERY!* important. If you want to get your feet wet with the 2950, it is pretty easy to move SQL to another box later and not that bad moving the App (it's pretty easy if you keep the same hostname and IP, just doing that is the work)

Go Server 2k8 *R2* for the OS.

It is so hard to say how big the database will get, but your biggest space takers are going to be NTA, syslog, and/or snmp traps. If your history is not that long for them, then it might not be too bad.

once/if you configure the devices to send syslog and/or snmptraps read this post in which byrona did a pretty good job explaining the possible pain points with them. My SQL DB is 14gb, 40% is syslog, and about 200 IOs.

laplaya

Thanks for all the info, I m ordering a new box for SQL , but in the meantime Im going to get started with orion and move the db when I get the new sql box up and running.