2.4 A few large servers - or many small servers

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2.4 A few large servers - or many small servers

Is it better to run a few large Domino servers or many small Domino servers? Again, the answer is: it depends. Consider the function of the Domino server as well as the capabilities of the hardware and software before making your decision. Here are some general rules (which have exceptions).

  • In the case of mail servers, it is better to consolidate users into fewer Domino servers to keep mail transfer between servers to a minimum. It is more expensive and takes more time to transfer mail to recipients on another server than it does to deliver the mail locally.

    If you are moving small mail servers from another platform to zSeries, you should consider consolidating the users into fewer mail servers, and not simply transplanting the small servers.

    On the other hand, you probably will not place all your users on a single Domino mail server, even if the zSeries hardware makes that possible. The larger the Domino server, the more data there is and the more critical it is to keep the server available to the users. That makes it more difficult to find a window for backup and maintenance. In addition, VM is good at optimizing resources for lots of smaller servers.

  • When using application servers, you may choose to have several smaller servers with the same application database and use replication to keep the databases synchronized. This is especially useful if you have users accessing the database from around the world. You can then take one Domino server offline for maintenance without impacting other users.

    If you are moving small application servers to Linux on zSeries, it makes sense to move them intact and keep their identity. In this case, running them under VM is a good choice.

  • z/VM makes it easy to support many small Domino servers. With z/VM you could easily transplant your development and test servers to a single hardware server while keeping the Domino server infrastructure.

You will find that it is a matter of balancing the advantages of managing a few servers with the flexibility of managing many servers. You may find that you will have a few large mail servers and many small application and development servers.



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IBM Lotus Domino 6. 5 for Linux on zSeries Implementation
IBM Lotus Domino 6.5 for Linux on Zseries Implementation
ISBN: 0738491748
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 162
Authors: IBM Redbooks

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