Table of contents 1 Introduction... 2 2 Knoa Agent... 2 2.1 System Requirements...2 2.2 Environment Requirements...4 3 Knoa Server Architecture...4 3.1 Knoa Server Components... 4 3.2 Server Hardware Setup...5 4 Knoa Server Requirements... 10 4.1 Knoa Operational Server... 10 4.2 Knoa ETL Server...11 4.3 Knoa Management Console...11 4.4 Knoa Databases...12 5 Knoa Reporting... 13 5.1 BusinessObjects Requirements... 14 6 Environment Impact...14 6.1 Agent Performance Impact... 14 6.2 Impact on Network Traffic...15
1 Introduction This section describes the hardware and software requirements for the Knoa product. Requirements are segmented by major Knoa system components: 1. Knoa Agent (client engine and monitoring templates) 2. Knoa Server components (operational and ETL servers, operational and analytical databases) 3. Knoa (system admin utilities) 4. Knoa Reporting (for Business Intelligence tools) 2 Knoa Agent The Knoa agent is the software component which performs the monitoring of target applications in order to generate the end-user performance metrics. The agent is deployed in the operating environment where the monitored application runs. For monitoring locally run applications (such as SAP GUI or a browser-based application), the Agent is installed on each user's computer. For monitoring applications accessed through a Citrix Server, the Agent is installed on the virtual server, where the monitored application UI is rendered. 2.1 System Requirements Following are the hardware and software requirements for the Agent machines on which the Agent is installed. Please be advised that these minimum hardware requirements may not meet your application's requirements for system specifications. Desktop installations CPU Intel or compatible Pentium 400 MHz or higher Page 2
Memory Disk space for Agent executable 128MB RAM (minimum) 1MB Disk space for persistent track storage 2MB per user limit recommended (configurable; this translates to roughly a week of cached track data, i.e. server unavailable) 200k is a typical upper limit Windows Installer MS Windows Installer 2.0+ Operating systems Browser platforms Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, 8 (32 bit), 9 (32 bit), 10 (32 bit) Citrix installations CPU Memory Disk space for Agent Intel or compatible Single 700 MHz Xeon PIII 512 MB (minimum) 1 MB Disk space for persistent track storage 2MB per user limit recommended (configurable; this translates to roughly a week of cached track data, i.e. server unavailable) 200k is a typical upper limit Operating systems Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server Browser platforms Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, 8 (32 bit), 9 (32 bit), 10 (32 bit) Windows Installer MS Windows Installer 2.0+ Citrix support XenApp 5.0, 6.0, 6.5 Note regarding 64 bit processes Please note that the Knoa agent does not currently support monitoring of 64 bit processes. The Knoa agent supports monitoring on 64 bit Windows environments, but only for 32 bit processes (including Internet Explorer). Note regarding AppContainer integrity Please note that the Knoa agent does not currently support monitoring of processes with AppContainer level of integrity. For more information on the AppContainer feature, please consult this MSDN blog. Page 3
2.2 Environment Requirements The user's computer must be configured to automatically launch tknoa.exe agent after login. On desktop installations, this is done with the following registry command that is created during the Knoa Agent installation: 32-bit environments [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Run] "C:\\Program Files\\Knoa\\KnoaAgent\\"="C:\\Program Files\ \Knoa\\KnoaAgent\\tKnoa.exe" 64-bit environments [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows \CurrentVersion\Run] "C:\Program Files (x86)\knoa\knoaagent\"="c:\program Files (x86)\knoa\knoaagent\tknoa.exe" As a result, the user performing the MSI installation will need permission to edit the registry of the machine on which the Knoa Agent is installed. 3 Knoa Server Architecture 3.1 Knoa Server Components Knoa Server components consist of the following sub-components: 1. Knoa Operational Server - used for track data collection and analysis 2. Knoa ETL Server - used for batch generation of analytical data based on the operational data 3. Knoa databases - operational, analytical, and master databases 4. Knoa Management Console - web-based application containing system administration utilities Knoa System Architecture Page 4
3.2 Server Hardware Setup User Concurrency Page 5
The metrics for server sizing are based on concurrent active monitored users. When planning your technical architecture, be sure to size your servers for the peak concurrency of the monitored user base. In a typical ERP environment, concurrency as a percentage of total application user base can fall within a wide range, depending on factors such as user roles, geographical location, etc. A safe median to use for planning is 30% peak concurrency. So during peak usage times, an ERP user base of 30,000 equates to 10,000 concurrent users. Up to 1,000 concurrent users For deployments for up to 1,000 concurrent users, the recommended setup is 2 servers for the Knoa server components and 2 servers for the BI solution. Specifically: Server 1: Knoa Operational server, ETL server, and Management Console Server 2: Knoa Database Server (for operational, analytical, and master databases) Servers 3-4: BI Servers for the reporting applications Page 6
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Hardware Requirements Server 1: Operational and ETL Memory Minimum: 2 GB Recommended: 8 GB CPU Minimum: Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.40 GHz (4 Cores) Recommended: Intel Xeon Processor X3430 2.40 GHz (4 Cores) Server 2: Operational and Analytical DB Minimum: 4 GB Recommended: 8 GB Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.40 GHz (4 Cores) Disk Space 16 GB Minimum: 60 GB (based on estimation of storing data for 1,000 users for 365 days) Between 1,000 and 10,000 concurrent users For deployments between 1,000 and 10,000 concurrent users, Knoa recommends a 4-server configuration for its server components (by separating the Operational and ETL servers, and the Operational and Analytical databases, respectively). Specifically, the following is the recommended set-up: Server 1: Knoa Operational server and Management Console Server 2: Knoa ETL server Server 3: Knoa Operational database Server 4: Knoa Master and Analytical databases Servers 5-6: BI Servers for the reporting applications Page 8
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Hardware Requirements Server 1: Operational Server 2: ETL Server 3: Operational DB Server 4: Analytical DB Memory Minimum: 4 GB Recommended: 8 GB Minimum: 4 GB Recommended: 8 GB Minimum: 8 GB Recommended: 32 GB Minimum: 8 GB Recommended: 32 GB CPU Minimum: Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.40 GHz (4 Cores) Recommended: Intel Xeon Processor X3430 2.40 GHz (4 Cores) Minimum: Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.40 GHz (4 Cores) Recommended: Intel Xeon Processor X3430 2.40 GHz (4 Cores) Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.40 GHz (4 Cores) Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.40 GHz (4 Cores) Disk Space 16 GB 40 GB 16 GB 40 GB 50 500 GB (based on estimation of having 1,000 users for 365 days) 10 40 GB (based on estimation of having 1000 users for 365 days) Scaling Strategies For user populations with over 10,000 concurrent users, Knoa recommends setting up multiple instances of the Knoa operational servers and databases, respectively, to handle the load of data collection and analysis for the target user population. 4 Knoa Server Requirements 4.1 Knoa Operational Server The Knoa Operational server is a software component responsible for the collection and analysis of track data generated by the Knoa agents. Depending on the number of monitored users and the volume of data generated by the corresponding Knoa agents, the Knoa system may require one or more Operational servers, to handle the load of data collection and analysis. Each Knoa Operational server has a corresponding Operational database, where data processed by the respective server is stored. Environment Requirements: Page 10
Windows Server 2003 and 2008 Java SE Development Kit 7 and JAVA_HOME environment variable set A port must be open for Knoa Agents to connect on. By default, the Operational server is configured to use port 9090. However, this port can be changed in the Knoa server configuration. If the Operational server resides on the same machine as the Knoa Management Console, the port used by the Operational server must be different from the port used by the Management Console. Note: Windows 64-bit and Java 64-bit are supported 4.2 Knoa ETL Server The Knoa ETL server is a software component responsible for the batch processing of operational data, stored in the Knoa Operational database(s) into higher level aggregated data, for reporting purposes. The ETL processing schedule can be configured within the Knoa Management Console. Environment Requirements: Windows Server 2003 and 2008 Java SE Development Kit 7 and JAVA_HOME environment variable set Note: Windows 64-bit and Java 64-bit are supported 4.3 Knoa Management Console The Knoa Management Console is a J2EE application and is compatible with the Windows server platform. Depending on the server configuration, the Knoa Management Console may be installed on a dedicated server, or may be installed on a shared server, along with other Knoa server components. Irrespectively, the same hardware and software recommendations apply for the Console component. Hardware Requirements Knoa Management Console Server Memory Minimum: 1 GB RAM Recommended: 2 GB RAM CPU 1.5 GHz dual core Disk Space Minimum: 500 MB Recommended: 1 GB Environment Requirements: Page 11
OS: Windows Server 2003 and 2008 Note: The Knoa Management Console requires Microsoft.NET 2.0 JVM: Java SE Development Kit 7 installed (aka JDK 7) Note: Windows 64-bit and Java 64-bit are supported Browser: Internet Explorer 8, 9, 10, 11 4.4 Knoa Databases There are 3 types of databases within the Knoa system: 1. Operational Database - database used by the Knoa Operational server to store the track data received from the Knoa agents, after further processing (a.k.a. "operational" data). There can be more than one Operational database, one for each Operational server. 2. Reporting Database - database used to store the output of ETL processing, which generates higher level summaries and aggregates of Knoa operational data, for reporting purposes. There is only one instance of the Reporting database. 3. Master Database - database used to store internal and configuration data for the Knoa system. There is only one instance of the Master database. 4.4.1 Database Support The Knoa databases are standard relational databases. Knoa's reference database platform is Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) and Oracle 11g (32-bit and 64-bit). 4.4.2 Recommended Configuration for MS SQL Server Knoa recommends the following configuration options for the optimal performance of the operational and reporting databases: Physical Architecture The operational and reporting databases should each be deployed on their own dedicated machine, to avoid contention for hardware resources. The master database is smaller and much less used, so it can be co-hosted with either the reporting or the operational database. Also, given the intensive database processing performed by Knoa databases, it is recommended to use physical hardware as opposed to Virtual Machines. Memory Allocation Page 12
It is recommended that the SQL Server database be installed on a server with 64bit architecture, to enable greater memory allocation and ensure optimal database performance. For optimal performance, plan to allocate 32GB of memory. Note that it is not enough to have the memory available on the server machine. The SQL Server database must be configured to use the available memory. This can be done through the Management Studio (Server Properties option). Memory Allocation for MS SQL Server Disk Drives If the operational and reporting databases are installed on the same database server, they should use different physical disk drives. It is recommended that database Data and Log files be configured on separate physical disk drives. This can be configured in the following section of the Knoa server knoa.cfg file: datadir=g: logdir=h:... masterds.datafile.dir=${datadir}... masterds.logfile.dir=${logdir}... operationalds.datafile.dir=${datadir}... operationalds.logfile.dir=${logdir}... reportingds.datafile.dir=${datadir}... reportingds.logfile.dir=${logdir} It is also recommended that the tempdb database should also be configured on its own physical disk drive. 5 Knoa Reporting Knoa reporting is delivered as Business Intelligence solutions for two BI platforms: MicroStrategy and BusinessObjects. In an actual deployment of the Knoa system, customers will only select one reporting environment. Page 13
5.1 BusinessObjects Requirements Note: For a detailed description of the system requirements of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 SP04, please consult SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 SP04 Product Availability Matrix. Minimum Server Hardware Requirements Note: Please refer to the BI 4 Sizing Companion Guide, located at http://www.sap.com/bisizing. For more information on SAPS, see the SAP Sizing portal:http://service.sap.com/sizing and also the SAP benchmarked vendor hardware list: http://www1.sap.com/solutions/benchmark/sd2tier.epx If deploying to virtualized hardware, it is strongly recommended that the memory and CPU(s) be reserved for each virtual machine that is running the BI services. Minimum Client Hardware Requirements Dual Core CPU 2 GB RAM Note: Note: Compiled binaries of SAP BusinessObjects BI software are supported on versions of the Windows operating system running on CPUs made by AMD or Intel Recommended Disk Space Requirements SAP BusinessObjects BI (client installer): 3.5 GB for default installation with English language only installed 7.5 GB for default installation with all languages installed SAP BusinessObjects BI (server installer): 11 GB for default installation with English language only installed 14 GB for default installation with all languages installed 6 Environment Impact 6.1 Agent Performance Impact "Agent machine" refers to the machine on which the Knoa Agent is installed. This can be a user desktop, if the monitored application GUI is accessed in a desktop environment, or a Citrix Server, if the application is accessed in a Citrix environment. Page 14
The following is the standard impact of running the Agent and Monitoring Template on the Agent machine. Agent MSI package size Deployed Agent size Binary solution file size tknoa.exe Memory consumption as "working set" tknoa.exe Memory consumption as "private bytes" 500 KB (compressed file) 840 KB (uncompressed files) 5 KB ~ 5 MB ~ 2 MB tknoa.exe Total %Processor Time 0.1-1 % Persistent File Storage Queue 2MB per user limit recommended (configurable; this translates to roughly a week of cached track data, i.e. server unavailable) 200k is a typical upper limit Reference Benchmarks for Citrix The following benchmarks were generated by running the Knoa Agent and a Monitoring Template (for a target application) in a Citrix environment, where 15 concurrent Citrix client sessions (and corresponding Knoa agent instances) were simulated, for a period of over 40 hours. Operating System Windows Server 2003 R2, SP2, 64-bit Citrix Version Citrix Xenapp 5.0 Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5620 @ 2.40GHz, 2394 Mhz Memory 1GB tknoa.exe Total %Processor Time 0.51 % tknoa.exe Memory consumption as "working set" ~4.3 MB 6.2 Impact on Network Traffic Agents deployed on the users' desktops or the Citrix servers accessing the monitored application GUI generate track messages which are sent to the Knoa Server for permanent storage in the Knoa Operational and Report databases. The transfer of track messages can be continuous or in batch. The rate of transfer can be configured during deployment as well as dynamically adjusted. Page 15
The following are standard network traffic metrics related to the Knoa data transfer between Agents and the Knoa Server: Knoa track message size Number of tracks per user per minute ~150 bytes 5-10 (For a standard Knoa EPM implementation; this rate is configurable, based on the monitoring requirements. No track messages are generated during user idle time on the monitored application.) Page 16