Vocera Voice 4.3 and 4.4 Server Sizing Matrix Vocera Server Recommended Configuration Guidelines Maximum Simultaneous Users 450 5,000 Sites Single Site or Multiple Sites Requires Multiple Sites Entities (Spoken Name Count) a 0-6,000 6,000-150,000 Recommended Configuration Vocera Server 1 or 2 Socket, Intel Xeon Dual- Core or Intel Xeon Quad-Core 4 GB RAM, DVD Dedicated 80 GB hard drive for Vocera b c d 32-bit systems: Windows 2003 Standard 64-bit systems: Windows 2008 R2 Standard e Vocera Server 2-Socket, Intel Xeon Quad-Core 8 GB RAM, DVD Dedicated 120 GB hard drive for Vocera b c d 32-bit systems: Windows 2003 Enterprise 64-bit systems: Windows 2008 R2 Standard e a Spoken Name Count includes user names, group names, alternate spoken names and department names. b The Vocera Server does not support a NAS or SAN infrastructure. c Windows must be installed on its own hard drive separate from Vocera. d Testing shows improved performance with solid state drives. e For instructions on how to install Vocera 4.3 on Windows 2008 R2, see Vocera Technical Support Knowledge Base article 1229. Vocera Voice 4.3 and 4.4 Server Sizing Matrix, 01/20/2014 1
Vocera Recommended Configuration Guidelines Physical Hardware Vocera Server See chart on previous page. Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway (VSTG) Intel Xeon Dual-Core, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB HD Vocera Report Server (VRS) Intel Xeon Dual-Core, 4 GB RAM, 100 GB HD Vocera Client Gateway (VCG) Intel Xeon Dual-Core, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB HD Badge Configuration Computer (BCU) Minimum requirements: 1.0 GHz Pentium III, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HD, standalone/isolated computer w/access point Windows XP Pro, Windows 2003 Standard, Windows 2008 R2 Standard, or Windows 7 b Motorola Mobility Services Platform (MSP) Intel Xeon Dual-Core, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB HD Windows 2003 Standard or Windows 2008 Standard c Vocera Staging Server Intel Xeon, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB HD Vocera Recognition Server Not recommended VMware Vocera Server See VS VMware Requirements on page 4 Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway (VSTG) See VSTG, VCG, VRS, and Vocera Recognition Server VMware Requirements on page 6 Vocera Report Server (VRS) See VSTG, VCG, VRS, and Vocera Recognition Server VMware Requirements on page 6 Vocera Client Gateway (VCG) See VSTG, VCG, VRS, and Vocera Recognition Server VMware Requirements on page 6 Badge Configuration Computer (BCU) Not supported Motorola Mobility Services Platform (MSP) 1 vcpu, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB HD Windows 2003 Standard or Windows 2008 Standard c Vocera Staging Server 1 vcpu, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB HD Vocera Recognition Server See VSTG, VCG, VRS, and Vocera Recognition Server VMware Requirements on page 6 2 Vocera Voice 4.3 and 4.4 Server Sizing Matrix, 01/20/2014
Physical Hardware Vocera Telephony Server Intel Xeon Dual-Core 4 GB RAM, 80 GB HD, DVD Full-length, full-height PCI, PCI-X or PCI-Express slot for Dialogic board VMware Vocera Telephony Server Not supported a For instructions on how to install Vocera 4.3 on Windows 2008 R2, see Vocera Technical Support Knowledge Base article 1229. b For instructions on installing BCU on Windows 7, see Vocera Technical Support Knowledge Base article 1340. c MSP 3.3 is NOT supported on Windows 2008 R2. VMware Support VMware Platforms Vocera supports the following products running in a VMware virtualized environment: Vocera Server (VS) Vocera SIP Telephony Server (VSTG) Vocera Client Gateway (VCG) Vocera Report Server (VRS) Vocera Recognition Server In addition, Motorola supports the running of Mobility Services Platform (MSP) on VMware. The following VMware platforms are supported: Server VS VSTG, VCG, VRS, Vocera Recognition Server VMware Platforms Supported VMware vsphere 5 (ESXi) VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3.5 (ESX or ESXi) VMware vsphere 4 (ESX or ESXi) VMware vsphere 5 (ESXi) VMware virtualization platform must include VMware vcenter Server (formerly VMware Virtual Center) with a Standard license or better. Vocera Voice 4.3 and 4.4 Server Sizing Matrix, 01/20/2014 3
VS VMware Requirements Important: Vocera DOES NOT support any other virtualization environments, including VMware Server/Workstation, Citrix XenServer, Red Hat KVM and Microsoft Hyper-V. Component Vocera Server Version Processor Type Requirements Version 4.3 or 4.4 with latest service pack Intel Xeon Processors per VM 4 Minimum RAM Resource Reservation 8 GB See CPU Oversubscription on page 5 and Memory Oversubscription on page 5 Network Interface VMXNET 3 Minimum Disk Space Guest Operating System 120 GB (thick provisioned) Windows 2008 R2 Standard Important: Vocera has validated that the Vocera Server works with the above requirements. However, we understand that every virtual infrastructure has unique characteristics. Consequently, you may need to deviate from the required configuration. If you encounter performance issues with virtualized Vocera Servers, Vocera Technical Support will work with your VMware administrator to help identify the cause of the problem and make recommendations to help fix or mitigate the problem. The recommendation could be to move the Vocera Server to a host with more available resources or higher performing disk capabilities. In some cases, Vocera Technical Support may recommend migrating to physical hardware if the virtual environment is not able to maintain the level of performance required by the Vocera solution. Disk Oversubscription No disk oversubscription is allowed on the host All virtual disks should use a thick provisioning method Only direct-attached storage is supported NAS or SAN hosted disks are not currently supported 4 Vocera Voice 4.3 and 4.4 Server Sizing Matrix, 01/20/2014
CPU Oversubscription No CPU oversubscription is allowed on the host Each provisioned virtual CPU must map one-to-one to a physical CPU core One physical CPU must be reserved for the hypervisor CPU affinity is not required or recommended Hyper-threading can be enabled but additional logical processors made available via the hyper-threading feature do not count toward the provisioning totals Example: Host machine contains 2 quad-core processors with hyper-threading enabled. Physical CPUs = 8 Logical CPUs = 16 Maximum vcpu s allowed = 7 (8 1 reserved for hypervisor use) Memory Oversubscription No memory oversubscription is allowed on the host All hosts must have a memory reservation configured equal to the provisioned amount of RAM on the guest 1 GB of RAM should be reserved for the hypervisor Example: Host machine contains 24 GB of RAM 24 1 = 23 GB of RAM available for guest VMs memory allocation Applications Running on the Same Physical Host Only the following applications are supported running on the same host as a virtualized Vocera Server: VS (staging) VSTG VCG VRS Important: For hardware redundancy, Vocera recommends a separate physical host for each Vocera Server cluster node. Vocera Voice 4.3 and 4.4 Server Sizing Matrix, 01/20/2014 5
Virtual Machine Template (OVA File) Vocera Technical Support provides an OVA file that serves as a virtual server template for the Vocera Server. The OVA template file conforms to the VMware recommendations specified in this document for the Vocera Server. You can download and use this OVA template file to configure a VM before installing the Vocera Server. For more information, contact Vocera Technical Support. VSTG, VCG, VRS, and Vocera Recognition Server VMware Requirements Requirements Component Processor Type VSTG VCG VRS Vocera Recognition Server Intel Xeon Processors per VM 1 1 2 2 Minimum RAM 2 GB 2 GB 4 GB 4 GB Resource Reservation CPU: 500 MHz RAM: 512 MB Network Interface VMware vsphere 4 or 5: VMXNET 3 VMware ESX 3.5: Enhanced VMXNET (VMXNET 2) Minimum Disk Space Guest Operating System 40 GB 40 GB 100 GB 25 GB Standard VSTG Recommendations You can install multiple VSTG servers, also known as a VSTG array, to take advantage of high availability features. Vocera recommends the following best practices for high availability: Set up 2 separate VMware ESX servers for redundancy. Install VSTG on each VMware ESX server. Allocate the total number of SIP lines evenly between the VSTG servers. 6 Vocera Voice 4.3 and 4.4 Server Sizing Matrix, 01/20/2014
When you configure the Number of Lines field on the Telephony > Basic Info page of the Vocera Administration Console, enter the number of lines available to a single VSTG server, not the total number of lines available to all servers. For example, if you purchased a license with 6 lines and you have 2 VSTG servers, assign 3 lines to each VSTG server. VCG Recommendations You can install up to 4 VCG servers for your Vocera system to take advantage of high availability features. Vocera recommends the following best practices for high availability: Set up 2 separate VMware ESX servers for redundancy. Install VCG on each VMware ESX server. VSTG and VCG Limits Number of lines supported by a single VSTG 128 Number of clients supported by a single VCG 500 Number of simultaneous audio sessions supported by a single VCG 256 Managing CPU and Memory Resources Vocera VMware Architecture When setting up VMs for Vocera servers, make sure you specify CPU and memory resource reservations. A reservation specifies the guaranteed minimum allocation for a VM. CPU and memory resource reservations ensure that the VM will have enough CPU and memory resources provided by the host or cluster. If you don't specify CPU and memory resource reservations, the VM environment could become stressed, causing the clock on the VM to slow down or speed up, which could cause a Vocera SIP Telephony Gateway or Vocera Client Gateway to disconnect from its Vocera Server. The following diagram shows two VMware ESXi hosts for a Vocera Server cluster. The hosts also include VMs for VSTG, VCG, VRS and a Vocera Server staging server. Based on server load, you can add more VCG and VSTG VMs as well as distributed Vocera Recognition Server VMs. Vocera Voice 4.3 and 4.4 Server Sizing Matrix, 01/20/2014 7
Figure 1. Vocera VMware architecture More Information vsphere Resource Management Guide 1 Performance Best Practices for VMware vsphere 5.0 2 Cisco Unified Communications Virtualization Sizing Guidelines 3 These Cisco VMware sizing guidelines formed the basis for Vocera s recommendations for Vocera Server. 1 http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-51/topic/com.vmware.icbase/pdf/vsphere-esxi-vcenter-server-51-resource-managementguide.pdf 2 http://www.vmware.com/pdf/perf_best_practices_vsphere5.0.pdf 3 http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/unified_communications_virtualization_sizing_guidelines 8 Vocera Voice 4.3 and 4.4 Server Sizing Matrix, 01/20/2014