Hardware requirements
Server F1-F2: Terminal Server or Citrix
The actual quantity of concurrent users at peak workload and desire for redundancy is what determines the quantity and size of the Terminal or Citrix servers deployed. Both Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and Citrix virtualize well and require no specific change to the resources. For full desktop or VDI environments take extra care to ensure that the resources listed below are available in addition to the ancillary applications required to support the users' applications.
Memory guidelines
A conservative rule of thumb is to reserve 750MB of memory for each active session on either RDS or Citrix when using RemoteApp or published applications. Reserve the lesser of 4GB or 10% of the total memory for the operating system, and then provide additional memory for other ancillary applications as required by the software vendor. This assumes each user runs only one copy of the software.
| Total RAM on Server | 16 GB | 32 GB | 64 GB |
|---|---|---|---|
Reserved for OS |
4 GB |
4 GB |
6 GB |
Reserved for ancillary |
Consult vendors' requirements |
||
Available RAM |
12 GB |
28 GB |
60 GB |
MB Each |
750 MB |
750 MB |
750 MB |
Total User Capacity |
16 Users |
38 Users |
81 Users |
Processor guidelines
A study of existing customers' utilization shows that for systems with moderately heavy usage, (being conservative) it is reasonable to expect five to seven users per core. Emphasis should be placed on purchasing processors with high single thread performance to provide an acceptable user experience. Generally, this means current-generation processors running at least 2.6GHz for Intel and 3.2GHz for AMD.
| Cores | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Users |
5 |
11 |
24 |
52 |
112 |
| Power saving settings should be disabled and hyperthreading enabled in the BIOS to avoid significant performance impacts. When virtualizing, take care to prevent excessive oversubscription, a relatively safe target is 1.5 vCPU for each physical core (do not count hyperthreading). |
Network card guidelines
A single 1 GbE network card is sufficient for most deployments, but 10GbE is recommended for virtualized systems or any environment expected to scale to larger sizes. Network card teaming is advisable for any hardware supporting more than 30 users to provide redundancy and additional bandwidth. Avoid teaming within the OS of a virtual machine. Care must be taken to ensure that all switches between the RDS/Citrix server and the SQL Server support the full bandwidth of the link without saturation.
Proximity guidelines
RDS and Citrix servers must be located in the same Data Center as the SQL Server and round trip latency should remain below 1ms latency. They must also be on the same subnet with a local and responsive domain controller. Round trip times between the client workstation and RDS or Citrix servers should be consistently less than 75ms. Lower the better for performance however up to 150ms can be used with notable delays in responsiveness.
User quantity guidelines
Full desktops will require considerably more resources to support a typical office user with an email client, browser, etc. Consult the other software providers' resources and the appropriate VDI guidelines for suggested resources necessary to support the entire workload at peak capacity and add the resources listed above.
Scenario: 30 users
In this scenario, there are only 30 users in a company using RDS, Citrix RemoteApp, or published applications. This would require only one server to host the environment, but two are recommended for redundancy.
| Example 1 (without redundancy) 30 Users/1 Server |
Example 2 (with redundancy) 30 Users/2 Servers |
|
|---|---|---|
Operating System |
Windows 2012 R2 Standard |
|
CPU |
6 cores |
4 cores |
RAM |
26 GB |
24 GB |
Hard Disk Size |
150 GB+ |
150 GB+ |
Network Card |
1 GbE |
|
Server G: Windows Services (Agents) Server #1
This server runs Windows Services, which are used to communicate with devices and customers outside of the company firewall. It is required only for those with Mobile Communications units or Electronic Data Transfer agreements.
| Number of Users | 1-50 | 51-100 | 101-150 | 150+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Operating System |
Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, 2012 R2 Note: Windows Server 2016 is not supported. |
For custom configuration specifications, contact your Service representative. |
||
CPU |
4 cores |
6 cores |
8 cores |
|
RAM |
12 GB |
24 GB |
48 GB |
|
Hard Disk Size |
350 GB |
500 GB |
750 GB |
|