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| Design 1. Design Overview The design phase is where you utilize the information that was obtained during the analysis phase to design the layout of your MetaFrame network. In designing the network you should stick the basic principals of Simplicity and Future Growth. A good project is a simple and straightforward one that anticipates future changes in the environment. A shortcoming I have found in analyzing networks is that, networks are designed for today and not tomorrow. Even if you consider todays deployment as a small one, you will still want to design for tomorrow. This gives you the ability to anticipate future growth. The Design Phase document will document the architecture that will be implemented during the Implementation phase. The key sections of these documents are outlined below: Design Overview Server Design Hardware Requirements Operating Systems Requirements MetaFrame Design Farm Design Zone Design Data Collector Design Data Store Design Load Management Design Applications Applications Delivery Network Design File Storage Logon Scripts Network Modifications
The following is an example of a Design Overview: | 1. Design Overview D&D Consulting has been engaged to design and assist in deploying Citrix MetaFrame XP Application Servers for DABCC.COM. The main technology areas covered in this document includes: Server Requirements MetaFrame Design Network Design D & D Consulting will utilize a Project Management approach in order to achieve an optimum network design. Simplicity is the best investment. Simple structures are easier to explain, maintain and debug than complex ones. Every network created will require some maintenance over its lifetime. When you create a structure without well-defined reasons, it will end up costing more in the long run than any value that it adds. Therefore its important to carefully analyze and justify the structure before you create it. Your business and your organization will always change. There are normal changes that occur within any organization such as changing applications requirements or enterprise-wide reorganizations that will affect DABCC.COMs MetaFrame XP architecture. When designing the architecture, consider how these potential changes will affect end-users and administrators interaction with the farm. Make sure your design is general and flexible enough to accommodate constant and significant change. Aim for the ideal design. In your design and planning you should aim for the ideal structure even if it does not reflect the current architecture plan. It is useful and practical to understand what would be ideal, even if it is not currently attainable. Below is a diagram of the planned native MetaFrame XP architecture: 
| 2. Server Design The Server Design section consists of the following sections: Hardware Recommendations Operating System Requirements The following is an example of a Server Design Overview: | 2. Server Requirements The Server Design section consists of the following sections: Hardware Recommendations Operating System Requirements | 2. 1. Hardware Recommendations The question that gets asked for each and every project is What kind and/or how many Citrix servers do I need? This is a touchy subject and it really all depends on a number of factors. It is not the purpose of this document to examine cost analysis and scalability testing, For the most part, a customer for this sized project probably will not want to incur the associated expense. However, it is important to make a determination from the information we have gathered and our experience in past installations. All MetaFrame environments are different and based on the data you collected from the Proof of Concept, you should be able to give your recommendations on server hardware. (Application memory and CPU usage). The following are my recommendations, anything more would be like shooting arrows in the dark. What type of and how many processors do I need? There are numerous processors to choose from in deciding what server hardware to purchase. A minimum of a single Pentium is required, but I recommend dual Pentium III or IV processor boxes for maximum performance in a cost effective manner. How much memory per server? From my experiences I recommend 1GB RAM per CPU. This gives you the best bang for your buck and is ultimately more cost effective in the long run. How many servers do I need? This all depends on how many users you will be supporting, the amount of RAM each application requires, the type of applications you are running and how heavy the end users utilize the applications and numerous other factors. What I have always recommended is this. A MetaFrame server is an application server and the only data that needs to reside on it should be the applications executables. With this in mind, I dont believe in scaling out vs. scaling up and having N+1 instead of RAID controllers and redundant fans and power supplies. The money you save is better spent on an additional server for load balancing purposes. In other words if you have 40 concurrent users on two boxes and one drops off, you would want to make sure that the other server would be able to handle the additional 20 users load. If the remaining server(s) cannot hold the load then you will need to add another server to the farm. This guarantees your customer high availability. N+1 solves this perception issue. The following is an example of Hardware Requirements: | 2. 1 Hardware Recommendations Keeping to the vision of achieving high availability while achieving a very high user perception of performance, D&D Consulting specked the following hardware price quotation. | Hardware Price Quotation | | | | Quantity | Part Number | Product | Unit Cost | Total Cost | | | | HARDWARE | | | | | | | | | | 4 | 218789981 | Proliant DL360 PIII933/256k | $4,650.00 | $18,600.00 | | | | Pentium III 933MHz processor, a 256KB L2 ECC cache, an integrated Smart Array controller and 128MB PC133 Registered ECC SDRAM, expandable to 4GB. In addition to the 133MHz front bus speed, this server contains a 3.5" 1.44MB floppy disk drive, a 24X (max. speed) Slimline CD-ROM drive and two open PCI slots (one 64-bit/33MHz and one 32-bit/33MHz). Because there is no pre-installed hard drive, you are free to configure storage to fit your needs. The standard Wide Ultra2/Ultra3 SCSI drive cage supports up to two 1" Wide Ultra2/Ultra3 hot-plug hard drives, for a maximum Internal hot-plug capacity up to 72.8GB (2 x 36.4GB). | | | | | | | | | | 4 | 265447-B21 | P3-933 SECOND PROCESSOR KIT FOR DL360 | $1,298.00 | $5,192.00 | | 4 | 155646-001 | REMOTE INSIGHT LIGHTS-OUT EDITION | $486.00 | $1,944.00 | | | | | | | | 8 | 125669-B21 | 512MB REG SDRAM DIMM 133MHZ | $1,357.00 | $10,856.00 | | | | (STD MEMORY IS 128MB AND THERE ARE (3) EMPTY SLOTS) | | | | | | | | | | 8 | 142654652 | 9.1 PLUGGABLE WIDE ULTRA SCSI 3INT UNIVERSAL 10K | $453.00 | $3,624.00 | | | | | | | | | | Sub Total minus tax / Freight | | $40,216.00 | | | | | | |
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2. 2. Operating System Requirements In this section you will want to document the Operating System and MetaFrame version recommended with a preliminary price quote for the proposed operating system(s) and MetaFrame version and any additional client access licenses. The following is an example of a Operating System Requirements: | 2. 2 Operating System Requirements In keeping with the vision of achieving high availability while achieving a very high user perception of performance and stability, D&D Consulting, recommends Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Citrix MetaFrame XPe. The following is a software quote for Microsoft Windows 2000, the appropriate client access licenses and Citrix MetaFrame XPe with the required amount of additional connection licenses. | | Citrix MetaFrame v1.0 XPe | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | EW22XPE0020 | XPe Starter Kit, includes 20 users w/ 1 yr subscription | $5,285.00 | $5,285.00 | | | | | | | | | | | | | Microsoft Windows 2000 Server | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1 | C11-00821 | Windows 2000 Server | | | | $710.00 | $710.00 | | | | | | | | | | | | 20 | C78-00480 | Windows 2000 CAL | | | | $29.00 | $580.00 | | | | | | | | | | | | 20 | C79-00539 | Windows 2000 Terminal Services CAL | | $78.00 | $1,560.00 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pretax/PreFreight Sub Total | | $8,135.00 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | In order to process this order with the above products and/or services specified, | | | | | Please sign, date and fax the complete quote back at your convenience. | | | | | If your company uses purchase orders, please include a copy with the fax. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Authorized Signature: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 3. MetaFrame Design The MetaFrame Design section consists of the following sections: Farm Design Data Collector Design Zone Design Data Store Design Load Management Design Applications Application Delivery In the MetaFrame Design section you will want to format each of the above bullet points into the following three sections. This will give your customer a background on your recommendations based on the project vision / requirements. Background Give a brief background on the technologies you will be using and or ones where a decision is required. Following this, itemize all of the risks and processes needed to accomplish the task. If your customer needs to make a decision, make sure that you document all of the possible options equally. Requirements - Define each of the requirements for achieving a successful implementation. These requirements are derived from the project vision, organizational units, geography and as always, corporate politics. You will probably want to organize a meeting to define the requirements for each section. Recommendations Document your recommendations based on the above requirements and your professional experience. The following is an example of a MetaFrame Design Overview: | 3. MetaFrame Design The MetaFrame Design section consists of the following sections: Farm Design Data Collector Design Zone Design Data Store Design Load Management Design Applications Application Delivery Printer Environment The following is background on the foundation that will control the proposed MetaFrame environment. MetaFrame XP incorporates the advanced Citrix server communications and management foundation and the Independent Management Architecture (IMA). The integration of the MetaFrame XP application server software with the IMA is central to the enhanced functionality of MetaFrame XP and the scalability of Citrixs server-based computing solutions. IMA is a unified enterprise-wide platform for the installation, management, maintenance, support, and security of your organizations server-based computing and application hosting services. It is both an architectural model and a protocol for server-to-server communications. IMA is constructed on a collection of core subsystems that define and control execution of Citrix products. IMA enables MetaFrame XP servers to be arbitrarily grouped into server farms that do not depend on the physical locations of the servers. IMA allows MetaFrame XP servers to be in a single server farm even if the servers are on different network subnets. With MetaFrame XP for Windows servers and the extensible Citrix IMA foundation, organizations gain a wide range of enterprise management and scalability features and options: Central administration of MetaFrame XP and other Citrix servers Centralized data store for all Citrix configuration data Centralized license management and pooling without license gateways ICA Client discovery of published applications without UDP broadcasts Logging of shadowed sessions Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) support Auditing of administration activity While IMA and MetaFrame XP provide significant enhancements that facilitate enterprise application hosting, both MetaFrame XP and IMA support the current functionality of all existing ICA Client software from Citrix and will operate with an installed base of ICA Clients. In addition to the Citrix Management Console, several Windows-based management utilities are included with MetaFrame XP. These utilities provide management and configuration features that are independent of the IMA system. As the size of an organization increases from dozens to hundreds to thousands of users, additional MetaFrame XP servers can be added to the server farm. With IMA, MetaFrame XP installations can scale to multi-site, enterprise-level server-based computing scenarios, while administrators maintain complete control from any location. |
3. 1. Farm Design In the Farm Design section you define the number and location of the server farms. The following is any example of a farm design: | 3. 1 Farm Design 3. 1. 1. Background Citrix server farms provide you with a flexible and robust way of deploying applications to ICA Client users. A Citrix server farm is a group of Citrix servers managed as a single entity and share some form of physical connection. In addition, the servers in the server farm share a single IMA-based data store. A single farm can be used for the enterprise. However, there are several factors concerning hardware, database performance, and network congestion that can decrease performance of the farm. A way to increase performance is to create separate, multiple farms for the enterprise. The following are advantages of both single and multiple farms. Single Farm Pooled licenses All MetaFrame XP licenses are pooled together and can be used by all servers in the farm. Simplified management and administration Citrix administrators only need to log in to one farm for all maintenance and administrative tasks. Multiple Farms Reduced IMA Traffic A single farm with remote zone data collectors must communicate frequently to keep published application and user connection information synchronized across the farm. No firewall changes - When the farm spans through a firewall, TCP ports 2512 and 2513 must be opened on the firewall for IMA communication. The implementation of a separate farm per site eliminates the need to open ports 2512 and 2513 on the firewall and any ODBC ports used for data store communication. No Internet traffic - When the farm spans an Internet WAN connection, IMA traffic and ODBC connection information can potentially be intercepted. This data does not travel across a WAN connection when a farm is isolated to one site. No data store replication As discussed in the section titled Estimated Bandwidth Usage and Requirements on page 21, Citrix recommends that the data store be replicated to remote sites when using a single farm in a WAN environment. The use of multiple farms eliminates the need for data store replication, because each remote site maintains its own data store. 3. 1. 2. Requirements DABCC.COM would like centralized license pooling across all sites in the organization with a single point of management throughout the company while keeping with the requirement of reduced bandwidth consumption. 3. 1. 3. Recommendations Because of the bandwidth limitations and the cost of server-to-server communications, it is recommended for DABCC.COM to implement a single MetaFrame XP farm. | 3. 2. Zone Design In the Data Collector Design section you will need to document the configuration and location of the MetaFrame XP data collectors. Zone layout is crucial to the end-user perception of performance. The following is an example of a zone design: | 3. 2. Zone Design 3. 2. 1. Background The layout and distribution of zones in MetaFrame XP is crucial to the end-user perception of performance. In an IMA-based Citrix server farm, a zone is a grouping of Citrix servers that you configure. By default, all servers in a farm that are on the same network subnet belong to the same zone. You can use the Zones tab in the Properties dialog box to create and configure additional zones. Zones are designed to enhance the performance of a Citrix server farm by allowing geographically related servers to be grouped together, whether they are connected to the same network subnet or not. If all the servers in a farm are in one location, you can configure the farm with a single zone without causing slower performance or making the farm more difficult to manage If you manage an enterprise server farm with servers in different geographic regions, you can place servers into zones based on the location of the servers. This can improve performance and make management of the farm more efficient Data Collectors Each zone in a server farm contains one Citrix server that is designated as the data collector for the zone. A zones data collector receives information from each MetaFrame XP server in the zone. Data collectors store information about the servers and published applications in the server farm. The data collector knows the addresses of each server and the applications that are available on each server in the zone. Data collectors in IMA-based server farms are similar in function to the Windows Master Browsers in Microsoft Windows networks. However, data collectors use TCP/IP for server-to-server communication. Windows use RPC for server-to-server communication. The data collector in each zone can support up to 70 resolutions per second. Member servers in each zone frequently update their session and load information to their zones data collector. The data collector is then responsible for relaying new information to all of the other data collectors in the farm. This operation consumes N times the amount of bandwidth, where N represents the number of zones. In a WAN environment, the cost of placing separate zones at each WAN point must be considered. For example, if DABCC.COM implements three separate zones, each time a dynamic event such as a user logon occurs, one initiating zones data collector sends that event to the other two data collectors. So the same event goes across the WAN link two times. If, the environment is configured as a single zone with a central zone data collector, each time a dynamic event occurs, the event traverses the WAN link only once to the central zone data collector. 3. 2. 2. Requirements The requirement is to provide a robust, highly optimized zone structure capable of supporting the IMA traffic with the lowest cost in server-to-server traffic achieving optimal end-user performance. The zone design must be capable of supporting the current and future needs of DABCC.COM. 3. 2. 3. Recommendation It is recommended for DABCC.COM to implement a single zone. If a remote site grows to more than two MetaFrame XP servers, the cost for server-to-server replication is less expensive than having every Citrix server in the remote site communicate with a single data collector located in the Des Moines data center. | 3. 3. Data Collector Design In the Data Collector Design section you will need to document the configuration and location of the MetaFrame XP data collectors. The following is an example of a Data Collector Design: |
3. 3. Data Collector Design 3. 3. 1 Background Each zone in a server farm contains one Citrix server that is designated as the data collector for the zone. A zones data collector receives information from each MetaFrame XP server in the zone. Data collectors store information about the servers and published applications in the server farm. The data collector knows the address of each server and the applications that are available on each server in the zone. Data collectors in IMA-based server farms are similar in function to the Windows Master Browsers in Microsoft Windows networks. However, data collectors use TCP/IP for server-to-server communication. Windows use RPC for server-to-server communication. The data collector in each zone can support up to 70 resolutions per second. Member servers in each zone frequently update their session and load information to their zones data collector. The data collector is then responsible for relaying new information to all of the other data collectors in the farm. This operation consumes N times the amount of bandwidth, where N represents the number of zones. DABCC.COM is planning to implement up two four additional servers totaling for a total of eight servers in the farm. This is important in designing the data collector architecture. A dedicated data collector (control server) will be used. It will consist of Windows 2000 running in Remote Administration mode, leaving the Server Service for the proper thread scheduling. | |