Orion does perform a lot of data pruning and summarization this helps to keep database size under control, however, if you're monitoring a very large number of elements, polling them faster than the defaults, and collecting syslog and traps as well - your database size can easily reach 80GB or more.
When it comes to RAM, you can never provide your SQL server with too much. The more your database is served directly from RAM, the less paging your SQL server will need to do - and the greater your performance will be.
The minimum memory requirement for an ALX instance is 8 Gigs however where possible, increase this to 12 or 16 GB and even more is you have the option. If you have a scaled environment, your SQL server needs to have a large amount of RAM available to manage the amount of polling being done, and for the data being sent from each of the servers. Add an additional 4GB of memory to your SQL server for each polling engine in your environment.
Finally, and this last point is a critical.
Always, always reserve some RAM for your Operating System.
SQL will continue to consume RAM, to the point where it can affect the responsiveness the entire system. By reserving a minimum of 1GB RAM your Operating system is guaranteed to be able to access it.
If you have other applications on the server, increase the reservation to ensure there is an adequate amount of RAM for all applications and the Operating System.
This can be done by your Database Administrator, or this can be configured on your SQL server using Microsoft's SQL Management Studio.
Set the 'Maximum Server Memory' option to limit the amount of RAM that will be available to SQL.
So, now that we've spoken about some best practices and system requirements, let’s take a quick look at some steps that you can take to ensure a successful installation.
First, take a look at your Infrastructure.
On the server or servers where you plan to install Orion, look to see if you have any Anti-virus software installed. If you do you'll need to add a list of exclusions to add to your Anti-virus software. A list of exclusions can be found in the Administrators guide.
Getting this done in advance will ensure that the anti-virus software won't cause any issues during the install.
Check the system resources and confirm that the server is up for the task.
If this is for smaller business with a limited number of available servers it's crucial that Orion not be installed on a Domain Controller, or a BlackBerry RIM server. For your Orion server, there are a few configurations you can do in advance to speed up the installation process. You'll need to use the Local Administrator account to take these steps - actually, you'll also want to use that Local Admin account for the actual installation itself as well.
The Local Admin account is not the same as a Domain account with local admin rights. Make sure you're using a local account with administrative rights, as a domain account is subject to your Domain group policies.
If necessary install the .NET frameworks 3.5.1 and 4.0.3 as you'll need both.
These can be downloaded from Microsoft if they're not already a part of your server image. Check 'Programs and Features' under the Control Panel to see if you've already got them installed.
You'll also need to enable the "Web Server" Role on your server in advance. This will install IIS on your server, and prepare it for the Orion Web Console.
In this demo we will be using Windows server 2008.
Click on Start -> Administrative tools > Server Manager.
Click on Roles -> Add Roles.
On the 'Before you begin' page, click Next.
Select "Web Server (IIS)" on the Server Roles page. Then click Next.
Once it's finished click on close.
Next on Features, You'll want to add the Microsoft Messaging feature.
Then click next.
Confirm the desired changes then click Install.
Once the install is complete you may want to Reboot the server. If your SQL server is managed by a separate DBA team, you'll need to contact them in advance, and request the 'sa' username and password.
This information is required during the initial configuration to create your new Orion database, it is also used to create a new SQL user for Orion to use in its database communications.
The user that is created will only with access to the Orion database itself, and it will not have sa privileges.
The sa username and password will not be used again after the database and this user have been created.
So that wraps up our discussion on system requirements and best practices for preparing your Orion installation. The next video in this series will walk you through how to complete an Orion installation, and will guide you through the options, outlined in the Orion Configuration Wizard.
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