[NAV2016 Server Installation] three tiers installed in one Physical Server

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  Sowkarthika Member Posts: 102

  2016-10-12

  Installing three components in same server will have better performance than having them in separate VMs.

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  frisch Member Posts: 20

  2016-10-13 edited 2016-10-13

  If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have agreed Sowkarthika, but experience has proven me wrong. Although 32GB is limited, I'd still prefer the two virtual servers on a hypervisor setup. For two reasons:
  - performance seems to be better when database server and app server are separated (on a virtual 10 gbit network connection), though no hard evidence;
  - if you ever have hardware problems, virtual servers are easily migrated elsewhere, so less downtime. I migrated my webserver, fileserver, NAV server, AX server, database server and an extra Linux VM to a new bare metal machine in one Saturday morning, and then went out to a BBQ. With full reinstalls the whole weekend wouldn't have been enough.
  
  Keep in mind you'll need double Windows licenses though.

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  aaronlou91 Member Posts: 6

  2016-10-14

  frisch wrote: »

  If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have agreed Sowkarthika, but experience has proven me wrong. Although 32GB is limited, I'd still prefer the two virtual servers on a hypervisor setup. For two reasons:
  - performance seems to be better when database server and app server are separated (on a virtual 10 gbit network connection), though no hard evidence;
  - if you ever have hardware problems, virtual servers are easily migrated elsewhere, so less downtime. I migrated my webserver, fileserver, NAV server, AX server, database server and an extra Linux VM to a new bare metal machine in one Saturday morning, and then went out to a BBQ. With full reinstalls the whole weekend wouldn't have been enough.
  
  Keep in mind you'll need double Windows licenses though.

  
  Hi Frisch. Thank you for sharing your experience. It was indeed a useful one. Virtualization did a good job in DR.
  
  I think we all know that clients can sometimes be very hard to please. Even with a given statement that Scenario A is better than Scenario B, what they want is a hard proven evidence. Until I can sort this out by carrying my own test. Or better yet, I will try consulting MS Engineer team to help me out on those statistic. Till then, I will share my results again.
  
  Thanks guys.

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  aaronlou91 Member Posts: 6

  2016-10-14

  Sowkarthika wrote: »

  Installing three components in same server will have better performance than having them in separate VMs.

  
  It sounds kinda convincing. But i normally do get questioned: "Do i really need three tier for 3 concurrent user?". If that is the case what would be the answer? I do have some customer with 3-5 Concurrent users.

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  Kishorm Member Posts: 921

  2016-10-14

  My answer would be that you have no choice since with NAV 2013 onwards the only option is 3 tier.

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