Questions for Thomas

[MaximumISP]

I would appreciate you answering some questions regarding Ac


1) Who are the targeted and expected users of AC
2) Recommended hardware for best performance
3) How many units are you managing with AC in the lab

[UBNT-Thomas]

I would appreciate you answering some questions regarding Ac
1) Who are the targeted and expected users of AC

Users that have a network large enough (number of devices) so they need a central point of access to monitor/manage their devices. Key NMS functions, specifically monitoring/alerts, reporting, upgrade, some form of configuration support etc., if any of these are important for your day-to-day work and you need automation for it then you are a target user.

2) Recommended hardware for best performance
3) How many units are you managing with AC in the lab
Have a look at:

http://www.ubnt.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16421

A specific example for good performance:

http://www.ubnt.com/forum/showpost.php?p=63610&postcount=4

Performance is critical, at the same time it currently competes with requests for functional enhancements. We are working on both, our goal is to build a good application for you.

Our original goal was to have a beta that performs well for ~50 devices and allow us to enlist feedback on functionality. That was and is not the final performance and scalability goal, but please understand that not everything can be done at the same time.

Depending on your hardware capacity on both client and server the current version can handle ~300 devices when you throw resources on it. The major scalability related issues at this time:

1) Browser gets sluggish with hundreds of devices in the device table. The weaker the client machine the more obvious that will be. Worst performance in IE7. I'm already working to address this, as it is clear that the UI cannot require very powerful machines to run the browser on.

2) Server CPU consumption growing with count of managed devices. While there are ways to optimize, ultimately there is a limit on how many device updates can be handled for a given interval, both from a process but also from a network traffic perspective. There is a parameter under settings that allows you to control how frequently devices report to the server and you should increase that interval with the number of managed devices. You have to balance data recency with server performance.

In general however, we won't optimize the AirControl server for low capacity hardware, that development time goes into core NMS functionality. We will target current off-the-shelve PC capacity for acceptable performance of the server and ability to scale with more powerful machine.

[MaximumISP]

Is it just me or does anyone else think the hardware requirements are a bit steep

Example I have a AMD 3200+ (barton core)
1 Gig of DDR and a 80 gig 7200Rpm HD
Running a stripped down vs of XP Pro
AC runs terrible on this

I realize its not exactly a state of the art rig but
I wouldnt say its a slouch either
That same machine can run Xp a Virtual Machine
and whats up gold all at the same time and performance is acceptable

From what I just read in your links
for 220 units a minimum of a
2.66 Core 2 Duo
4 Gigs Ram
and this has (40%) cpu spikes

( thats more than my web hosting server, My core router and my personal desktop)
This seems ridiculiously high to me

I have numerous linux based systems running on much lesser hardware
(basically junk laying around)
that do simlar functions like Cacti, Vm server various live cds
they all run fast and responsive

Not everyone will be able to have a spare Nick Crossley rig to play with
Intel Corei7 920 @ 3.6GHz
12GB RAM
(must be nice)

With requirements like that for the functions of AC
In my case with 350+ devices and room for 100% growth
this year
I can pretty much expect to need a
Corei7 920 @ 3.6GHz
12GB RAM
A likely two 10K rpm Raptors in stripped Raid
thats nuts

Thousands of companies host many many websites with much less

Doesnt anyone else think this is high ???
Why is it so hardware intensive?

[sxpert]

Is it just me or does anyone else think the hardware requirements are a bit steep

well, it's written in Java... you can't have it all !

fwiw, my workstation has a core2quad Q9550...

[troffasky]

Is it just me or does anyone else think the hardware requirements are a bit steep


It's a beta. Like he said, they're going to implement the functionality, then optimise it.