Objectives:
Complete management of
electronic archive |
- Archiving of all
data on the archive media or hard drive
- Data retrieval from
medium
- Management of cross-system caches
for fast document access
- Control of connected devices (i.e.,
a jukebox)
- Management of archive media and
corresponding media directories
- Creation of back-up copies
or automated replication of archived data
- Communication
with other document servers
When there are several document servers, the clients
connect to the document server
that is defined as the default server. This server
communicates with additional
document servers and ensures that the documents
are forwarded or picked up.
|
System Requirements
Minimum requirements: |
- Standard up-to-date PC with at
least 128 MB RAM and 10 GB hard drive space
|
| Standard requirements: |
- State-of-the-art-server with dual
Pentium 4 CPU each 1.7 GHz or above, 256 MB
RAM, RAID Array for data area with a capacity of 70 GB or — depending
on the
requirements — also 200 GB RAID or similar.
- Several jukeboxes
can be connected to a document server. A load calculation
should be made for optimal performance.
|
| High-end requirements: |
- Fastest possible CPUs, 512 MB
RAM, fast hard drives
- Data working set plus 50% reserve
should fit completely in the hard drive cache
|
| The following generally applies: |
- A separate SCSI controller for
the jukebox or the MO/WORM drive needs to be
available to connect optical storage devices.
- The server version
of Windows 2000 or XP should be installed on the server.
Windows NT 4.0 Server is still possible, but not recommended.
- System reports are generally entered in the event log.
You can also configure the
system to send reports using a MAPI-conform e-mail system.
- High performance and trouble-free operation are best
guaranteed when no other
complex processes are running on the corresponding Windows
Server.
|
| Supported network operating
systems |
- Installation under Windows 2000/XP,
Novell or UNIX network is possible without
any further additions. SAPERION® supports regular network protocols
such as
TCP/IP, IPX or named pipes. Network connections with good performance
are
required.
- The computer should be connected
to the network suitably and needs to support
at least one of the IPX, named pipes or TCP/IP (Winsockets)
protocols
|
| Special features for Linux and
Solaris: |
- Linux on
Intel/AMD: Hardware requirements
same as for Windows; distribution
SuSE from 7.3 or RedHat from 7.2; kernel at least release 2.4
- Solaris
on SPARC: The same processor and memory requirements
apply for Sun
computers running Solaris,. However, due to the system architecture
typical of this
environment, not many different computers are used. Instead
processors are
assigned to the respective server process in suitable numbers.
|
What is the difference
between the document server and the
high-end document server?
Advantage: |
In contrast to the document server, the high-end document
server has the
capability/capacity for replicating data and for replicating
archive media between
different document servers. Furthermore it allows management
of several separate
cache areas.
- Use of several high-end document
servers allows continuous operation during
maintenance work as you can switch between them and allow
high-level protection
against loss of media.
|
| Why is a high-end
document server needed? |
- As a replication server, it allows
access to the documents during maintenance
work or when the document server is down. Running a separate high-end
document server is particularly worthwhile in combination with
a replication
service.
|
| What is the difference between
the document server and the
cache server? |
The set-up of a cache for the document server or several sufficiently
dimensioned
caches for the high-end document server reduces the access time
to the media and
the associated time-consuming media change, thus noticeably increasing
performance when the archive is used
- The availability of archives
in external offices can be easily achieved via the cache
server. Cache servers allow archiving in the external office
while writing to the
media takes place centrally at the main office.
|
| What cache
size is required? |
High-performance, revision-safe archiving server with tera cache
and direct jukebox
control. Each cache can contain up to 1.5 TByte = 1,500 GByte.
- The cache size should normally cover at least the data
files from the last 6-12
months. Ideally the working set should fit completely in the
cache, i.e. all data that
is probably required for daily business.
- A 50% margin should
be added to the volume estimated in this way. At least
50
GB should be planned at present.
|
| What is the difference between
the document server and the
broker server? |
In the document search, the broker server takes care of the database
queries from the
clients, forwards them to the corresponding database server or
full-text database and
sends the query result back to the clients. The broker server optimizes
administration,
user management and licensing and also reduces the data volume
that is transferred
via the network during the document search to a minimum. |
| What level of performance does
the document server reach? |
The actual reachable performance clearly depends on the structure
of the data as well
as the suitable IT configuration.
- For a rough calculation you
can expect a realistic average value of 50 KB per
second per drive.
- With a good standard system
with 4 drives and a probable 10 hours of operation
per day this gives approx. 7 GB per day.
- This value can
be raised substantially for high-end systems in specific
projects.
|
| How is the high
level of availability ensured? |
A second high-end document server ensures high-level availability
with its own
jukebox for each server (often at a second location). This receives
automatically
created replications of the data. If the server fails, there is
an automatic check to see
which of the other servers has replications of the data. They can
then be forwarded. |
