I am looking at rolling Openfire out as the main chat application used in a location I support (500 - 700 desktops) and possibly a second physical location (200+ desktops). I am planning on taking this process slow and start out with a small portion (20 or so) users to see how well it works.
I currently have Openfire installed in a Microsoft Virtual Enviroment with 512MB of RAM dedicated to the box. The Virtual server is a Quad 900 Mhz P3 box with 4GB of total RAM. Right now it is only running one or two other small boxes. I am sure I will outgrow this box especially if we roll it out to all of our users.
When should I look at moving this box to a dedicated server? Also, at what point would I need to look at creating a seperate MySQL database server for it? What kind of specs would I need for (both) server(s) if we roll it out to all users in both centers?
I have a much smaller instal at the moment, but maybe I can offer some advise.
I have about 50 concurrent users on at most. Server is a VMWare virtual machine somewhere around 2Ghz (single proc) and 1GB of RAM. it literally sits around and does nothing all day long. I would feel comfortable putting 200+ on this with only some java and server setting tweaks. For 500+ I’d want to bump the ram between 2 and 4GB but I think the single proc would be fine. Being that it’s a virtual machine all I need to do is change settings and reboot for more RAM or another proc.
I’d recommend at least a PIV processor for any production machine and 1GB if you’re going to keep it in a virtual environment. If buy physical hardware get the 4GB of RAM and a dual or quad core processor and you’d be set.
Also, at what point would I need to look at creating a seperate MySQL database server for it?
I’d do this First. Before you put any “users” on the server get the external DB and start backing it up.
What kind of specs would I need for (both) server(s) if we roll it out to all users in both centers?
If possible I’d put them all on the same server, unless you find performance problems or hardware limitations.
I’m running our openfire server at a collocation center with 4.5Mbps from the corporate office to the server. No one notices that it’s not in the building. Unless you have some strange restriction for authentication or another reason to seperate them I wouldn’t.
sorry I wasn’t clear on some of the database info.
I’d run the DB on the same machine, but I’d install it now and get it working before I start having users test. There’s something funny about “test” services that somehow become production without you being told about it.