Sybase in the NetWare and Windows Environment

• We recommend you to set the database cache size as follows by configuring the -c parameter in the Sybase* startup:

  Inventoried Workstations in the Database (in thousands)	Total Memory of the System	Sybase Cache Memory
  less than 1	384 MB	128 MB
  1 - 5	512 MB	128 MB
  5 - 10	512 MB - 768 MB	128 MB - 256 MB
  10 - 25	768 MB - 1 GB	256 MB - 400 MB
  greater than 25	1 - 2 GB	30 - 40% of RAM

• If you have more than 5,000 workstations, we recommend that you use multi processors for servers hosting the database and span the data files.
• If you have more than 10,000 workstations, we recommend that you use a dedicated server for the database.
• The following table lists the free hard disk space recommendations:

  Inventoried Workstations in the Database (thousands)	Free Hard Disk Space (GB)
  Up to 5	1
  Up to 10	2
  Up to 15	3
  Up to 20	5
  Up to 25	6
  Up to 30	7
  Up to 35	8
  Up to 40	9
  Up to 45	11

  IMPORTANT:  Ensure that the drives in which the database files are located have sufficient additional free disk space for storing the temporary files generated during the operations of Inventory ConsoleOne utilities.

• If the Storer is taking significant time to store the inventory information in the following scenarios, you can run the Sybindex utility to improve the Storer performance:
  • Many Inventory agents are simultaneously upgraded to ZENworks 6.5 and subsequently, all these agents send the full scans for the time to the Inventory server.
  • The administrator manually triggers full scan from the Inventory Service object resulting in all Inventory agents send the full scan to the Inventory server.
  • The Inventory database is either re-installed or changed and then the administrator manually triggers full scan from the Inventory Service object resulting in all Inventory agents sending the full scan to the Inventory server

    Before running the Sybindex utility, ensure that the Sybase Inventory database is up and running, and then stop the Storer.

    To run the Sybindex utility:

    On a NetWare^® server: At the server console prompt, enter sybindex.

    On a Windows* server: At the server console prompt, go to inventory_server_installation_path\zenworks\inv\server\wminv\bin and enter sybindex.

    After the utility runs, restart Storer.

To change the database cache size on the database server on NetWare database server:

1. Stop the Inventory service. For more information, see Starting and Stopping the Inventory Service.

2. Close all connections to the Inventory database.

3. Quit the Sybase server.

4. Open the mgmtdbs.ncf file in the sys:\system directory.

5. Modify the -c parameter.

   For example, -c 64M sets the cache size to 64 MB.

6. Save the file.

7. On the server console, load the Inventory database. Enter MGMTDBS.

8. Start the Inventory service. For more information, see Starting and Stopping the Inventory Service.

To change the database cache size on a Windows database server:

1. Stop the Inventory service. For more information, see Starting and Stopping the Inventory Service.

2. Stop the Sybase service.

   On Windows 2000/2003, in the Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, double-click Services, select Novell Database - Sybase, then click Stop.

3. On the database server, run the ntdbconfig.exe file from the inventory_database_installation_path\zenworks\database\dbengine directory.

   Ntdbconfig.exe is a ZENworks database configuration utility for the ZENworks database using Sybase on Windows servers. This utility enables you to reconfigure the Sybase service. For the list of parameters recommended by Sybase, see Understanding the Sybase Database Startup Parameters.

4. Modify the -c parameter.

5. Click OK.

6. Restart the Sybase service.

   On Windows 2000/2003, in the Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, double-click Services, select Novell Database - Sybase, then click Start.

7. Stop the Inventory service. For more information, see Starting and Stopping the Inventory Service.

For more information on Performance tips, see Database Parameter Tuning Tips.

Oracle in the Windows Environment

• The following table lists the memory recommendations for the Windows platform.

  Inventoried Workstations in the Database (in thousands)	Total Memory of the System	Oracle SGA Memory
  less than 1	512 MB	128 MB
  1 - 5	768 MB	256 MB
  5 - 10	1 GB	400 MB
  10 - 100	1 GB - 2 GB	40% of the total memory

• The following table lists the free hard disk space recommendations:

  Inventoried Workstations in the Database (thousands)	Free Hard Disk Space (GB)
  Up to 5	3
  Up to 10	6
  Up to 15	9
  Up to 20	11
  Up to 25	12
  Up to 30	13
  Up to 35	15
  Up to 40	20
  Up to 45	25

  IMPORTANT:  Ensure that the drives in which the database files are located have sufficient additional free disk space for storing the temporary files generated during the operations of Inventory ConsoleOne utilities.

• Stop unnecessary services and applications running on the server to enable a background service such as Oracle* server to run.
• We recommend that you use a dedicated server to host the Oracle database.
• Span the data files across multiple physical disks if you have more than 10,000 workstations.
• Set the virtual memory value between 2 - 4 times the RAM.
• We recommend that you use multi processors for servers hosting the database.
• For Windows platforms, refer to the Oracle performance tuning documentation and other general recommendations that are listed in the References section.
  • Reduce the priority of the foreground application.
  • Reduce the file cache value and maximize data for network applications.
• Modify the init.ora file for specific organizational requirements.

  For example, to obtain about 260 MB of Oracle SGA with db_block_size=4096, modify the init.ora file with the following values:

  db_block_buffers = 50000

  shared_pool_size = 32768000

  sort_area_size = 10000000

• Invoke and append lines to the _ start.sql file. The _start.sql file is invoked by the mgmtdbo.ncf or the mgmtdbo.bat file when you start the Inventory database instance. Append the following lines to the existing _start.sql file:

  connect mw_dba;alter table cim.t$product cache;

• If you run Inventory database on Oracle9i, you can set db_cache_size instead of db_block_buffers * db_block_size .
• Refer to the Oracle Administration guide or Performance guide for more information.

Optimizing the Performance of the Oracle Database

If you have an Inventory database on Oracle, you can improve the performance of the database when you generate the inventory reports or query the database.

You use the database buffer cache to store the most recently used data blocks. The database cache is determined as db_block_buffers * db_block_size. These parameters are specified in the zenworks\database\init.ora file on the database server.

DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS specifies the number of database buffers. DB_BLOCK_SIZE specifies the size of each database buffer in bytes.

The size of each buffer in the buffer cache is equal to the size of the data block.

If there is additional memory, you configure the database cache size by increasing the DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS parameter in the init.ora file. If you run Inventory database on Oracle9i, you can set db_cache_size instead of db_block_buffers * db_block_size

For more information for Performing tips, see Database Parameter Tuning Tips.

MS SQL in the Windows Environment

• We recommend that you use a dedicated server for MS SQL.
• On MS SQL server, ensure that the tempdb system database is located on the drive having sufficient disk space.
• Boost the MS SQL server priority.
• Enable optimization for background services.
• Use the configuration in the following table:

  Inventoried Workstations in the Database (thousands)	Total Memory of the System	MS SQL Cache Memory	Processor Speed
  less than 10	512 MB	256 MB	Pentium III: 450 M Hz
  10 - 20	512 MB - 1 GB	256 MB - 384 MB	Pentium 4: 1.8 G Hz
  20 - 50	1 GB - 1.5 GB	512 MB - 768 MB	Pentium 4: 1.8 G Hz

• The following table lists the free hard disk space recommendations:

  Inventoried Workstations in the Database (thousands)	Free Hard Disk Space (GB)
  Up to 5	5
  Up to 10	10
  Up to 15	15
  Up to 20	20
  Up to 25	26
  Up to 30	31
  Up to 35	36
  Up to 40	41
  Up to 45	46

• Span the data files across the multiple physical disks if you have more than 5,000 workstations.
• We recommend that you use multi processors for servers hosting the database.
• For additional tips on MS SQL, refer to the MS SQL Server documentation.