How long is a piece of string? That’s the cop out answer I’m tempted to give, but I’m guessing you were hoping for something slightly more helpful so let’s look to go beyond the perfectly valid but distinctly unsatisfying two word answer of “it depends”.
Servers are built with flexibility and scalability in mind; they need to cater for a wide and diverse range of computing needs and potentially support a large number of users. It’s this versatility that makes forecasting memory and storage requirements a tricky proposition. It’s also why you’ll often hear advice like “the more, the better” or “you can never have too much RAM/storage”.
The truth is, nobody really knows what’ll happen a year or two down the line. Any predictions you make based on what you know now may be wildly inaccurate. Your business may grow faster than expected, take on lots of new employees or a manufacturer may release a new version of their server application that craves more of your server’s precious hardware resources. Having a bit more than you really need in the short term is therefore a sensible insurance policy.
That’s all well and good but it doesn’t really help you decide how much RAM and storage you’ll need to install. To do that, ask yourself the following questions:
- What application(s) is the server intended to run?
The type of applications your server is tasked with running has a direct bearing on the amount of required memory and storage. Servers running applications that involve intensive data processing such as video hosting or multimedia servers tend to need lots of RAM to run smoothly whereas for others (e.g. file servers) it’s less about the number crunching and more about the storage of information. Most software vendors specify both the minimum and recommended hardware specifications for their applications so you’ll want to ensure you install enough but without overdoing it. The standard edition of Windows Server 2008 for example, only supports 4GB of RAM so any more than that would be wasted. You’ll also be constrained by what you can physically install in the server; there are a limited number of memory slots and drive bays and maximum capacities that the server can recognise. - How many users will the server need to support?
The more users you have, the more RAM you’ll need if you want to keep server performance optimal. The amount of installed memory impacts both the number of concurrent users and the number of applications running simultaneously that the server can support. Storage is less directly correlated to the user count and more dependent on the type of usage that’s occurring. Nonetheless, it’s not uncommon for businesses to quantify their storage needs based on the number of users. - How will the users interact with the server?
The demands users make will be linked to the applications you have running on your servers. These will dictate how much memory and storage are required per user. Since the figures are likely to differ across different roles, teams or departments, you can assign disk quotas to apportion your limited disk space appropriately whilst retaining sufficient free space for future growth. The speed at which users can exchange information with the server is directly related to the quantity of RAM installed. The more memory you have, the more server applications users can run simultaneously. The great thing about servers is their expandability - if you happen to under-estimate your requirements, it should be relatively simple and cost effective to upgrade your server to add more storage or memory. - Planning and forecasting
The huge diversity of servers, server applications and server users means there’s no magic formula you can use to calculate how much memory or storage your server might need. A little planning goes a long way though, so figure out who will be using what on your servers both now and in the future and you’ll ensure you spec up your servers to perform at their optimum level.
For more straightforward advice on server configuration, call us on 0845 611 8696 or email sales@kingofservers.com.
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