Navision as distributed 2 server system

Hi, is it possible to slit up Navision 3.7 on an application server and a databas server? The application server runs all Navision modulesand the navision database (sql server) runs on a dedicated database server. If yes, what hardware requirements are necessary for approx. 20 users for both of the servers? And probably most important → does such a constellation makes sence or is it better to run Navision on one Server with appropriate CPU, RAM and hard drives. I look forward to your replies. Thanks, Rudi

Hi Rudi, Navision is no 3-tier-design - it is classic client-server-computing. The server-part cannot be split into application- and database-server. But for 20 users this should be no problem at all. BTW, there is a “Navision Application Server”, but this is not what you are looking for. This only a client without GUI. For 20 concurrent users i would recommend: - single CPU-Server (i.e. 2,8 GHz Xeon, Navision can only use one processor, thus take a fast one) - 1 - 1,5 GB RAM (500 MB Cache, the rest for the OS) - 6 or 8 Hdds (the faster, the better, i.e. SCSII 15 K) - RAID1 (one pair for the OS, two or three pairs for Navi-DB), no write-cache on the controller (or battery-buffered cache) - redundant power supply The rest of the server-features is up to your wallet [8D]. Don’t argue about the RAID1-configuration. It has to be exactly one database-file on one physical drive (which you shoud mirror). Basta. The more Database files (max. 16), the better. Depends one you database-size. Regards, Richard

Hi Richard, somewhat late probably but nevertheless - thanks for your reply. It helped! Regards, Rudi

You could simulate a 3 tier environment though, by having your users log in to Citrix sessions that run on a separate box. This would take the load off of the Navision server box, and would limit the Navision traffic from between the Navision box and the Citrix box.

Hi, the Citrix/Windows Terminal-Server has another advantage: you have an homogeneous performance over all Clients, independent from their hardware. br Josef Metz

Plus… you eliminate the multiple client machines existing in a typical scenario. There is only one machine where the client is installed, which means easier maintenance/upgrades.

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Hi Rudi, …BTW, there is a “Navision Application Server”, but this is not what you are looking for. This only a client without GUI…
Originally posted by rmotzer - 2004 Oct 06 : 05:10:41

Richard - You are right - and you are not! The company I work for, build medical devices, and all devices are unique - so we do production order planning for each sales order. As we do not batch the orders, we have to plan the order when we release the order. We used to do this ‘locally’ - i.e. using the client PC, that was releasing the order. This caused the Sales Order release to take from 30 sek to 2 minuttes, where the order entry person couldn’t do anything, but pick their nose and scratch their a**. We now, have that done via a NAS (Navision Application Server). This actually gave us annother performance increasment - We have 15 - 20 order entry people (We ship somewhere between 2500 to 3000 orders a day), and when they all were doing the sales order planning, they kept loocking each other - some times ending in a Deadlock[:(!] - Now, the NAS are the only “person” doing it, hence no locking[:D]. So in other words - Standard Navision do NOT have any Application Server processing, but you can build your own…

Hi Henrik, How did you go about implementing this? We are facing similar problems. Is it possible to share this architecture…

The specification given by Richard is for Navision Server but the original post is for SQL Server so the requirements are very different for RAID, CPU and memory. If you search this forum you will find many good server specifications for your implementation on SQL.

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Hi Henrik, How did you go about implementing this? We are facing similar problems. Is it possible to share this architecture…
Originally posted by prashycool - 2004 Oct 20 : 06:11:57

Hmm - I am not 100% sure what you are asking. But - basicly this is waht we did: We created a table: NAS Queue Fields: [code] Field No. Field Name Data Type Length 1 Entry No. Integer 2 Object Type Option 3 Object ID Integer 4 Source Type Integer 5 Source No. Code 20 6 Source Line No. Integer [code] When we release a sales order we put a record in this table Then we have an application server, that constantly looks into this table, and do the prosessing. - That’s the short overview.