Cloud APM server hardware requirements
IBM® Cloud Application Performance Management, Private can be installed on systems with different memory, processor, and disk configurations. The installer adjusts the Cloud APM configuration and sets the maximum Java heap size for the different server components based on the size of the server hardware. The server size and configuration can be changed after installation.
The
Cloud
APM server must be installed on a supported
version of Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®. For a list of
supported operating systems, see the software product compatibility report for your offering:
- IBM Cloud Application Performance Management, Base Private V8.1.4
- IBM Cloud Application Performance Management, Advanced Private V8.1.4
Server requirements based on system configuration
IBM Cloud Application Performance Management maintains several databases and can drive thousands of disk transfers per second. When you choose a system to run the Cloud
APM server, select a system with multiple hard disk drives (HDD) available (as shown in Table 1 and Table 2), and avoid the use of disk drives that are shared with other disk intensive workloads. In virtual environments, consult with the virtual host owner to ensure adequate I/O capacity is available on the host.
The results of scale testing indicate that a Cloud APM server installed on a medium or large configuration server as shown in these tables can support up to 20 concurrent users.
- Agent rows written per minute and disk space estimates for databases
- To estimate the number of agent rows of data that is uploaded per minute and
the disk space required for the Db2® and MongoDB
databases, use the spreadsheet here:
IBM Cloud App Management Load Projections Spreadsheet
. - Number of processors
- The suggested core count is based on enterprise class CPUs released in the past 1-5 years. Older CPUs might require extra cores to achieve the same performance. You can consult the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation website (http://www.spec.org) and look for a processor with a SPECint2006 value greater than 30. Increasing the number and speed of the processor cores improves performance and reduces the time that is required to stop and restart the server components.
- Memory
- The suggested amount of memory (RAM) for the system that is running the Cloud APM server (in gigabytes). Systems with less memory may experience decreased performance as a result of less file caching and increased swapping.
- Disk space
- This estimate is for the amount of disk space that is required for an average installation of
this monitored environment size. Your disk space usages might vary based on the number and types of
agents that are installed and the monitored transaction count (not in the Cloud APM, Base Private environment). For a more detailed
estimate of disk usage for your environment, use the spreadsheet here:
IBM Cloud App Management Load Projections Spreadsheet
.
- HDD count
- The hard disk drive (HDD) count is the total number of drives a workload is spread over in a striped or RAID 0 array (for improved I/O performance). For data protection, it is best to use RAID 10, which doubles the HDD count required. RAID 5 is not advisable for the Db2 server due to the write penalty that is incurred. Best practice is to use RAID controller or hard disk caching (with battery backup) to achieve the disk latency that is critical for database operations. The drive counts can be adjusted based on the speed and latency of your I/O system drives and controllers.
- Disk I/O TPS
- Disk I/O Transfers Per Second (TPS) is the average number of disk transfers (reads or writes) per second that the Cloud APM server generates to the I/O subsystem (disks) for this monitored environment size.
- Monitored user transactions per second
- When a user interacts with an application like a web page, multiple monitored components can be involved with each transaction. An application can have various levels of complexity. These estimates assume 5 - 7 monitored components are involved in an average user transaction.
- Remote Db2 server
- For more information about using an external Db2 server in the Cloud APM server configuration, see Connecting to a remote Db2 server.
| IBM Cloud Application Performance Management, Base Private offering | Cloud APM environment size classification | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | Medium | Large | ||
| Monitored environment attributes | Number of managed systems | Fewer than 400 | 400 - 2000 | 2000 - 10000 |
| Agent rows that are written per minute | Fewer than 20 K | 20 K - 150 K | 150 K - 500 K | |
| Single server - All components are on the same system | Number of processors | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| Memory (GB) | 16 | 20 | 28 | |
| Disk space (GB) | 60 | 60 - 500 | 500 - 2000 | |
| HDD count | 1 | 2 - 3 | 5 - 6 | |
| Disk I/O TPS | 200 | 200 - 500 | 500 - 3000 | |
| Cloud APM server with Db2 installed on remote system | Number of processors | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| Memory (GB) | 12 | 16 | 20 | |
| Disk space (GB) | 20 | 20 - 50 | 50 - 100 | |
| HDD count | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Disk I/O TPS | 100 | 100 - 200 | 200 - 500 | |
| Remote Db2 server | Number of processors | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Memory (GB) | 2 | 4 | 8 | |
| Disk space (GB) | 40 | 40 - 500 | 500 - 2000 | |
| HDD count | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
| Disk I/O TPS | 100 | 100 - 400 | 400 - 2500 | |
Note: A
managed system is a single operating system, subsystem, or application in your enterprise that an
agent is monitoring.
| IBM Cloud Application Performance Management, Advanced Private offering | Cloud APM environment size classification | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | Medium | Large | ||
| Monitored environment attributes | Number of managed systems | Fewer than 400 | 400 - 2000 | 2000 -10000 |
| Agent rows that are written per minute | Fewer than 20 K | 20 K - 150 K | 150 K - 500 K | |
| Monitored user transactions per second | Fewer than 50 | 50 - 150 | 150 - 600 | |
| Single server - All components are on the same system | Number of processors | 6 | 8 | 16 |
| Memory (GB) | 24 | 32 | 40 | |
| Disk space (GB) | 80 | 80 - 1000 | 1000 - 3000 | |
| HDD count | 1 | 3 - 4 | 6 - 8 | |
| Disk I/O TPS | 500 | 500 - 1500 | 1500 - 4500 | |
| Cloud APM server with Db2 installed on remote system | Number of processors | 6 | 8 | 12 |
| Memory (GB) | 20 | 24 | 28 | |
| Disk space (GB) | 30 | 30 - 100 | 100 - 400 | |
| HDD count | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Disk I/O TPS | 200 | 200 - 500 | 500 - 1500 | |
| Remote Db2 server | Number of processors | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Memory (GB) | 2 | 8 | 16 | |
| Disk space (GB) | 50 | 50 - 1000 | 1000 - 3000 | |
| HDD count | 1 | 2-3 | 4-6 | |
| Disk I/O TPS | 300 | 300 - 1000 | 1000 - 3000 | |
Maximum Java heap size
Based on how the installer classifies the system, the maximum Java heap size is set for the Cloud APM services to the values shown in Table 3. If you update the environment after installation by adding memory or processors such that it matches a different size classification (for example, from small to medium), run the server_size.sh script to reconfigure the maximum Java heap size settings. For more information, see Managing the maximum Java heap size and Db2 bufferpool.| Cloud APM server components | Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server1 application server | 1526 MB or 1536 MB | 2048 MB | 3072 MB |
| APMUI service | 1526 MB or 1536 MB | 3072 MB | 4096 MB |
| Uviews (Liberty server instance) | 1024 MB | 1024 MB | 1024 MB |
| MIN (Liberty server instance) | 512 MB if you have Cloud APM server V8.1.4.0 with no interim fix or interim fix 6 or earlier; 768 MB if you have Cloud APM server V8.1.4.0 with interim fix 6 or later | 1536 MB | 2048 MB |
| OIDC | 128 MB | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Kafka | 256 MB | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Zookeeper | 256 MB | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| MongoDB Cache | 1024 MB for all Cloud APM, Base Private install | 2048 MB | 4096 MB |