Novell ZENWORKS 10 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT SP3 - SYSTEM PLANNING-DEPLOYMENT-BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 10.3 30-03-2010 System Planning Manual page 27

All ZENworks Control Center settings used the default; after the 500-device test, retries were
boosted to 800/10/20.
Three test passes for each test were run (for example, three test runs with 250 devices).
All devices were refreshed "simultaneously" (within 30 seconds).
The bundles were chained with the first bundle being associated to a device group set to
launch on refresh.
All tests were run on a full gigabit network.
The following sections contain more information:
"Test 1: Average Time to Refresh" on page 27
"Test 2: Average Time to Download" on page 28
"Test 3: Administrative Tasks Performed Under Load" on page 28
Test 1: Average Time to Refresh
In this test, we used a single ZENworks Primary Server and refreshed all machines inside the lab at
the same time. The devices then contacted the Primary Server at approximately the same time. We
calculated the amount of time it took for the refresh of the ZENworks Adaptive Agent to complete.
As the load increased, the average time increased as well. In fact, the time to complete the refresh
increased considerably at the 1,000 device mark. Between 1,000 and 2,000 devices, the amount of
time it takes to complete the refresh more than doubled.
The Primary Server scaled well to this point; however, this does not mean that you should
implement a single Primary Server to manage 3,000 managed devices. You must always consider
the services that are being implemented, and most importantly, fault tolerance and load balancing.
The following graphic shows the average time to refresh managed devices:
Average Time to Refresh
Figure 3-1
420
390
360
330
300
270
240
210
180
150
120
90
60.26
60
30.20
30
0
200 400 600
Average Time to Refresh
(in seconds)
Single Server
234.31
116.68
800 1000 1200 1400
Number of Devices
234.31
1600 1800 2000 2200
Gathering Critical Information for Design Activities
2400
27