Scalability Of Satellite Devices; Section 3.3, "Scalability Of Satellite Devices - Novell ZENWORKS 10 CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT SP3 - SYSTEM PLANNING-DEPLOYMENT-BEST PRACTICES GUIDE 10.3 30-03-2010 System Planning Manual

For example, even though we know that a Primary Server can manage 3,000 devices, you should
never deploy only one Primary Server in a 3,000-device environment. For this situation, we
recommend the following as a starting point:
Three Primary Servers to manage load and build a system that is fault tolerant.
A dedicated Database Server using Sybase*, Oracle*, or Microsoft SQL Server.
This system should be further enhanced by considering the following:
Using an L4 switch to manage fault tolerance and load balancing.
Using DNS and aliases for managing the load placed on Primary Servers during deployment
and registration.
Using custom Closest Server Rules to designate certain servers for specific functions (content,
collection, etc.) and to exclude servers from specific functions, or all functions. If a Primary
Server is not listed in the Closest Server Rules, then it does not perform the functions.
Using a dedicated Primary Server for reporting.
Using a dedicated Primary Server for Patch Management.
Using a dedicated Primary Server for imaging.
Using a dedicated Primary Server for ZENworks Control Center.
Using Satellite devices for distribution of content.
The Primary Servers are the heart of your ZENworks Configuration Management environment. You
want to protect these systems from major disruption. Primary Servers can be used for distribution of
content, but this needs to be factored in to your design.
Some of the major factors that you need to consider with ZENworks Configuration Management
and Primary Servers are the following:
Each Primary Server can comfortably handle 1,000 concurrent connections.
Each Primary Server can manage 3,000 devices that are registered into the ZENworks
Management Zone.
A ZENworks Management Zone can scale to 40,000 devices. This has been validated in the
SuperLab and is what Novell recommends as the upper limit to the Management Zone size.
We also recommend that Primary Servers and the Database Server be on the same network, in the
same data center. We do not recommend spanning WAN links with Primary Servers because
replication of the Content Repository could cause utilization issues. Placement of services in a
multi-site environment is done by utilizing the Satellite role, which is discussed in more detail in the
next section.

3.3 Scalability of Satellite Devices

The second area that you should carefully consider is the scalability of the Satellite devices. Satellite
devices are designed to reduce load on the network, not to reduce load on the Primary servers.
Satellite devices help reduce redundant traffic, load, and utilization from the WAN. Even if devices
are located at a remote site, they connect to the central site for authentication and checking in with
the Primary Servers to see if there is work to do. The actual work should be performed with remote
Satellite devices strategically placed to service work requests from managed devices.
30 System Planning, Deployment, and Best Practices Guide